2. Climate change

Question 1

What is single-action bias?

Answer 1

A psychological response in which we generally seek for one solution to one given problem, undermining the multiplicity of actions that can contribute to a solution

Question 2

What is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 2

A psychological response which pushes use to believe our lifestyle is not so threatening.

Question 3

What is cognitive dismissal?

Answer 3

A psychological response which makes us think that climate change is a distance problem.

Question 4

What is faulty thinking about tails of distributions?

Answer 4

A psychological response which makes us think that the least likely event will never occur.

Question 5

What is the stock and flow problem?

Answer 5

A psychological response which refers to the fact that the greenhouse effect, and in turn climate change, depends on the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (the ‘stock’) while the thing humans can control as a response is the rate at which additional greenhouse gases are emitted (the ‘flow’).

Question 6

Describe the history of the greenhouse effect.

Answer 6

• In 1820 by Joseph Fourier, realized that solar radiations alone are not enough to keep the planet as warm as it was.
• In 1903, Svante Arrhenius realized that quantities of CO2 in the atmosphere regulate temperature
• Between 1938 and 1960 there were many temperature records, showing an increase
• In 1972 there was strong evidence of the greenhouse effect
• In 1988, the UN responded with the creation of the IPCC

Question 7

How does the greenhouse effect work?

Answer 7

• The sun emits radiative forcing
• 50% of this hits the ground and changes into energy, the rest bounces back due to albedo, clouds, etc.
• 90% of the remaining part stays in our atmosphere
• When increased greenhouse gases result in incoming energy being greater than outgoing energy, the planet will warm to due increased radiative forcing

Question 8

Name an example of a negative feedback and a positive feedback.

Answer 8

Negative feedbacks:

• Warmed earth radiates more infrared (heat energy) into space
• Plants remove CO2 from air
• Oceans remove carbon dioxide from the air

Positive feedbacks:

• Snow cover loss, ice sheet melting, reduced reflection
• Warming increases, water vapor in the air
• Melting permafrost releases methane in the air

Question 9

True or false: In higher SSP scenarios, the amount of CO2 emissions taken up by land and oceans sinks is larger, but more of the emitted CO2 emissions remain in the atmosphere, meaning that the proportion of CO2 emissions taken up by land and ocean carbon sinks from the atmosphere is smaller in scenarios with higher CO2 emissions.

Answer 9

True

Question 10

Why is mapping emissions per region/sector helpful?

Answer 10

Mapping emissions per region and sector helps for coming up with mitigation policies.

Question 11

What is ‘mitigation’?

Answer 11

Mitigation means making the impacts of climate change less severe by preventing or reducing the emission of GHGs into the atmosphere.

Question 12

What is ‘adaptation’?

Answer 12

Adaptation means the anticipation of the adverse effects of climate change and taking appropriate action to prevent or minimize the damage they can cause, or taking advantage of opportunities that may arise.

Question 13

What is meant with non-linear effects with regard to CO2?

Answer 13

The more CO2 emissions increase, the disproportionately larger the impacts of climate change.