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Climate Emergency > Inequality > Flashcards

Inequality Flashcards

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Royal College: Emergency Medicine flashcards
1
Q

Climate change and extreme weather

Location

A
  • India has the highest population that is affected
  • Delhi worst air quality
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2
Q

Arid and semi arid tropics with extreme weather

A
  • Hotter and drier
  • North Africa and West Asia
  • Increased water stress
  • South Asia is most populated under water stress
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3
Q

Weather change and agriculture

A
  • Reduced soil moisture & groundwater levels
  • Reduced growing seasons, yields (30% declines in Africa by 2050), & arable land
  • Increased desertification risks
  • Reduced food security
  • Of the 3 B people who live in rural areas in Global South ~2.5 B are involved in agriculture
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4
Q

Sahel

A
  • tropical steppe / savannah
  • grassland w/ widely spaced trees & shrubs
  • extreme seasonality of precipitation
  • Vast majority of African agriculture rainfed
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5
Q

In short, hotter and drier conditions:

A
  • reducing areas where agriculture and grazing are possible
  • straining capacity of drought-adapted vegetation to rebound from long dry seasons
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6
Q

Lake Chad

A
  • 1/10 volume of 1960s
  • Almost gone
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7
Q

Himalayas + Hindu Kush – melting ice mass has big short- and long-term implications

A
  • SHORT-TERM: heightened risks of flooding, massive inundation with summer melt-season
  • LONGER-TERM: river volumes falling in dry season
  • half the world’s population depend on seasonal melt from high-elevation snow and ice
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8
Q

Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region

A
  • Glaciers affect river basins w/ ~2 B people
  • 250 M live in region
  • 1.65 B rely on rivers it feeds if warming kept to 1.5 C
  • on course for 2 /3 glacial ice (or more) gone by 2100
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9
Q

Glacierized large-scale drainage basins

A
  • Cover ~1 /4 of all land (not including Greenland & Antarctica)
  • With ~ 1 /3 of world’s population
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10
Q

Why is glacial meltwater important?

A
  • modulates the seasonality of stream/river flow
  • ‘can compensate for seasons and years of otherwise low flow or droughts’ in lowland areas downstream
  • affects freshwater availability (drinking + irrigation), hydropower (i.e. dams), sediment transport, ecosystem function
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11
Q

Bolivia

A
  • dramatic changes in freshwater availability
  • changing hydrology + rainfall patterns + diversions (irrigation & mining
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12
Q

Significant declines evident + continuing mass loss expected in 21st C

A
  • releases water from long-term glacial storage
  • increases annual glacial runoff, up to a point (‘peak water’)
  • INCREASING FLOOD RISKS WHILE MELTING
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13
Q

mega-deltas, low-lying coastal areas, and small island developing states (SIDS)

A
  • abundance of rising seas
  • many heavily populated deltaic areas esp. sensitive to sea-level rise
  • 20% of humanity lives within 30 km of the sea
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14
Q

For decades, climate scientists warning for tropical storms

A
  • very straightforward drivers
  • warmer air churning over warmer oceans intensifies energy
  • warmer air can hold more moisture than cooler air
  • atmosphere contains more moisture (Clausius-Clapeyron equation: 1 oC warming = 7% more water vapour over oceans)
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15
Q

Small island Developing States

A
  • total pop 63 M
  • consistent appeals for mitigation and support for adaptation and UNFCCC
  • some displacement and appeals for climate refugee status has begun
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16
Q

By 2050, sea-level rise on present course for SIDS

A
  • high tides permanently above land now home to >150 m people
  • average annual coastal floods above land now home to ~300 m people
  • without advanced sea defence systems, people in these areas likely permanently displaced by sea level rise by 2050
17
Q

countries with the lowest GHG emissions facing the first and worst impacts

A
  • hotter and drier
  • low lying coastal areas at risk
  • declining sky reservoirs
18
Q

Adaptation

A
  • Responding to impacts from unfolding
  • Sea Defense
  • Heat and storm proofing electricity grids, roads, and other infrastructure
  • Risk assessment and emergency preparedness
  • Disaster response capacities (fire fighting, evacuation)
  • Agriculture innovations
19
Q

Bangladesh

A
  • 170 M population
  • GDP US 7400 (world bank)
  • One of the world’s most densely populated countries
  • Much of the land/population in deltaic plains of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers (living at or close to sea level)
20
Q

Netherlands

A
  • 17.5 M population
  • GDP US 74,000 (world bank)
  • Also extremely high risk of coastal flooding
  • ¼ of land and ½ population, including Amsterdam, below sea level
  • Worlds most sophisticated sea defense infrastructure
21
Q

Maeslant Barrier

A
  • Biggest moving flood barrier
  • Can withstand storm ride of 5 meters
22
Q

Engineering challenges greatly magnified by sea-level rise

A
  • Delta vulnerable to sea level
  • Huge impacts “on all aspects that are relevant to delta management in a rather short time”
  • Calls for prolonged and massive investments in construction and maintenance
23
Q

New York city

A
  • Sandy (2012) Ida (2021)
  • Both >60 Billion
  • Very wet future
  • Potential 119 Billion sea wall
24
Q

MITIGATION

A
  • Reduce the magnitude of further changes
  • cutting GHG emissions + conservation + ecological restoration
  • Requesting geoengineering responses
25
Q

Historic emissions

A
  • USA and Canada 5% pop held 33% worlds emissions
  • Last 2 decades China has boomed above most countries for total, how ever around half of the average per capita emissions
  • USA and Canada 3x per person amount
26
Q

China Historic Emissions

A

China has biggest share of growth since 1990 27% total 2018

27
Q

India Historic Emissions

A

India, significant growth since 1990, far below world average

28
Q

USA Historic Emissions

A

USA, biggest emissions per capita, stable level

29
Q

EU Historic Emissions

A

EU, large share but slowly declining

30
Q

Unevenness of carbon footprint

A
  • Richest 10% 60:1 per capita
  • Poorest population 10% of emissions
  • Richest 1% 175:1 per capita
  • Huge gap between the two
31
Q

UNFCCC politics

A
  • First and foremost: mitigation (but elusive binding commitments)
  • While mitigation is crucial to expand adaptive possibilities, support needed for adaptation’
32
Q

COP 15 Copenhagen (2009)

A

Industrialized countries pledged $100 B/year in ‘climate finance’ to lower income countries by 2020

33
Q

COP 21 Paris (2015)

A

`Acknowledgement that ‘slow onset’ changes are bringing ‘irreversible and permanent loss and damage’ (e.g. heat, aridity, sea-level rise beyond prospect of adaptation)

34
Q

Oxfam

A

A large share of climate funding from industrialized to low income countries has come in the form of loans that have to be repaid with interest (really only ~1/3 claimed)

35
Q

Consistent failure to live up to climate finance pledges

A
  • more promises to reach $100 B target
  • industrialized countries: strong resistance to discussing reparations for ‘loss and damage’
  • fears of legal and financial responsibility into the future (i.e. being sued)
36
Q
A

Climate Emergency (4 decks)

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