Mitigation and adaptation for climate change Flashcards

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1
Q

What does it mean to mitigate?

A

to prevent something i.e., rebalance the carbon cycle and reduce any impacts of climate change

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2
Q

How might climate change be mitigated?

A

Afforestation
Recycling
Renewables
CCS
Efficient tech
Carbon tax

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3
Q

How does afforestation mitigate climate change?

A

Increase the carbon store

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4
Q

How does recycling mitigate climate change?

A

Paper= fewer trees deforested
Cans= less mining/ reduced deforestation
Plastic= less oil used/ reduction in GHGs

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5
Q

How will using renewables mitigate climate change?

A

Reduction in GHGs

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6
Q

How much carbon will be saved per year by reducing house temp by 1*C?

A

1/3 of a tonne

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7
Q

How does CCS prevent climate change?

A

Prevents CO2 entering atmospheric store

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8
Q

How can efficiency help mitigate climate change?

A

efficient appliances reduces GHGs

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9
Q

What is adaptation? (Climate change)

A

passive, adopt new ways of doing things in order to live with the likely outcomes of climate change

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10
Q

What does the IPCC say are the main 2 ways of dealing with climate change?

A

Adaptation
Mitigation

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11
Q

What are some adaptation examples?

A

Land use planning
Solar radiation management
Water conservation and management
Resilient agricultural systems

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12
Q

What are the players in mitigating climate change?

A

Government
Business
Individual

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13
Q

How are the government a player in mitigating climate change?

A

Sign up to agreements
Join IGO’s
Make decisions (Trump and Bush pulled out of agreements)
Taxation on pollution (clean air zones)

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14
Q

What is an example of a business mitigating its climate impact?

A

Google

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15
Q

How do google mitigate climate change?

A

electric cars for staff (solar charged)
Biodiesel shuttles
Campus covered in 9200 panels of solar (30% of load)
Encourage cycling (charity credits)

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16
Q

How can the individual help mitigate climate change?

A

Vote for governments with greener policies
Lobby governments
Subscribe to charities (Donate)
Veto businesses who aren’t green

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17
Q

What is the role of charities and environmental groups to mitigate climate chnage?

A

Greenpeace
Lobby/ pressure government into making change
Not very powerful unless combined

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18
Q

When was the Kyoto protocol signed?

A

December 11th 1997

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19
Q

What was the point of the Kyoto protocol?

A

making industrialized countries and economies in transition to limit and reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in accordance with agreed individual targets.

20
Q

What was the main part of the Kyoto protocol?

A

Carbon credits that developing to sell to developed nations so the developed nations could release more carbon

21
Q

How much carbon is one carbon credit worth?

A

1 ton

22
Q

Was the Kyoto protocol successful?

A

No developed nations were able to get around emissions by buying lots of carbon credits

23
Q

What was the main reason the Kyoto protocol wasn’t successful?

A

China and India never signed
USA left in 2001these are the 3 biggest polluters

24
Q

What was the replacement for the Kyoto protocol?

A

the Paris agreement 2016

25
Q

What was the aim of the Paris agreement?

A

not to go above 1.5c pre-industrial average as anything above 2c rise is thought to be harmful
Net 0 emissions by 2065

26
Q

What is the rise in average temperature thought to be by 2100?

A

2.1*c

27
Q

What was the reason for America leaving Paris agreement?

A

Trump being a climate change denier

28
Q

How much did rich nations pledge to poor nations in the Paris agreement?

A

US$ 100 billion

29
Q

Why is the Paris agreement not successful?

A

No force to meet targets and reporting may be inaccurate
USA pulled out under trump

30
Q

What might make the most polluting countries more likely to follow the Paris agreement?

A

Bottom-up internal pressures as the population is affect by climate change

31
Q

How much will it cost to take carbon out of the atmosphere in 2030?

A

US$ 16.5 trillion

32
Q

What 2 types of adaptation strategies are there?

A

Hard- using tech
Soft- legislation (building on flood plains)

33
Q

Which type of adaptation strategy is used by countries?

A

varies between countries
Democracies may encounter more delays than authoritarian led countries (China) because of public debate and changed in policy following election

34
Q

Is adaptation a short or long term solution?

A

Short term

35
Q

What is solar radiation mangement?

A

managing intensity if solar radiation through geo-engineering

36
Q

What is an example of solar radiation management?

A

Adding sulphur particles to the stratosphere: aerosol particles formed would reflect suns energy back into space

37
Q

What are the problems with using sulphur to manage solar radiation?

A

May cause unpredictable weather changes (reduce evaporation)
May effect stability of the ozone layer
Increase acid rain risk over a large area

38
Q

What is an example of a river that requires water conservation and management?

A

The Lower Mekong river basin ( Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam)

39
Q

How many people rely upon the lower Mekong?

A

60 million for rice and fish

40
Q

What problem has the lower Mekong faced?

A

In 2016 there were no transboundary agreements for its use and only 11% of national plans considered it

41
Q

What is a example of adaptation by resilient agriculture systems?

A

North China plants crops early or late to match climate change (crops designed to withstand higher temps)

42
Q

How much could Chinas maize yield increase by 2050 due to resilient agriculture?

A

15.2%

43
Q

How can land use planning be a climate adaptation strategy?

A

Areas of increased risk from coastal or river flooding can be zoned through urban planning and laws so that people and valuable property are not in them

44
Q

What is an example of an area that is taking flood risk management very seriously?

A

Australia

45
Q

What is Australia doing to manage its flood risk?

A

Making all housing on flood plains more flood resilient with raised floors, stronger pile foundations and water resilient material
Where possible people relocated
Wetlands become overspill

46
Q

what are the problems with Australia’s flood management?

A

High cost of relocation
Reduced property value in redzone areas
Locals contesting changes