Two Degrees

Question 1

German Scientist quote that put out the original 2 degree C limit

Answer 1

“We said that, at the very least, it would be better not to depart from the conditions under which our species developed,” recalls Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, one of the scientists on that German advisory panel who helped devise the 2°C limit. “Otherwise we’d be pushing the whole climate system outside the range we’ve adapted to.”

Question 2

What was the German Scientist basic rationale for 2 degree C limit

Answer 2

Look, they reasoned, human civilization hasn’t been around all that long. And for the last 12,000 years, Earth’s climate has fluctuated within a narrow band. So, to be on the safe side, we should prevent global average temperatures from rising more than 2° Celsius (or 3.6° Fahrenheit) above what they were just before the dawn of industrialization.

Question 3

Estimates of climate sensitivity tell us that the Earth will eventually warm somewhere between x and y if we double the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over pre-industrial levels.

Answer 3

x = 1.5 degree C
y = 4.5 degree C

Question 4

What is our carbon budget remainig?

Answer 4

Roughly speaking, the world has just 765 gigatons of CO2 left to emi

Question 5

How much carbon do humans emit per year?

Answer 5

We currently emit about 35 gigatons per year

Question 6

The US, Europe, and China will use up the world’s carbon budget by…

Answer 6

2030

Question 7

What is the IPCC?

Answer 7

UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Question 8

In April 2014, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that if we want to stay below the 2°C limit…

Answer 8

global greenhouse-gas emissions would have to decline between 1.3 percent and 3.1 percent each year, on average, between 2010 and 2050. To put that in perspective, global emissions declined by just 1 percent for a single year after the 2008 financial crisis, during a brutal recession when factories and buildings around the world were idling.

Question 9

In December, the Tyndall Centre hosted a conference on “radical emissions reductions” that offered some eye-popping suggestions:

Answer 9

Perhaps every adult in wealthy countries could get a personal “carbon budget” tracked through an electronic credit card. Once they hit their limit, no more vacations or road trips.

Question 10

Give the analogy that Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who helped compile some of the research for the World Bank, likes to use.

Answer 10

“Take the human body. If your temperature rises 2°C, you have a significant fever. If it rises 4°C or 6°C you can die. It’s not a linear change. You’re pushing a complex system outside the range it’s adapted to. And all our assessments indicate that once you do that, the system’s resilience gets stretched thin.”

Question 11

Describe the benefits of reframing the problem away from avoiding 2 degrees C

Answer 11

Some experts have argued that 2°C was never a particularly useful limit because it was so difficult to translate into action. “It puts you in a different intellectual space, where your answers are focused on the deployment of vast amounts of clean energy,” Pielke told me earlier this year. “It’s a politics of possibility and opportunity where innovation is at the center. We may end up no better off than we are now. But the path we’re on now is going nowhere.”

Question 12

Describe the possible downside of reframing the problem?

Answer 12

Reframing the problem, for instance, could divert attention away from the dangers of higher temperatures.

Question 13

What is the inertia emission cut?

Answer 13

emission cuts would be divided equally among countries. The United States and Europe and China and India and Zimbabwe would all make proportionally similar sacrifices to stay below 2°C.

Question 14

What is the equity emission cut?

Answer 14

Another option would be to divvy up cuts so that every country has roughly the same level of per capita emissions.

Question 15

But as climate scientist Kevin Anderson recently argued in Nature Geoscience, the only way we’ll stay below 2°C is if we either

Answer 15

a) develop negative-emissions technology, or b) opt for negative economic growth. The math just doesn’t work otherwise.

Question 16

What is ocean acidification?

Answer 16

When humans burn fossil fuels, the oceans absorb roughly one-third of that additional carbon dioxide. This process staves off (some) global warming, but it also makes the seas more acidic, as the carbon dissolves in water to form carbonic acid.

Question 17

Since the Industrial Revolution, the oceans have become xx more acidic

Answer 17

30 percent

Question 18

Give a basic rundown of some big impacts we can expect if global warming continues, via the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Answer 18

1) Hotter temperatures,
2) Higher sea-level rise,
3) Heat waves,
4) Droughts and floods - As the IPCC puts it, the world will see “more intense downpours, leading to more floods, yet longer dry periods between rain events, leading to more drought.”
5) Agriculture: In many parts of the world, the mix of increased heat and drought is expected to make food production more difficult.
6) Extinctions: As the world warms, many plant and animal species will need to shift habitats at a rapid rate to maintain their current conditions. Some species will be able to keep up; others likely won’t. Coral reefs, for instance, will have difficulty adapting if the oceans continue warming and become more acidic.

Question 19

Where do greenhouse gases come from?

Answer 19

Fossil fuels: When fossil fuels are burned for energy, it produces carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Roughly 25 percent of man-made greenhouse gases came from burning coal, 19 percent from the use of natural gas, and 21 percent from oil.
Land-use change: 15 percent of man-made emissions came from land-use changes.
Agriculture: Another 7 percent of man-made emissions come from agricultural sources