VM+Week+6+Notes


 * - Research Project:**

Results of initial literature search:

1. Karl, T.R., Trenberth, K.E. (2003). Modern global climate change. Science 302, 1719-1723. INTRODUCTION: There is a natural climate change because of the atmospheric behavior, the natural Green House Effect, and other factors, like infrequent volcanic eruptions and changes in total solar irradiance. ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCES: The global and regional effects of burning fossil fuels: Burning of fossil fuels à Anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, like CO2 à  Global and regional changes in atmospheric composition à  Interference with the natural flows of energy à Alter global and regional climate. Other human activities also alter regional climate (e.g. changes in land-use through urbanization and agricultural practices and large-scale deforestation - Amazonia - and desertification - the Sahel. Trends and the “global warming”: Recent global greenhouse gas emissions trends are upward. Concentrations of both reflective and non-reflective aerosols are also estimated to be increasing. Not “global warming”, but global heating, once the global temperature increase is only one consequence. CONSIDERABLE UNCERTAINTIES: Exactly how anthropogenic global heating will affect the climate system? How long it will last? How large the effects will be? There are uncertainties in future emissions (human behavior, technological change, the rate of population growth) and in climate models (especially in their sensitivity to forcings that are complicated by feedbacks and in their rate of heat uptake by the oceans). The rate of human-induced climate change is projected to be much faster than most natural processes. It takes many decades for any change in emissions to have much effect. There are feedbacks that either amplify or damp perturbations: Water vapor; Precipitation-runoff; Heat storage; Cloud; and Ice-albedo feedback. MODELING: For assessing the past and making projections into the future. They are fully coupled, mathematical, computer-based models of the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmosphere, land surface, oceans, and cryosphere and their interactions with each other and with the sun and other influences. Today’s inadequate or incomplete measurements of various forcings add uncertainty when trying to simulate past and present climate. Confidence in our ability to predict future climate is dependent on our ability to use climate models. The need for better observational and information systems: Regional predictions are needed for improving assessments of vulnerability to and impacts of change. How will El Niño and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) change as the climate changes? Other challenges to models: Adequate computing power; the right observations, understanding, and insights (brain power); better integrate the biological, chemical, and physical components of the Earth system; overcoming institutional and international obstacles related to the free flow of climate-related data and information. CONCLUSION: We are entering the unknown with our climate. We need a global climate observing system, but only parts of it exist. We must not only take the vital signs of the planet but also assess why they are fluctuating and changing. Consequently, the system must embrace comprehensive analysis and assessment as integral components on an ongoing basis, as well as innovative research to better interpret results and improve our diagnostic capabilities. Projections into the future are part of such activity. Climate change is very unlikely to be adequately addressed without greatly improved international cooperation and action.

2. Bäckstrand, K. (2003). Civic science for sustainability: Reframing the role of experts, policy-makers and citizens in environmental governance. Global Environmental Politics 3(3), 24-41.

- Sustainability: more transparent, accountable and democratic - "Scientization" of politics: political and social issues are better resolved through technical expertise than democratic deliberation <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">- Science-politics interface: exclusive domain for scientific and policy-makers only VS civic participation <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">- The need for civic science is recognized, but how it can be realized? <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">- Public concern: the dangers of BSE disease, the risks of genetically modified food, the application of biotechnology and reproductive technology, the storing of toxic and nuclear waste, climate change, and the human genome project. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">- Conceptualizing Civic Science: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Civic Science: institutional, normative and epistemological divisions. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The citizen is not just the recipient of policy but an actor in the science-policy nexus. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">- International Relations and Civic Science: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Negotiated science”: a feature in the ongoing diplomatic endeavors associated with Climate Change

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> 3. Funtowicz, S., Ravetz, J. (1993). Science for the post-normal age. Futures 25(7), 739–755. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">4. Wynne, B. (1996). Misunderstood misunderstandings: social identities and public uptake of science. In Irwin, A., Wynne B., (eds) Misunderstanding science? Cambridge UP, 19-46. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5. Shackley, S., Wynne, B. (1996). Representing uncertainty in global climate change science and policy: Boundary-ordering devices and authority. Science Technology & Human Values, 21(3), 275-302. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">6. Collins, H.M., Evans, R. (2002). The Third Wave of Science Studies: Studies of Expertise and Experience. Social Studies of Science 32(2), 235-296. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7. Xavier et al. (2013). Energy scenarios for the Minas Gerais State in Brazil: an integrated modeling exercise using System Dynamics. Energy, Sustainability and Society 3(17). <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">8. Sardar, Z. (2010). Welcome to Post-Normal times. Futures 42(5), 435-444. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">9. Krauss, W., Schafer, M.S. & von Storch, H. (2012). Introduction: Post-Normal Climate Science. Nature and Culture 7(2), 121-132. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">10. Edwards, P. (1999). Global Climate Science, Uncertainty, and Politics: Data-Laden Models, Model-Filtered Data, //Science as Culture 8//:4, 437-472.