America's Climate Choices (2011) / Chapter Skim
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3 The Unique Challenges of Climate Change
3 The Unique Challenges of Climate Change
Pages 29-38
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From page 29... ...
Likewise, people use probability data from weather forecasts to decide if they should take an umbrella to work, move a scheduled outdoor event indoors, or cancel a ball game. Indeed, it could be argued that uncertainty about future climate risks is a compelling reason for taking proactive steps to reduce the likelihood of adverse consequences.
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From page 30... ...
Market incentives affecting capital investments leave little room for considering consequences on century or longer time scale. Nevertheless, making major reductions in GHG emissions and preparing to adapt to the effects of climate change will require transformative changes, for instance, in how the country produces and uses energy (see Box 3.1)
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From page 31... ...
Currently, the United States relies on carbon-based fossil fuels for more than 85 percent of its energy needs. This dependence evolved not only because fossil fuels were available at low market costs but also because their physical and chemical properties are well suited to particu lar uses: petroleum for transportation; natural gas as an industrial feedstock, for residential and commercial space heating, and more recently as a fuel for electric power generation; and coal for the generation of electricity and as a feedstock for some industrial processes.
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From page 32... ...
action must be conditioned on actions by other nations, given the economic disadvantages that the country might face if it committed to significant emission reductions without similar commitments from other nations. Others argue that the United States, as the country with largest historical share of GHG emissions and with one of the highest per capita GHG emission rates, has an ethical obligation to substantially reduce domestic emissions, even in the absence of commitments from other nations.
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From page 33... ...
Actions taken to reduce fossil fuel use can offer substantial benefits for human health (by reducing emissions of conventional air pollutants) and for national security (by reducing dependence on imported energy sources)
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From page 34... ...
For instance, reducing the use of fossil fuels to limit GHG emissions can offer the ancillary benefit of also reducing emissions of several health-damaging air pollutants (e.g., nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, mercury) .10 Improv ing freshwater use efficiency to increase a community's resilience to climate change can also help that community deal with natural variations in water supply.
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From page 35... ...
For instance, personal experience powerfully influences people's understanding of their environment. But this can be misleading in the context of climate change because long-term change is difficult to detect against natural variability without sustained systematic measurement, and because judgments of varying phenomena are strongly influenced by memorable and recent extreme events.13 People use different types of "mental models" to understand complex phenomena, and some of the prevalent models used for understanding climate change are inconsistent with scientific knowledge.
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From page 36... ...
• The sooner that serious efforts to reduce GHG emissions proceed, the less pressure there will be to make steeper (thus likely more expensive) emission reductions later on.a • Both private and public sector decision makers face investment choices today that will affect the ability to limit emissions and to adapt to climate change for many years to come.
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From page 37... ...
It is worth noting, however, that the potential impacts associated with larger magnitudes of climate change are less well studied than more moderate climate change; and thus the potential for surprises is comparatively greater with larger magnitudes of warming. CHAPTER CONCLUSION The many complex characteristics of climate change discussed here -- which reach across scientific, political, economic, psychological, and other dimensions -- are not problems that must be fully "solved" before one can move ahead with making choices and taking action to address climate change (see Box 3.2)
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