Differentiating capacities as a means to sustainable climate change adaptation

There are two forms of capacity to adapt to global change: those associated with fundamental human development goals (generic capacity), and those necessary for managing and reducing specific climatic threats (specific). We argue that these two domains of capacity must be addressed explicitly, simultaneously and iteratively if climate change adaptation and sustainable development goals are to be attained. We propose a simple heuristic to understand the four main ways these two capacities interact, leading to more or less desirable outcomes. Drawing from three case studies of agricultural adaptation to climatic risk (Phoenix, AZ; Northeast Brazil; Chiapas, Mexico) we argue that the institutional context of adaptation can implicitly or explicitly undermine one form of capacity with repercussions for the development of the other. A better and more strategic balance of generic and specific capacities is needed if the promised synergies between sustainable development and adaptation are to be achieved.     

Decreasing predictability as a precursor indicator for abrupt climate change

Abrupt climate change has an important impact on sustainable economic and social development, as well as ecosystem. However, it is very difficult to predict abrupt climate changes because the climate system is a complex and nonlinear system. In the present paper, the nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent (NLLE) is proposed as a new early warning signal for an abrupt climate change. The performance of NLLE as an early warning signal is first verified by those simulated abrupt changes based on four folding models. That is, NLLE in all experiments showed an almost monotonous increasing trend as a dynamic system approached its tipping point. For a well-studied abrupt climate change in North Pacific in 1976/1977, it is also found that NLLE shows an almost monotonous increasing trend since 1970 which give up to 6 years warning before the abrupt climate change. The limit of the predictability for a nonlinear dynamic system can be quantitatively estimated by NLLE, and lager NLLE of the system means less predictability. Therefore, the decreasing predictability may be an effective precursor indicator for abrupt climate change.

     

Why radiative forcing might fail as a predictor of climate change

Radiative forcing has been widely used as a metric of climate change, i.e. as a measure by which various contributors to a net surface temperature change can be quantitatively compared. The extent to which this concept is valid for spatially inhomogeneous perturbations to the climate system is tested. A series of climate model simulations involving ozone changes of different spatial structure reveals that the climate sensitivity parameter is highly variable: for an ozone increase in the northern hemisphere lower stratosphere, it is more than twice as large as for a homogeneous CO₂ perturbation. A global ozone perturbation in the upper troposphere, however, causes a significantly smaller surface temperature response than CO₂. The variability of the climate sensitivity parameter is shown to be mostly due to the varying strength of the stratospheric water vapour feedback. The variability of the sea-ice albedo feedback modifies climate sensitivity of perturbations with the same vertical structure but a different horizontal structure. This feedback is also the origin of the comparatively larger climate sensitivity to perturbations restricted to the northern hemisphere extratropics. As cloud feedback does not operate independently from the other feedbacks, quantifying its effect is rather difficult. However, its effect on the variability of for horizontally and vertically inhomogeneous perturbations within one model framework seems to be comparatively small.This revised version was published online March 2005 with corrections to table 5.     

Shifts in climate suitability for wine production as a result of climate change in a temperate climate wine region of Romania

Climate change is causing important shifts in the suitability of regions for wine production. Fine scale mapping of these shifts helps us to understand the evolution of vineyard climates, and to find solutions through viticultural adaptation. The aim of this study is to identify and map the structural and spatial shifts that occurred in the climatic suitability for wine production of the Cotnari wine growing region (Romania) between 1961 and 2013. Discontinuities in trends of temperature were identified, and the averages and trends of 13 climatic parameters for the 1961 to 1980 and 1981 to 2013 time periods were analysed. Using the averages of these climatic parameters, climate suitability for wine production was calculated at a resolution of 30 m and mapped for each time period, and the changes analysed. The results indicate shifts in the area’s historic climatic profile, due to an increase of heliothermal resources and precipitation constancy. The area’s climate suitability for wine production was modified by the loss of climate suitability for white table wines, sparkling wines and wine for distillates; shifts in suitability to higher altitudes by about 67 m, and a 48.6% decrease in the area suitable for quality white wines; and the occurrence of suitable climates for red wines at lower altitudes. The study showed that climate suitability for wine production has a multi-level spatial structure, with classes requiring a cooler climate being located at a higher altitude than those requiring a warmer climate. Climate change has therefore resulted in the shift of climate suitability classes for wine production to higher altitudes.     

Venomous snakes and climate change: ophidism as a dynamic problem

Snakebite envenoming is an important public health problem worldwide and addressing this issue has turned into a challenge for applied science. In this sense, the study of the distributional patterns of problematic snakes is central in terms of public health. Global Climate Change is affecting the distributional ranges of snakes, so that decisions regarding treatment of ophidism (poisoning by snake venom) may also change spatially and/or temporally. Here, we assessed suitable climate spaces at present conditions and estimated potential future changes in the distributions of the five southernmost venomous snakes, responsible for almost 99 % of accidents in Argentina, by implementing an ensemble of forecasts between different algorithms and scenarios for 2030 and 2080. Present suitable climate spaces showed high concordance with known distribution of the species. Future projections show moderate “north to south” displacements of the snakes’ suitable climate spaces, implying potential increments of suitable spaces in human populated areas in Argentina. Our results suggest the necessity of considering ophidism as a dynamic problem. In this regard, the analyses implemented here are useful tools in improving the assessment of snakebite envenoming in light of global climate change.     

A new,valid measure of climate change understanding: associations with risk perception

The relationship between climate change understanding and other variables, including risk perception, beliefs, and worldviews, is an important consideration as we work to increase public attention to climate change. Despite significant effort to develop rigorous mechanisms for measuring affective variables, measurement of climate change understanding is often relegated to unvalidated questions or question sets. To remedy this situation, we constructed and analyzed a climate change concept inventory using a suite of validity and reliability steps, including Rasch analysis. The resultant 21-item test has a high degree of validity and reliability for measuring understanding about basic climate change processes. Inventory scores along with other variables were included in a model of climate change risk perception, providing both concurrent validity for the test and new insight into the importance of understanding, worldview, and values on risk perception. We find that environmental beliefs and cultural cognition worldview play a larger role in predicting an individual’s risk perception than knowledge. Implications for addressing climate change are considered.     

Reconceptualising adaptation to climate change as part of pathways of change and response

The need to adapt to climate change is now widely recognised as evidence of its impacts on social and natural systems grows and greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated. Yet efforts to adapt to climate change, as reported in the literature over the last decade and in selected case studies, have not led to substantial rates of implementation of adaptation actions despite substantial investments in adaptation science. Moreover, implemented actions have been mostly incremental and focused on proximate causes; there are far fewer reports of more systemic or transformative actions. We found that the nature and effectiveness of responses was strongly influenced by framing. Recent decision-oriented approaches that aim to overcome this situation are framed within a “pathways” metaphor to emphasise the need for robust decision making within adaptive processes in the face of uncertainty and inter-temporal complexity. However, to date, such “adaptation pathways” approaches have mostly focused on contexts with clearly identified decision-makers and unambiguous goals; as a result, they generally assume prevailing governance regimes are conducive for adaptation and hence constrain responses to proximate causes of vulnerability. In this paper, we explore a broader conceptualisation of “adaptation pathways” that draws on ‘pathways thinking’ in the sustainable development domain to consider the implications of path dependency, interactions between adaptation plans, vested interests and global change, and situations where values, interests, or institutions constrain societal responses to change. This re-conceptualisation of adaptation pathways aims to inform decision makers about integrating incremental actions on proximate causes with the transformative aspects of societal change. Case studies illustrate what this might entail. The paper ends with a call for further exploration of theory, methods and procedures to operationalise this broader conceptualisation of adaptation.     

Climate change projections for Greek viticulture as simulated by a regional climate model

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Viticulture represents an important economic activity for Greek agriculture. Winegrapes are cultivated in many areas covering the whole Greek territory, due to...     

Present climate and climate change over North America as simulated by the fifth-generation Canadian regional climate model

The fifth-generation Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM5) was used to dynamically downscale two Coupled Global Climate Model (CGCM) simulations of the transient climate change for the period 1950–2100, over North America, following the CORDEX protocol. The CRCM5 was driven by data from the CanESM2 and MPI-ESM-LR CGCM simulations, based on the historical (1850–2005) and future (2006–2100) RCP4.5 radiative forcing scenario. The results show that the CRCM5 simulations reproduce relatively well the current-climate North American regional climatic features, such as the temperature and precipitation multiannual means, annual cycles and temporal variability at daily scale. A cold bias was noted during the winter season over western and southern portions of the continent. CRCM5-simulated precipitation accumulations at daily temporal scale are much more realistic when compared with its driving CGCM simulations, especially in summer when small-scale driven convective precipitation has a large contribution over land. The CRCM5 climate projections imply a general warming over the continent in the 21st century, especially over the northern regions in winter. The winter warming is mostly contributed by the lower percentiles of daily temperatures, implying a reduction in the frequency and intensity of cold waves. A precipitation decrease is projected over Central America and an increase over the rest of the continent. For the average precipitation change in summer however there is little consensus between the simulations. Some of these differences can be attributed to the uncertainties in CGCM-projected changes in the position and strength of the Pacific Ocean subtropical high pressure.     

A study of abrupt climate change in a simple nonlinear climate model

We use a seasonal energy balance climate model to study the behavior of the snowline cycle as a function of external parameters such as the solar constant. Our studies are confined in this study to cases with zonally symmetric land-sea distributions (bands or caps of land). The model is nonlinear in that the seasonally varying snow/sea ice line modifies the energy receipt through its different albedo from open land or water. The repeating steady-state seasonal cycle of the model is solved by a truncated Fourier series in time. This method is several thousand times faster than a time stepping approach. The results are interesting in that a number of bifurcations in the snowline behavior are found and studied for various geographies. Polar land caps and land bands positioned near the poles exhibit a variety of discontinuous summer snow cover behaviors (abrupt transitions as a parameter such as solar constant is slowly varied), which may be relevant to the inception and decay of continental ice sheets.     

Public expectation as an element of human perception of climate change

Human expectations regarding weather and climate sometimes lead to perceptions of climate change which are not supported by observational evidence. This paper analyses two very characteristic complaints about current climate in Switzerland, i.e., the lack of snow in winter and the lack of sunshine in summer, through a statistical investigation of climatological data. As one major problem of public perception of climate in mid-latitude regions is linked to the strong variability of the climatic parameters, the paper suggests means of presenting climatic data which include a measure of this variability. Such presentations would help overcome the common confusion between the terms weather and climate, and stress the fact that short-term extreme events are not necessarily indicative of a long-term shift in climate.     

Gender and the environment. Women's time use as a measure of environmental change.

These case studies pertain to marginal dry land rural areas in developing countries. The evidence suggests that women have shorter rest periods, greater intensity and fragmentation of work, and greater use of multiple simultaneous occupations than men. Macroeconomic policies have increased the work burden for women and for the poorest populations and have contributed to environmental deterioration. This paper focuses on women's use of time as a factor in explaining women's changing gender role under conditions of environmental stress. The women and the environment debate encompasses two philosophical positions. The ecofeminist theory is that women are one with nature and are unlike men, who manipulate and exploit the environment. The other theory posits that women are managers of the environment and should be approached as separate groups. The developmentalist improves on theory by offering the view that there are differences in resource allocation, entitlements, and responsibilities. The case studies deny that women's roles are fixed and generalized. The case study in Sri Lanka reveals that the Mahaweli irrigation and settlement project brought widespread deforestation and forced women to spend more time and energy in seeking fuel wood. Women adjusted to the changes by reducing the number of trips for wood, increasing the amount of the load, and involving men in the process. The number of families who switched to alternative cooking methods increased. During the dry season more of women's time is spent in washing clothes and cleaning the house. Kitchen gardening is only a wet season activity. A Burkina Faso study found that the average daily hours of work for women was 10.6 in the wet season and 12.4 in the dry season in 1991. In the Caribbean, life revolves around crop and no-crop time. Multiple job holding is a common strategy for small farmers. Gender division of labor and time use are determined by household, local context, family structure, and stage in the life cycle.     

World trade as the adjustment mechanism of agriculture to climate change

This paper evaluates the role of trade as a mechanism of economic adjustment to the impacts of climate change on agriculture. The study uses a model of the world economy able to reflect changes in comparative advantage; the model is used to test the hypotheses that trade can assure that, first, satisfying global agricultural demand will not be jeopardized, and, second, general access to food will not decrease. The hypotheses are tested for three alternative scenarios of climate change; under each scenario, regions adjust to the climatic assumptions by changing the land areas devoted to agriculture and the mix of agricultural goods produced, two of the major mechanisms of agricultural adaptation. We find that trade makes it possible to satisfy the world demand for agricultural goods under the changed physical conditions. However, access to food decreases in some regions of the world. Other patterns also emerge that indicate areas of concern in relying on trade as a mechanism for the adjustment of agriculture to likely future changes in climate.     

Climate and climate change in western canada as simulated by the Canadian regional climate model

Abstract

A þrst climate simulation performed with the novel Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM) is presented. The CRCM is based on fully elastic non‐hydrostatic þeld equations, which are solved with an efþcient semi‐implicit semi‐Lagrangian (SISL) marching algorithm, and on the parametrization package of subgrid‐scale physical effects of the second‐generation Canadian Global Climate Model (GCMII). Two 5‐year integrations of the CRCM nested with GCMII simulated data as lateral boundary conditions are made for conditions corresponding to current and doubled CO₂ scenarios. For these simulations the CRCM used a grid size of 45 km on a polar‐stereographic projection, 20 scaled‐height levels and a time step of 15 min; the nesting GCMII has a spectral truncation of T32, 10 hybrid‐pressure levels and a time step of 20 min. These simulations serve to document: (1) the suitability of the SISL numerical scheme for regional climate modelling, (2) the use of GCMII physics at much higher resolution than in the nesting model, (3) the ability of the CRCM to add realistic regional‐scale climate information to global model simulations, and (4) the climate of the CRCM compared to that of GCMII under two greenhouse gases (GHG) scenarios.     

A study of long-term climate change in a simple seasonal nonlinear climate model

Solar radiation cycles, earth-orbital changes, and continental drift drive long to very long term (10³–10⁶ years) climatic changes. Lin and North used the stationary solutions of a simple energy balance model (EBM) to study the equilibrium climatic stages. In this paper, we study time dependent solutions and, in particular, transition processes. We make use of two time scales: a seasonal cycle (fast variation) and a long term time change (slow variation). Variations over short time scales are solved using a Fourier transform in time and long term variations are studied using a 4th order Runge-Kutta method. The energy balance equation is a parabolic type equation and it is well posed. Climate changes depend mainly on external forcing and the state of the climate is determined by the slow time scale forcing. In other words, transitions from one climate stage (snow-covered) to another (snow-free) at bifurcation points are monotonic, despite 20% to 50% shortperiod random fluctuations in the solar energy. This smooth transition is especially noticeable when the land bands lie close to the north pole (70° N to 90° N) or at high latitudes (50° N to 75° N).Now at Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD 20723, USA     

湖南气候对全球气候变化的响应

利用湖南省96个台站1960—2010年逐日气象观测资料,在进行均一性检验和订正的基础上对湖南省气候变化事实进行检测分析。结果表明:湖南气候与全球气候变化一致,呈现以变暖为主要特征的变化,且变暖存在季节、地域上的差异,冬、春、秋气温变暖趋势显著,增暖幅度最大的区域在湘北地区;对气候变暖响应敏感的要素主要是与平均气温、冬季气温相关密切的要素,如季平均气温、年平均最低气温、活动积温等;湖南气温在突变时间上具有较好的时间逻辑关系;湖南降水量无显著趋势变化,但极端降水增加,地域性差异明显,湖南东部地区降水量呈现明显增加趋势,日降水量大于等于100 mm的日数呈显著增加趋势;湖南日照时数、风速、相对湿度均呈现显著减少的变化趋势。     

Learning and climate change

Abstract

Learning—i.e. the acquisition of new information that leads to changes in our assessment of uncertainty—plays a prominent role in the international climate policy debate. For example, the view that we should postpone actions until we know more continues to be influential. The latest work on learning and climate change includes new theoretical models, better informed simulations of how learning affects the optimal timing of emissions reductions, analyses of how new information could affect the prospects for reaching and maintaining political agreements and for adapting to climate change, and explorations of how learning could lead us astray rather than closer to the truth. Despite the diversity of this new work, a clear consensus on a central point is that the prospect of learning does not support the postponement of emissions reductions today.