Energy indicators and sustainable development: The International Energy Agency approach

The International Energy Agency (IEA), together with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), UN‐DESA, Eurostat and the European Environmental Agency, has recently published a comprehensive joint‐agency overview of energy indicators for sustainable development. The IEA's contribution to this publication is based on the IEA energy indicator approach. This approach has been developed and used by the IEA over a number of years. The indicators advocated by the IEA are relatively disaggregated to allow for meaningful analysis of sustainability issues in the energy sector. Using a decomposition approach helps reveal the causal links between human/economic driving forces, energy use and emissions. This article presents examples of IEA's work with indicators and an overview of the methodology used, including an explanation of the link to sustainable development. It also provides an example of a simplified indicator analysis of India, to illustrate the importance of improved data systems in developing indicators that can provide meaningful policy analysis.     

Population,Development, and Waste Management in Botswana: Conceptual and Policy Implications for Climate Change

Based on government and other relevant documentation, this paper explores the conceptual linkage between population, development, and waste management in Botswana and the implications of this relationship for global climate change. Population is increasing, albeit at a decreasing rate. Spatially, the population is becoming more and more concentrated as the rates and level of urbanization increase. Economic growth has remained consistently high. The combined effect of population dynamics and economic development are having a noticeable imprint on the environment in the form of increased waste generation. Poor waste management poses a real threat to environmental sustainability in general and climate change in particular because of inadequate technology, weak institutional mechanisms to enforce regulations, and low levels of sensitization among the public to deal with the problem. Mitigation measures are suggested to minimize the negative effects of waste management on climate change.     

Influence of Geoengineered Climate on the Terrestrial Biosphere

Various geoengineering schemes have been proposed to counteract anthropogenically induced climate change. In a previous study, it was suggested that a 1.8% reduction in solar radiation incident on the Earths surface could noticeably reduce regional and seasonal climate change from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂). However, the response of the terrestrial biosphere to reduced solar radiation in a CO₂-rich climate was not investigated. In this study, we hypothesized that a reduction in incident solar radiation in a Doubled CO₂ atmosphere will diminish the net primary productivity (NPP) of terrestrial ecosystems, potentially accelerating the accumulation of CO₂ in the atmosphere. We used a dynamic global ecosystem model, the Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS), to investigate this hypothesis in an unperturbed climatology. While this simplified modeling framework effectively separated the influence of CO₂ and sunlight on the terrestrial biosphere, it did not consider the complex feedbacks within the Earths climate system. Our analysis indicated that compared to a Doubled CO₂ scenario, reduction in incident solar radiation by 1.8% in a double CO₂ world will have negligible impact on the NPP of terrestrial ecosystems. There were, however, spatial variations in the response of NPP-engineered solar radiation. While productivity decreased by less than 2% in the tropical and boreal forests as hypothesized, it increased by a similar percentage in the temperate deciduous forests and grasslands. This increase in productivity was attributed to a 1% reduction in evapotranspiration in the Geoengineered scenario relative to the Doubled CO₂ scenario. Our initial hypothesis was rejected because of unanticipated effects of engineered solar radiation on the hydrologic cycle. However, any geoengineering approaches that reduce incident solar radiation need to be thoroughly analyzed in view of the implications on ecosystem productivity and the hydrologic cycle.     

Elements of resilience after the World Trade Center disaster: reconstituting New York City's Emergency Operations Centre

In this paper we examine the reconstitution of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) after its destruction in the World Trade Center attack, using that event to highlight several features of resilience. The paper summarises basic EOC functions, and then presents conceptions of resilience as understood from several disciplinary perspectives, noting that work in these fields has sought to understand how a natural or social system that experiences disturbance sustains its functional processes. We observe that, although the physical EOC facility was destroyed, the organisation that had been established to manage crises in New York City continued, enabling a response that drew on the resources of New York City and neighbouring communities, states and the federal government. Availability of resources--which substituted for redundancy of personnel, equipment and space--pre-existing relationships that eased communication challenges as the emergency developed and the continuation of organisational patterns of response integration and role assignments were among the factors that contributed to resilience following the attack.     

九十年代以来全球重大天气气候事件回顾

本文首先揭示了九十年代全球变暖背景下北半球中高纬度地区冬季的异常冷暖气候事件及其相应的环流形势。着重回顾了全球热浪、暴雨洪涝、大范围持续干旱及热带风暴等重大灾害性天气气候事件及其影响，并对其形成的可能原因进行了一些诊断分析。     

Modeling human-induced climatic change: A summary for environmental managers

The rapid increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases has caused concern because of their potential to alter the earth's radiation budget and disrupt current climate patterns While there are many uncertainties associated with use of general circulation models (GCMs), GCMs are currently the best available technology to project changes in climate associated with elevated gas concentrations. Results indicate increases in global temperature and changes in global precipitation patterns are likely as a result of doubled CO₂. GCMs are not reliable for use at the regional scale because local scale processes and geography are not taken into account. Comparison of results from five GCMs in three regions of the United States indicate high variability across regions and among models depending on season and climate variable. Statistical methods of scaling model output and nesting finer resolution models in global models are two techniques that may improve projections. Despite the many limitations in GCMs, they are useful tools to explore climate-earth system dynamics when used in conjunction with water resource and ecosystem models. A variety of water resource models showed significant alteration of regional hydrology when run with both GCM-generated and hypothetical climate scenarios, regardless of region or model complexity. Similarly, ecological models demonstrate the sensitivity of ecosystem production, nutrient dynamics, and distribution to changes in climate and CO₂ levels. We recommend the use of GCM-based scenarios in conjunction with water resource and ecosystem models to guide environmental management and policy in a “no-regrets” framework or as part of a precautionary approach to natural resource protection.     

四论灾害系统研究的理论与实践

作者曾分别于1991,1995和2001年发表了关于灾害研究理论与实践的3篇文章,对灾害系统的性质、动力学机制等进行了探讨.本文在前3篇文章的基础上,从综合灾害风险管理的角度,完善了灾害系统的结构与功能体系,论证了灾情形成过程中恢复力的作用机制,分析了区域开发与安全建设的互馈关系,构建了区域综合减灾的行政管理体系,提出了由政府、企业与社区构成的区域综合减灾范式.研究结果表明,区域灾情形成过程中,脆弱性与恢复力有着明显的区别,脆弱性是区域灾害系统中致灾因子、承灾体和孕灾环境综合作用过程的状态量,它主要取决于区域的经济发达程度与社区安全建设水平;恢复力则是灾害发生后,区域恢复、重建及安全建设与区域发展相互作用的动态量,它主要取决于区域综合灾害风险行政管理能力、政府与企业投入和社会援助水平.区域安全水平与土地利用的时空格局和产业结构关系密切,通过划定区域高风险“红线区“的办法,调整土地利用时空格局和产业结构,有利于建立区域可持续发展的综合减灾范式.针对区域自然灾害系统存在着相互作用、互为因果的灾害链规律,以及灾害系统所具有的结构与功能特征,完善由纵向、横向和政策协调共同组成的一个“三维矩阵式“的区域综合减灾行政管理体系,构建以政府为主导、企业为主体、社区全面参与的区域综合减灾范式.以此促进在发展中提高区域减灾能力,并在一定安全水平下,建设区域可持续发展模式.     

人工气候箱——环境技术的应用

本文探讨了人工气候箱－环境技术的广泛应用，并综合介绍了该设备的完善管理与改进的研究。     

Bearing Witness? Polar Bears as Icons for Climate Change Communication in National Geographic

This article investigates how polar bears were established as icons of climate change in the popular science magazine National Geographic. In a multistep process, anthropomorphized depictions first established polar bears as subjects of identification. Then, polar bears were visually connected to the endangered Arctic. Finally, they emerged as ambassadors of a threatened ecosystem and icons of climate change. I highlight the wider political contexts of this process of iconization and the semiotic and cultural resources on which it draws, showing what kind of climate change communication the polar bear icon enables or inhibits. The icon lends itself to being deployed in visual communication strategies creating personal concern and public awareness for climate change. At the same time, the icon fosters an individualized, emotionalized, and localized account of climate change but does not make its wider causes visible.     

Climate Services and Communication for Development: The Role of Early Career Researchers in Advancing the Debate

Climate services entail providing timely and tailored climate information to end-users in order to facilitate and improve decision-making processes. Climate services are instrumental in socio-economic development and benefit substantially from interdisciplinary collaborations, particularly when including Early Career Researchers (ECRs). This commentary critically discusses deliberations from an interdisciplinary workshop involving ECRs from the United Kingdom and South Africa in 2017, to discuss issues in climate adaptation and climate services development in water resources, food security and agriculture. Outcomes from the discussions revolved around key issues somewhat marginalized within the broader climate service discourse. This commentary discusses what constitutes “effective” communication, framings (user framings, mental models, narratives, co-production) and ethical dimensions in developing climate services that can best serve end-users. It also reflects on how ECRs can help tackle these important thematic areas and advance the discourse on climate services.