Unintended Effects of Emphasizing the Role of Climate Change in Recent Natural Disasters

In 2017, the United States experienced a series of natural hazards (hurricanes, wildfires, and blizzards) that resulted in significant loss of life and property. Emphasizing the role of climate change in these events might offer an important tool for engagement, particularly with skeptical audiences. However, in a survey experiment (N?=?1504) involving three different natural hazards – hurricanes, wildfires, and blizzards – we find that emphasizing the role of climate change in these hazards produced unintended effects for climate change skeptics. In particular, skeptics experienced resistance to the news article, which associated with reduced perceived hazard severity. These backfiring effects likely serve as a defensive mechanism used by skeptics to maintain their prior views of climate change, illustrating the challenges faced in communicating climate change to skeptical audiences. These findings offer additional insight for those attempting to communicate climate-related risk information to skeptical audiences.     

Using fuzzy set theory to address the uncertainty of susceptibility to drought

This paper presents the technical aspects of a new methodology for assessing the susceptibility of society to drought. The methodology consists of a combination of inference modelling and fuzzy logic applications. Four steps are followed: (1) model input variables are selected—these variables reflect the main factors influencing susceptibility in a social group, population or region, (2) fuzzification—the uncertainties of the input variables are made explicit by representing them as ‘fuzzy membership functions’, (3) inference modelling—the input variables are used to construct a model made up of linguistic rules, and (4) defuzzification—results from the model in linguistic form are translated into numerical form, also through the use of fuzzy membership functions. The disadvantages and advantages of this methodology became apparent when it was applied to the assessment of susceptibility from three disciplinary perspectives: Disadvantages include the difficulty in validating results and the subjectivity involved with specifying fuzzy membership functions and the rules of the inference model. Advantages of the methodology are its transparency, because all model assumptions have to be made explicit in the form of inference rules; its flexibility, in that informal and expert knowledge can be incorporated through ‘fuzzy membership functions’ and through the rules in the inference model; and its versatility, since numerical data can be converted to linguistic statements and vice versa through the procedures of ‘fuzzification’ and ‘defuzzification’.     

Sustainable Development in Small Island Developing States

This paper explores the status of sustainable development in small island developing states (SIDS), through the presentation of a case study on the Maldives, which is a typical small island developing state in the Central Indian Ocean. At the outset, a brief history of sustainable development as related to SIDS on the international agenda is outlined, starting from Rio to Barbados to Johannesburg. SIDS are expected to face many challenges and constraints in pursuing sustainable development due to their ecological fragility and economic vulnerability. It is the position of this paper that issues related to environmental vulnerability are of the greatest concern. A healthy environment is the basis of all life-support systems, including that of human well-being and socio-economic development. Priority environmental problems are: climate change and sea-level rise, threats to biodiversity, threats to freshwater resources, degradation of coastal environments, pollution, energy and tourism. Among these, climate change and its associated impacts are expected to pose the greatest threat to the environment and therefore to sustainable development. For small islands dependent on fragile marine ecosystems, in particular on coral reefs, for their livelihoods and living space, adverse effects of climate change such as increased frequency of extreme weather events and sea-level rise will exacerbate the challenges they already face. It is concluded that the paper path from Rio to Barbados to Johannesburg has made significant progress. However, much remains to be done at the practical level, particularly by the developed countries in terms of new and additional efforts at financial and technical assistance, to make sustainable development a reality for SIDS.     

Global climate change and the politics of disaster

The paper explores the potential political impact of global climate change and, more generally, of natural disaster. Because the affluent West has largely tamed the natural and the social domains, popular clamor for government to anticipate, prevent, and redress disaster increases. I delineate several consequences of the new politics of disaster.     

含外来电的崇明县能源碳排放核算研究

能源消耗是中国最主要的碳排放源,而地方政府是碳管理的基层行政单元,因此,有效控制区域的能源碳排放是碳减排工作的重中之重。区域消耗的能源中,外来电是缓解当地用电压力的重要措施,但一般外来电引起的碳排放易被忽视。将外来电导致的碳排放纳入区域能源碳排放核算体系内,利用部门分析和范围分析法建立了包含外来电分析的能源碳排放核算系统,以上海市崇明县为例进行了应用。研究表明：（1）2000～2009年崇明的能源碳排放增长较快,由181万t增至477万t（CO2当量）;(2）碳排放总量的8212%来自3个部门：工业、建筑业和生活部门;(3）2009年,购买电力导致的间接碳排放达2316%,体现了实施碳管理时考虑外来电力的必要性     

Climate changes in the past century and radial increment of pine in the Southern Ural steppe

Changes in the main climatic factors (air temperature and total precipitation) and their effect on the radial increment of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) over the period from 1933 to 2002 were studied in an insular pine forest growing in the steppe zone of the Southern Urals. Evidence for a significant increase in the amount of precipitation and air temperature in the second half of this period was obtained. Functions of response of radial increment indices to climatic parameters were analyzed. Relative contributions of air temperature and precipitation to variation in the radial increment of pine in different time intervals proved to differ in relation to climate changes during the past century.     

Long-Term Changes in the Fauna of Diurnal Lepidopterans (Lepidoptera,Diurna) in the Northern Taiga Subzone of the Western Russian Plain

In the diurnal lepidopteran fauna of the northern taiga subzone in the western Russian Plain, the species inhabiting primary biotopic complexes typical of this subzone currently account for slightly more than 60% of the total species richness and abundance. A large part of the fauna is represented by the species of more southern origin, whose expansion to the northern taiga was caused by anthropogenic transformation of landscapes between the 12th and 20th centuries and recent climate warming.     

气候变化对江苏省城市系统用电量变化趋势的影响

江苏省是长江流域经济发展领先的地区,在其社会经济快速发展、人民生活水平迅速提高和电力供应有限的情况下,气候变化加剧了电力需求的紧张局面。根据江苏省50年来的用电量资料和1985年以来夏季平均温度距平资料,分析了城市系统用电量在随社会经济发展增长的同时,因气候异常特别是因夏季高温波动而引起的居民和城市系统用电量的变化。结果发现,夏季高温异常是居民和城市系统用电量增加的重要气候因子,指出未来气候变暖可能导致电力需求更加严峻的形势。对于现阶段长江流域各地区电力工业和国民经济的可持续发展具有科学意义和参考价值。     

长江中下游洪水灾害成因及洪水特征模拟分析

长江中下游地区洪水灾害的发生是自然地理条件及人类活动共同作用的结果。流域水系构造和地理特征决定了其洪水多发性,气候变化和土地利用/地表覆盖变化导致该地区水循环过程发生较大改变,而大量水库、堤防的建设以及城市化的发展使得洪水过程发生显著变化,因此在各种因素的综合作用下,长江中下游地区近年来洪水灾害频繁发生。综述了气候变化对长江中下游降水的影响,探讨了长江中下游水系特征与洪水灾害的关系,分析了人类活动对洪水灾害的影响规律,在此基础上,开展了气候和下垫面特征变化条件下的暴雨洪水模拟研究,以长江下游太湖东苕溪流域的南苕溪为研究区,进行了流域降雨径流过程的动态模拟验证和特征分析,并取得了较满意的成果,从而为长江中下游地区防洪减灾研究打下了基础。     

The Clean Development Mechanism and Sustainable Development in China''''s Electricity Sector

1 INTRODUCTIONEnergy and environmental issues in China have receivedsignificant attention in both the peer-reviewed literatureand in international energy and environmental policymaking in the last number of years. China's coal dominatedenergy consumption results in significant regional pollutionproblems, most notably acid rain that affects nearly 1/3rdof China's landmass and air pollution that plagues manyof its major cities. China now ranks as the top emitterof sulphur dioxide (SO2) pol…