S uppose that averting dangerous climate change meant limiting the concentration of greenhouse gases (measured in parts per million, or ppm, by volume) in the atmosphere so that the world faced a temperature increase of no more than 2°C—a goal endorsed by the European Union. What would it take to meet this goal? Because of “climate uncertainty,” we cannot be sure. We can meet the goal with prob...

Climate change is the exemplary global public good, because each country’s emissions of greenhouse gases contribute cumulatively to the increase of the overall concentration, and each country’s abatements entail higher cost than benefit, unless effective concerted collective actions

Rangelands T he topic of global change is found almost daily in newspaper and magazine articles and on television. Global change refers to large-scale changes in the Earth’s biological, geological, hydrological, and atmospheric systems, whether of human or natural origin. The primary concern of global change has centered on the rapid increase in atmospheric concentrations of primary greenhouse ...

Changes in some weather and climate extremes are attributable to human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Human-induced warming has likely caused much of the average temperature increase in North America • over the past 50 years. This affects changes in temperature extremes. Heavy precipitation events averaged over North America have increased over the past 50 years, • consistent with the o...

 Continued rise in annual average temperature. Warming is projected to continue throughout the 21 century (Figure 5-1). For the 2050s relative to 1950-1999, temperature is projected to rise +5.8°F (range: +3.1 to +8.5°F) for a high greenhouse gas scenario (RCP8.5). Much higher warming is possible after mid-century (Figure 5-1, Table 5-1). Lower emissions of greenhouse gases will result in less...

Increasing greenhouse gases will change many aspects of the Earth’s climate, from its annual mean to the frequency of extremes such as heat waves and droughts[1]. Here we report that the current generation of climate models predicts a delay in the seasonal cycle of global rainfall and ocean temperature in response to increasing greenhouse gases, with important implications for the regional mons...

Here is shown a possibility to use a method based on the distant measurement of the spatial distribution of pollutant and greenhouse gases in the boundary layer of atmosphere by measured data on their own radiation in the thermal IR spectral region. Using calculated IR spectra of atmospheric radiation, requirements have been established for spectral measuring equipment based on a Fourier-spectr...

The climate change discussion in the framework of the Kyoto protocol has clearly emphasized the need for reliable methods to value projects targeted on reduction of greenhouse gases. Moreover, the recent carbon price development in the mandatory EU Emission Trading Scheme exhibits the insisting importance of accurate risk management when business is exposed to greenhouse gas emissions. In this ...

The build-up of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere has caused concern about possible global climate change. As a result, international negotiations have produced the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), completed during the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The treaty, which the United States has ratified, calls for the “stabilization of green...

Background: Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a greenhouse gas that is a very small portion of the nitrogen cycle, but is environmentally damaging at low levels. In the lower atmosphere, N2O absorbs infrared radiation in spectra not absorbed by other common greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. Because of N2O’s unique spectral absorption range, each molecule absorbs 200 times as much outgoing radiatio...