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"PIELKE, ROGER"
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Improve how science advice is provided to governments by learning from “experts in expert advice”
During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, science advisory mechanisms did not always live up to expectations. What practical steps can the expert community take to improve advisory mechanisms in an emergency?
Journal Article
Plausible 2005–2050 emissions scenarios project between 2 °C and 3 °C of warming by 2100
Emissions scenarios used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are central to climate change research and policy. Here, we identify subsets of scenarios of the IPCC’s 5th (AR5) and forthcoming 6th (AR6) Assessment Reports, including the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios, that project 2005–2050 fossil-fuel-and-industry (FFI) CO 2 emissions growth rates most consistent with observations from 2005 to 2020 and International Energy Agency (IEA) projections to 2050. These scenarios project between 2 °C and 3 °C of warming by 2100, with a median of 2.2 °C. The subset of plausible IPCC scenarios does not represent all possible trajectories of future emissions and warming. Collectively, they project continued mitigation progress and suggest the world is presently on a lower emissions trajectory than is often assumed. However, these scenarios also indicate that the world is still off track from limiting 21st-century warming to 1.5 °C or below 2 °C.
Journal Article
Five ways to ensure that models serve society: a manifesto
Pandemic politics highlight how predictions need to be transparent and humble to invite insight, not blame.
Pandemic politics highlight how predictions need to be transparent and humble to invite insight, not blame.
Journal Article
Land Use and Climate Change
Change and variability in land use by humans and the resulting alterations in surface features are major but poorly recognized drivers of long-term global climate patterns. Along with the diverse influences of aerosols on climate, these spatially heterogeneous land use effects may be at least as important in altering the weather as changes in climate patterns associated with greenhouse gases. On page 1674 of this issue, Feddema et al. report modeling results indicating that future land use and land cover will continue to be an important influence on climate for the next century. One implication of this work is that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has yet to appreciate the significance of the full range of phenomena that drive climate change, risks rapidly falling behind the evolving science if this effect is not included. Although the impact of land use and land cover on the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and methane, and on the global average surface albedo, have been included in international climate change assessments, the role of land use and land cover change and variability in altering regional temperatures, precipitation, vegetation, and other climate variables has been mostly ignored.
Journal Article
Global total precipitable water variations and trends over the period 1958–2021
Global responses of the hydrological cycle to climate change have been widely studied, but uncertainties still remain regarding water vapor responses to lower-tropospheric temperature. Here, we investigate the trends in global total precipitable water (TPW) and surface temperature from 1958 to 2021 using ERA5 and JRA-55 reanalysis datasets. We further validate these trends using radiosonde from 1979 to 2019 and Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) observations from 2003 to 2021. Our results indicate a global increase in total precipitable water (TPW) of ∼ 2 % per decade from 1993–2021. These variations in TPW reflect the interactions of global warming feedback mechanisms across different spatial scales. Our results also revealed a significant near-surface temperature (T2 m) warming trend of ∼ 0.15 K decade−1 over the period 1958–2021. The consistent warming at a rate of ∼ 0.21 K decade−1 after 1993 corresponds to a strong water vapor response to temperature at a rate of 9.5 % K−1 globally, with land areas warming approximately twice as fast as the oceans. The relationship between TPW and T2 m showed a variation of around 6 % K−1–8 % K−1 in the 15–55° N latitude band, aligning with theoretical estimates from the Clausius–Clapeyron equation.
Journal Article
Memo for President Biden: Five steps to getting more from science
Going back to normal is not enough. A revamp is required.
Going back to normal is not enough. A revamp is required.
Journal Article
Climate change 2007: lifting the taboo on adaptation
The rehabilitation of the idea of adaptation is overdue and seems straightforward. But there is an elephant in the room: the core assumptions underlying contemporary climate-change policy conflict with the goal of increasing resilience to natural climate change and variability.
Journal Article
CONTINENTAL U.S. HURRICANE LANDFALL FREQUENCY AND ASSOCIATED DAMAGE
Continental United States (CONUS) hurricane-related inflation-adjusted damage has increased significantly since 1900. However, since 1900 neither observed CONUS landfalling hurricane frequency nor intensity shows significant trends, including the devastating 2017 season.
Two large-scale climate modes that have been noted in prior research to significantly impact CONUS landfalling hurricane activity are El Niño–Southern Oscillation on interannual time scales and the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation on multidecadal time scales. La Niña seasons tend to be characterized by more CONUS hurricane landfalls than El Niño seasons, and positive Atlantic multidecadal oscillation phases tend to have more CONUS hurricane landfalls than negative phases.
Growth in coastal population and regional wealth are the overwhelming drivers of observed increases in hurricane-related damage. As the population and wealth of the United States has increased in coastal locations, it has invariably led to the growth in exposure and vulnerability of coastal property along the U.S. Gulf and East Coasts. Unfortunately, the risks associated with more people and vulnerable exposure came to fruition in Texas and Florida during the 2017 season following the landfalls of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Total economic damage from those two storms exceeded $125 billion. Growth in coastal population and exposure is likely to continue in the future, and when hurricane landfalls do occur, this will likely lead to greater damage costs than previously seen. Such a statement is made recognizing that the vast scope of damage from hurricanes often highlights the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of building codes, flood maps, infrastructure, and insurance in at-risk communities.
Journal Article
IPCC baseline scenarios have over-projected CO2 emissions and economic growth
Scenarios used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are central to climate science and policy. Recent studies find that observed trends and International Energy Agency (IEA) projections of global CO2 emissions have diverged from emission scenario outlooks widely employed in climate research. Here, we quantify the bases for this divergence, focusing on Kaya Identity factors: population, per-capita gross domestic product (GDP), energy intensity (energy consumption/GDP), and carbon intensity (CO2 emissions/energy consumption). We compare 2005-2017 observations and IEA projections to 2040 of these variables, to 'baseline' scenario projections from the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), and from the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) used in the upcoming Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). We find that the historical divergence of observed CO2 emissions from baseline scenario projections can be explained largely by slower-than-projected per-capita GDP growth-predating the COVID-19 crisis. We also find carbon intensity divergence from baselines in IEA's projections to 2040. IEA projects less coal energy expansion than the baseline scenarios, with divergence expected to continue to 2100. Future economic growth is uncertain, but we show that past divergence from observations makes it unlikely that per-capita GDP growth will catch up to baselines before mid-century. Some experts hypothesize high enough economic growth rates to allow per-capita GDP growth to catch up to or exceed baseline scenarios by 2100. However, we argue that this magnitude of catch-up may be unlikely, in light of: headwinds such as aging and debt, the likelihood of unanticipated economic crises, the fact that past economic forecasts have tended to over-project, the aftermath of the current pandemic, and economic impacts of climate change unaccounted-for in the baseline scenarios. Our analyses inform the rapidly evolving discussions on climate and development futures, and on uses of scenarios in climate science and policy.
Journal Article