Questions and Answers of Introduction To Modern Climate Change

You invest $50 at a 7 percent interest rate for 30 years.(a) Use Equation 10.1 to calculate how much you have after 30 years.(b) How many doubling periods does the investment experience?(c) Use
You invest $1 at a 10 percent interest rate for 50 years.(a) Use Equation 10.1 to calculate how much you have after 50 years.(b) How many doubling periods does the investment experience?(c) Use
Imagine that, in addition to the fast feedbacks discussed herein, there was also a fast negative “flower” feedback like that described in this chapter (as the planet warms, white flowers prosper
Assume that the Earth has warmed by 5K since the last ice age, and the change in radiative forcing over that time was + 6:7 W/m2. On this basis, calculate the climate sensitivity.(a) Express the
(a) The T term can be broken into two terms. What are these two terms, and what are their units?(b) If we switch from fossil fuels to solar energy, which of the terms changes, and does this term
Consider this argument: “We cannot predict the weather in a week, so there is no way we can believe a climate forecast in 100 years.” Is this argument right or wrong? Explain your answer.
If we emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide this century, how long will the planet remain warm?
Assume population grows at 2 percent per year and affluence grows at 3 percent per year.(a) How fast does the technology term have to decrease (in percent per year) so that total emissions do not
Explain how your level of wealth impacts how much emission of carbon dioxide you are responsible for. Where do you think you fall in the spectrum of people on the Earth today? Are you a
In 2002, the Bush Administration set a goal of reducing greenhouse-gas intensity by 18 percent by year 2012. Estimate the historical rate of decline of greenhouse-gas intensity between 1960 and 2000
Your third cousin once removed asks you why we will not be better off in a warmer climate. What do you tell him?
Your friend says, “Climate scientists are such alarmists. First they say that floods will become more frequent, and then they say that droughts will become more frequent. Come on, which one is it?
Precipitation(a) How is precipitation expected to change in a future climate?(b) Why do changes in the form of precipitation (rain versus snow) matter?
As discussed in this chapter, temperatures are not expected to rise uniformly across the globe. You may need to review Chapters 3 and 4 to answer these questions.(a) Why is there more warming at
Explain a few ways that climate change impacts the following. You may need to do some research outside of the book to produce a complete answer.(a) Public health(b) National security(c) Food
Why will it be easier for the United States and Western Europe to deal with climate change than countries in Africa?
(a) What do scientists mean when they talk about “abrupt climate change?”(b) Give an example of an abrupt climate change that has occurred in the past.
(a) How many doubling periods do you have to wait for 1 cent to grow to $100 trillion? (Calculate to the nearest integer.)(b) At an interest rate of 7 percent, about how long does it take for that
Would you rather pay $1 trillion dollars of damages from and adaptation to climate damage in 50 years or pay $50 billion dollars today to reduce emissions and avoid the climate change? Use discount
You go into a big-box electronics store to buy a flat-screen television. You have two options: pay $1,400 today or $1,450 in 1 year. Which do you choose? You have to estimate a discount rate to do
(a) Imagine you have a dollar bill. If you double it, you have two bills. If you double again, you have four bills. If you double again, you have eight bills, and so on. Given that a bill is 0.1mm
(a) Consider the choice between paying $10 million today to reduce emissions that cause climate change or $1 billion in 100 years to adapt to a changing climate. What would the discount rate have to
In the National Football League draft, a pick in this year’s draft is worth a pick in a lower round in a future draft (e.g., you might trade a second-round pick in this year’s draft for a
Lotteries often give you the option of taking a lump-sum payment now or a fixed amount every year for, say, 25 years. For this question, assume that the lump-sum payment is $3 million, and the yearly
You are inside the Houston Astrodome, in the rafters just below the roof, 160 ft above the field. A wizard puts a tiny magic drop of water on the pitcher’s mound, and the drop starts doubling every
Calculating the cost of climate change.(a) If GDP per person (the affluence term in the IPAT relation) grows at 3 percent per year, how many times larger than today will it be after 100
Imagine that you can save the polar bears if you pay a fee every year. If you do not pay the fee, they go extinct. How much would you pay each year to keep polar bears alive?
Imagine that there are 1,000 people in the world infected with coronavirus. If the doubling time for coronavirus is 3 days, how many days until the entire world is infected? Assume there are 7.8
Figure 8.2 showed growth of the drivers of emissions under the various SSPs. For the low-growth SSP3, the affluence term increases from about $10,000 per person to $22,000 per person between 2010 and
Imagine that there are 1,000 people in the world infected with coronavirus. We’re going to estimate how the number of infections increases for doubling times of 2.5 and 5 days.(a) Before doing any
Our responses to climate change can be put into four general categories. List the categories. For each category, give one example of an action that would fall into that category.
(a) What are carbon-free energy sources? List several discussed in the book.(b) Is carbon-free energy the same as renewable energy?(c) Is nuclear energy carbon free? Is it renewable?
(a) Your friend says, “We should rely entirely on adaptation as our response to climate change.” Is this a good idea?(b) I argued here that adaptation must be at least part of our response. Why?
While solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal are sometimes lumped together under the name “geoengineering,” they are actually quite different approaches. What are the advantages
In this chapter, we explored the terms of the IPAT relation (Equation 8.1) and concluded that reducing emissions could really be achieved only through reduction of one term. Which term is it, and why
(a) Explain one way we can “geoengineer” a higher planetary albedo.(b) Explain one way we can “geoengineer” a reduction in carbon dioxide.
The technology term in the IPAT relation can be further divided into two terms.(a) For each term, give an example of how to reduce it.(b) One of these terms is the key to deep reductions in
Why do mitigation policies have little ability to influence the climate over the first half of the twenty-first century?
Why do economists generally believe that the free market will not solve the climate problem by itself?
(a) Explain how a carbon tax works.(b) Explain how a cap-and-trade system works.(c) What is the fundamental difference between these two policies?(d) Given a carbon tax of x dollars (or a permit
Why are emissions reductions achieved by use of a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system cheaper than those achieved by use of conventional regulations?
(a) What is an offset?(b) What does additionality mean?
In a New York Times op-ed piece (December 6, 2009), climate scientist Jim Hansen makes the following argument: “Consider the perverse effect cap and trade has on altruistic actions. Say you decide
For the following, assume that Plants A and B have the following marginal costs for reducing emissions:(a) The government tells both plants to reduce three units of output. How much does this
Imagine a carbon tax is implemented. One day, you decide not to drive to the grocery store, and you apply for offset credit for the emissions that did not occur because this trip was not taken.
The table below shows the marginal costs of two plants, each of which emits 10 units each year. They both have six permits, meaning that if they do not trade, they each would have to reduce 4 units.
Why will voluntary and informational approaches not lead to deep reductions in emissions?
One argument made by those who oppose reducing emissions is, “The energy sources we use are always the cheapest and most plentiful – which are coal, oil, and natural gas. Wind, solar, etc. are
For a closer-to-home example of a cap-and-trade system, imagine the following scenario: Your professor gives everyone five points of extra credit on the final exam. Further, the professor says that
When you buy an airline ticket, you can also buy a “carbon offset” that will cancel out the emissions from the flight. They typically do not provide much information about the carbon offset.
(a) Imagine a credit card whose bill was divided up and sent to everyone in the United States (i.e., if you purchased something on this card, every person in the United States would get a bill for
In this chapter, we talked about negative externalities. Can you think of an example of a positive externality?
Your roommates have a party when you are out of town.(a) When you return, the apartment is a mess, and they ask you to help clean it up. Do you help them?(b) Under what conditions might you offer
Donald Trump said that “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” Who was the first person to discover that climate
Do an Internet search and find some websites skeptical of mainstream climate science. List three of the claims they make about the science of climate change. Given what we have covered in the first
What are the three important principles enshrined in the Framework Convention on Climate Change?
What difference is there in how we view the environment today versus how people who lived in the nineteenth century viewed it? What are the factors that caused the change?
Explain the precautionary principle. Can you think of an example in your life when you have applied the concept (or not applied it)?
(a) Explain the concept of equity as it was described in this chapter.(b) How was it implemented in the Montreal Protocol?(c) Explain how it was implemented in the Kyoto Protocol.(d) How is it
Under the Copenhagen Accord, China agreed to reduce its greenhouse-gas intensity by 45 percent in 2020 (relative to a base year of 2005).(a) What annual growth rate gives you a 45 percent decrease
What is the surface area of a sphere with radius r? What is the area of a disk with radius r? What is the area of a disk with diameter d?
Draw a diagram (like Figure 4.5) that shows the energy flows for a planet with a onelayer atmosphere. The solar constant for the planet is S = 900 W = m2, and the albedo of the planet is α = 0:25.
A planet in another solar system has a solar constant S = 2,000 W/m2, and the distance between the planet and the star is 100 million kilometers.(a) What is the total power output of the star? (Give
Draw a diagram (like Figure 4.6) that shows the energy flows for a planet with a twolayer atmosphere. The solar constant for the planet is S = 3,000 W/m2 and the albedo of the planet is α = 0:1.
Two people argue about why Venus is so much warmer than the Earth. The first argues that it is because Venus is closer to the Sun, so it absorbs more solar energy. The second argues that it is
Assume a planet with a one-layer atmosphere has a solar constant S = 2,000 W/m2 and an albedo α = 0:4.(a) What is the planet’s surface temperature? Make the standard assumption that the
Some recently discovered planets in other solar systems are so hot that they glow in the visible; they are literally “red hot” (e.g., do a Google search for “HD 149026b”).(a) How many
Assume a planet with a one-layer atmosphere and values of solar constant S = 1,000 W/m2 and albedo α = 0:25. Let us assume there is some dust in the atmosphere, so that 50 percent of the Sun’s
Derive an expression for the fraction of energy received by the surface that comes from the atmosphere (this is the amount of energy that comes from the atmosphere divided by the sum of energy from
On Mercury, which has no atmosphere, the difference in temperature between daytime and nighttime temperatures can be 700 K. On the Earth, the difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures can
As we will discover in Chapter 11, one way to solve global warming is to increase the reflectivity of the planet (I will explain how in Chapter 11). To reduce the Earth’s temperature by 1 K, how
Given fixed n and α, how does the temperature of a planet vary with r, the distance between the planet and the star? Work out how S varies with r, and plug that into Equation 4.5.Equation 4.5 T
A planet has a solar constant S = 2,000 W/m2, an albedo α = 0:7, and a radius r = 3,000 km. What would happen to the temperature if the planet’s radius doubles?
One argument you hear against mainstream climate science is that adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere is like painting a window. Eventually, the window is opaque, so that adding another coat of
Imagine that the Sun’s radius doubles (but the Sun maintains the same surface temperature). What happens to the Earth’s solar constant and surface temperature? You can assume that the Earth’s
Does the variation of solar energy with surface orientation (Figure 4.3) explain the variation in local temperature through the day? The warmest temperatures during the day are usually found from 3
How much of a change in albedo is required to completely cancel a doubling of carbon dioxide on the Earth (put another way, how much of a change in albedo is required to generate a radiative forcing
If you were on a spacecraft and you pointed an infrared thermometer at a one-layer planet, what temperature would it read? What if the planet had two layers? Or n-layers? Assume S and α are the same
The simple model we developed in this chapter assumes all energy transport in our atmosphere is by radiation. In the real atmosphere, however, other transport pathways exist. One neglected pathway is
Newly formed stars are often obscured by the dense dust clouds from which they form. To see how these appear to observers on the Earth, imagine that 50 stars, each identical to our Sun, form in a
(a) How much land (in km2) would you need to cover with solar panels in order to generate all of our power from solar energy (assume human power consumption is 15 TW). If one takes into account the
(a) Describe the processes that transfer carbon from the atmosphere to the land, and from the land to the atmosphere. What are the chemical reactions that describe these processes?(b) How do these
A more advanced convection problem: In reality, moist convection ties the atmospheric temperature to the surface temperature. If we assume that the temperature of the atmosphere is always 30K cooler
A letter to the editor of the Austin American-Statesman, published on December 23, 2009, asks this question: “The trillion-dollar question that Copenhagen has not answered [is this]: Because carbon
Your aunt asks you how we know that volcanoes are not responsible for the observed increase in carbon dioxide. What do you tell her?
Explain how isotopes help us identify human activities as the reason atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing.
Your grandfather asks you to explain how humans are modifying the carbon cycle. What do you tell him?
Explain how “chemical weathering” removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. What is the weathering chemical reaction? Can this process play an important role in counteracting the increase in
Assume an n-layer planet with a specified Ein. The surface temperature for this planet can be written (by combining Equations 4.2 and 4.5):Equations 4.2 Equations 4.2 Equation 6.6 (a) One way to
The sawtooth in the carbon dioxide time series due to the annual cycle in northern hemisphere plant growth is dramatic. The data in Figure 5.1 come from Mauna Loa, in Hawaii. Based on the material in
Of the carbon dioxide humans add to the climate, approximately half is removed within a few decades. Where does it go? How would it affect the climate if, all of a sudden, all of the carbon dioxide
Why is rain naturally acidic? What then, does the term acid rain refer to? (Acid rain is not covered in the chapter, so you will have to do some outside research on it.)
How much does the Earth’s solar constant have to increase in order to generate a radiative forcing of +1 W/m2 for the Earth?
Define climate sensitivity. What is the currently accepted range and our best estimate for our climate?
Imagine that our Sun brightens by 1 percent instantaneously.(a) How long would it take for the Earth to reach its new equilibrium temperature? Is this longer or shorter than the time it would take
Explain why changes in ice, which modify albedo and therefore affect planetary energy balance, are considered a feedback and not a forcing.
When considering how long it takes for radiative forcing to warm up the planet, it is useful to think about the heat capacity of the climate system, which tells us how many joules are required to
The albedo changes from 0.3 to 0.31 on the Earth. What is the radiative forcing associated with this change?
Imagine a planet where S = 1,360 W/m2 and α = 0:3.(a) If n = 0, what is the temperature of this planet?(b) If S increases to 1,370 W/m2 and n remains equal to 0, what is the new
In the northern hemisphere, Ein maximizes on June 21, when the Sun is most directly overhead. You might therefore expect temperatures to be highest on that day. But for the US Gulf Coast,

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