The Synthesis report released on 20 March provides a context for the three previously released parts of the AR6. This is a powerful indictment of the fossil fuel industry and our overall lack of progress in addressing this problem. The survival of civilization depends on our immediate collective action. After a single news cycle the mainstream media has simply moved on to other issues. I … Continue reading Review of IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report
Climate interventions are of two forms: those based on natural processes and those based on technology. Nature-based interventions involve the management of forests, agriculture, and wetlands. Technological solutions involve reducing global temperature through interception of solar radiation or direct removal of CO2 through chemical means or with biofuels and carbon capture. In this module we will review the risks and possible advantages of the most likely … Continue reading Geoengineering
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Use of woody biomass for power production and inappropriate forest offsets result in major disparities between country’s reported emissions and their actual emissions. Continue reading Lies, Damned Lies, and Omissions of Emissions
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This a comprehensive review of the AR6 for my students at the University of Florida. It may be viewed but not downloaded or copied. One error in the narrative is the statement that hurricanes are becoming more frequent. The overall global frequency of cyclones has decreased since the 1800s. Atlantic hurricanes has decreased in the first half of the 20th century but since about 1960 … Continue reading Review of IPCC AR6
Economic theory mandates that it is worth reducing CO2 emissions up to the point where the benefits are equal to the cost. The social cost of carbon is an estimate, in dollars, of the economic damages from emitting one additional ton of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This metric is inextricably tied to the Neoliberal Economics and used by the UN and most governments to … Continue reading Economic Models and the Real-World Social Costs of Carbon
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Updates from the climate change literature December 2022. Continue reading Climate Change Updates December 2022
This is has been a terrific semester that has included some of the best students of my career. This is my year-end review of the lessons on climate change that have been presented in the three courses that I teach. I hope you find this useful. A correction: the CO2 concentration from NOAA just before the volcano shut down the Keeling laboratory at Mona Loa was … Continue reading Climate change year-end review 2022
Some have objected to my concerns about the new fossil-gas power plant at UF because they feel the administration’s options are financially limited due to the extreme expense of retrofitting the campus to remove dependence on methane to produce steam and chilled water. The new plant is budgeted at $200 million. Secondly, they point out the the new plant could easily be converted to hydrogen, … Continue reading No slack for UF and the methane power plant
A version published in the Gainesville Sun 3 September 2021 The mission of higher education is the maintenance and renewal of civilization. This statement comes as an epiphany to many who hear it for the first time. Public higher education in the US has been diminished at the hands of legislatures and business interests who believe that higher education exists solely to serve the economy. … Continue reading Mission failure at the University of Florida
The Environmental Century 
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