When the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established in the 1990s, negotiators focused on greenhouse gas emissions, or GHGs. They discussed mitigation actions; ways to reduce GHGs. The landmark Kyoto Protocol of 1997 (at COP 3) emphasized mitigation, with commitments from developed countries to reduce their production of and reliance on fossil fuels. The 2015 Paris Agreement set the goal of a global temperature rise of no more than 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2050. This goal would be achieved only if developed countries - the major GHG emitters - transitioned significantly to renewable energy sources. This has not happened. Countries are expanding their use of renewables but not fast enough th meet the 1.5 degree goal. Consequently, negotiators now devote considerable time to discussing adaptation - how to deal with a warming world and its consequencxes, such as wildfires, drought, intense hurricanes and typhoons... These articles relate to the imp...
Looking at the magnitude of the issue, I do not understand why projections are not accurate most of the time. Are scientists really underestimating, or is there any political influence? This is a question that I have had for a while in relation to climate change. Although interested in climate change, I did not know that there were so many feedback loops all over the world. I wonder why things like this are not displayed more often for the general public to see and feel the rapidly increasing temperature and sea levels in many different parts of the world. Another thing that was mainly noticeable was the statistics on cost. The total cost to fix most of the damage from global climate change is actually in the trillions believe it or not, and there is an article that can help you look more into it and learn more about the severity of climate change.
ReplyDeleteArticle: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/09/1134865038/investors-have-trillions-to-fight-climate-change-developing-nations-get-little-o
I think part of the reason projections are not accurate can be connected back to another blog post and how companies are still doing more damage and efforts to fight climate change are not as fully concentrated as they should be. Another part of it could be connected to a previous blog post as well and how only, at least for in terms of the United States, democrats care more about climate change than republicans have in recent years. The divide only means that while effort is reflected from one side of the US, some of the effort is wasted because of the other half. The article details multiple aspects of the feedback loop that aren't as well highlighted, going as far as showing how it specifically is affecting other countries, which as a United States citizen, that viewpoint isn't as pronounced, outside of major issues like rising sea levels. An interesting article that analyzes the priorities of both parties can be found at https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/democrats-republicans-climate-change-immigration-ipsos-poll/
DeleteThe concept of feedback loops is something that I have learned about before in science classes like AP Environmental Science as well as oceanography. I thought the examples of different feedback loops that were provided in the article were really interesting, especially new concepts like the positive feedback loop of desertification, which I had not heard of before (warming dries soil, which makes air warmer, deserts consequently expand). However, I wish they would've clarified that they were talking about positive feedback loops (when the cycle is self-perpetuating and exacerbates effects from occurring) rather than negative feedback loops (feedback that reduces an initial effect). I thought this article from NASA explained this difference well and provided some more depth on interesting climactic feedback examples:
ReplyDeletehttps://climate.nasa.gov/nasa_science/science/#:~:text=Climate%20feedbacks%3A%20processes%20that%20can,is%20a%20%22negative%20feedback.%22
This topic was a very interesting read as I have never even thought about how climate change can have these positive feedback loops. While I have heard of them before, I feel like, and as the article said, that this isn't talked about enough in terms of climate change. This new information drastically changes all of our past climate change data and certainly shortens our time frame on when we need to fix this issue by before it is too late. I think that this data is also an important reminder to everybody that this issue is urgent and unknown factors like feedback loops is always around and dangerous. We should put more funding and research into this topic as it is one that is effecting climate change greatly and understanding it more and all the spots it can come from can greatly expand our knowledge in this field.
ReplyDeleteI found this article, https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/how-feedback-loops-are-making-climate-crisis-worse, which talks more about what feedback loops are and how they affect climate change. It also gives interesting facts and stats!
Though I was aware of the idea of positive feedback loops and how they related to some causes of climate change, I didn't realize how many different causes were present. Some that caught my eye were insect outbreaks as well as changing cloud patterns, which I didn't know could have a major effect on our climate. The fact that there are so many contributors that have the potential to get worse and worse as time goes on is pretty alarming and more people should be aware of it.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I found especially alarming was how the rate at which the Earth warms is exponentially related to these events. For example, as sea ice melts, then sunlight is allowed to reach dark water that it previously wouldn't have. In, turn this warms the ocean and the warmer the ocean gets the more sea ice melts. This cycle will repeat and continually get worse if we are not aware of the consequences of our actions. While we know a lot about this topic, there is still lots of uncertainty, which is why it is vital to err on the side of caution.
DeleteThis is an interesting and insightful way to view the climate crisis, and one that I think is very valuable for the prevention and reversal of global warming. By identifying feedback loops, we can see how different components of one system and completely different systems all affect each other and increase the climate crisis. It's quite alarming that most of these feedback loops have not been fully accounted for in predictions for global warming in the next century, as the current figures are already extremely high. I found this study from Pew Research Center (https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/08/31/climate-change-remains-top-global-threat-across-19-country-survey/) that shows that climate change is one of the top global threats in the minds of people from 19 different countries, so I think it should be priority that we put more research and time into figuring out solutions before these feedback loops get worse.
DeleteThis article was very engaging and showed great views on the climate crisis. I liked learning about the feedback loops because the more we know compliments that are being affected due to the climate crisis. It was interesting to learn a negative feedback loop reduces the effect of change and a positive feedback loop increases the effect of the change. It is clear that multiple feedback loops are present affecting climate change currently and some are undiscovered as we try to figure out how to help the climate crisis.
ReplyDeleteTanner, thanks for sharing your perspective on this article. I also found it quite informative and challenging to the way I think about climate change on a large scale. It is quite shocking to learn that the number of dollars it would take to offset planet warming emission is a quantifiable number. $2.6 trillion is a huge number and it is also shocking that we currently can technically afford to fix (or almost fix) this issue. The fact that private sector firm currently have 70 percent of this money is great, but the real issue here is are these huge firms an corporations willing to give this money to positively contributing to the environment? Or are they more interested in making profit?
DeleteOne resource about the climate crisis that I recommend is the intergovernmental panel on climate change Sixth Assessment report. The report is comprehensive scientific assessment of the current state of knowledge on climate change, including the physical science basis, impacts, and adaptation options. It is written by hundreds of leading climate scientists from around the world. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
ReplyDeleteIn a quote from Bill Ripple from the article, he mentioned the IPCC or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I've actually recently learned about the IPCC in my Global Change and Earth Sciences class and listened to lectures from two IPCC panelists that spoke on the topic of climate change feedback loops. In Dr. David Wrathall's lecture, he explained that the feedback effects caused by climate change are extremely destructive to not only global temperature, but to the social, economic and natural sectors of today's world. At even the 1.5 degree celsius warming threshold that was originally aimed for, the feedback loops caused by the change would be drastic. Migration of highly populous areas would be required for the preservation of life in those areas, which then creates poverty and/or houselessness for the migrants, which then causes economic issues, etc. The length of time we wait to act to stop climate change doesn't have a one to one correlation on the effects climate change will cause. Rather, each day we wait to combat climate change, our risk increases by a value greater than the amount it would have increased the day before. Due to the various causes and effects and feedback loops, there is no telling how destructive global warming will be once all feedback loops stabilize.
ReplyDeleteI think that this article gives a very important view on climate change. There are a lot of concerns regarding it, but many people think it's an issue that we can worry about in the future. This article contends that global warming is more of prevalent concern than we thought. For example, it mentions in the article that if countries meet the emissions reduction targets, the actual warming levels could be "towards 4 degrees Celsius, by the end of the century". This can affect our entire ecosystem. Therefore, we shouldn't wait until climate change is visually seen, we should start before it becomes an issue that we can't stop.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that many people do think and have an impression that all of these issues can easily be solved in the future or "the future generation can solve it". What they don't realize is that it is impacting the current environment at an exponential rate at that and if we continue to let it slide without doing anything to help, climate change will only worsen to the point there will be no return. Reading through the article talks about the feedback loops and this is one example of a positive feedback loop where it will continue to get worse and the climate crisis we'll be having will continue to get more sever unless we stop it.
DeleteThe article highlights some important issues that often go under the radar. The article goes over a study published in the Journal, one Earth, where scientist have found research that suggests that the progression of climate change may be even faster than initially estimated. This is a scary prospect as many of us, myself included admittedly, find that climate change is an issue of the future. The findings of the studies stated in the article state that climate change can rapidly severely impact our communities and that we must act now to mitigate these effects.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the term feedback loops, but I didn't really know what they were until reading this article. It's scary to think that these loops could cause so much damage and there isn't really anything we can do about it. However, it was also interesting to hear that there are loops that could have positive impacts and I wonder what we could do to encourage these further. I also think that this is a very important thing to call attention to so that we can all have a better understanding of the state of climate change and I'm glad I got to learn about it.
ReplyDeleteFeedback loops are a crucial part of all ecological systems. There are two types; positive and negative feedback loops. Negative feedback loops are stabilizing; they are parts of systems that act to maintain the balance in the larger whole. Positive feedback loops are destabilizing; they are snowballing parts of the system that act to break down other parts of the system. As climate change expands, certain stabilizing negative feedback loops are destabilized, and positive feedback loops are increased. A major example of this would be the carbon solubility pump. This is where the ocean absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide through biological and biogeochemical means. Normally, this is beneficial; however, as the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, the carbon solubility pump decreases in effectiveness which increases the concentration of carbon dioxide. This thus forms a positive feedback loop which exponentially contributes to climate change.
ReplyDeleteI knew a little bit about feedback loops before but this article helped improve my knowledge relative to how feedback loops affect our climate. With all of the feedback loops in mind I think a immediate and big change needs to happen very soon to reduce our GHG emissions to prevent a climate crisis. Especially when our climate models that predict our goal might be false due to these feedback loops. The article states that 27/41 feedback loops that significantly increase warming may not be accounted for in climate models which tells us that our current climate models might not be as reliable as we think. Something needs to happen soon for us to prevent the worst outcomes from climate change.
ReplyDeleteIt seems this article is warning it's readers about a sort of domino effect with the climate change issue. With global warming and climate change being so active, it is causing changes in other aspects of the world which create even more issues that affect things such as the temperature of the air, making the air dryer, temperature of the ocean, the lack of ice for polar bears to rest on etc. For example, when the ice is melting or not forming all together, it causes sunlight to reach even the darker parts of the ocean, which would lead to increased ocean temperatures. Another example that I can relate to by living in California is the fact that the increased forest fires emit loads of CO2 emissions only making the climate change problem worse. Here is a podcast that provides more information about climate feedback loops.
ReplyDeletehttps://feedbackloopsclimate.com/