Untitled Document

Anth/Soc 370: Environment and society

Fall 2012

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Is the earth warming?

Weather versus climate (where is the temperature changing?)
Global warming--average global increase in temperature
Greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases (sources and sinks, climate vs weather), the atmosphere
Glaciation (Valdez Glacier in Alaska, the Wallowas, a moulin in Greenland), cycles (precession, tilt, Eccentricity)
Shots from the plane (ice sheet, ice sheet, glaciers, glaciers, fjord, coastline)
Laws of thermodynamics
- First, energy can be neither created nor destroyed--it's just transformed.
- Second, transformation as suggested is usually from a 'higher' to 'lower' quality of energy (entropy). For instance, hydroelectricity is used to turn on a light bulb, which gives off heat--as well as light. The heat is often unusable, a 'waste product.' Where does it go??
Some effects
- rise in sea levels (how would this affect human settlements?) Maldives image -- ever heard of a moulin? Ice bridge? Been to Greenland lately?
- severe weather (what's happening where?)
- coral bleaching (shot of the Great Barrier Reef off Australian coast)
- Acidification of oceans, possible changes in ocean currents
- Loss of soil moisture
- Altered climates (what will this to do plant and animal habitats, life, ocean currents?)
- Spread of diseases
Key questions
Is warming actually occurring? At what pace? Where? How fast?
Is it caused by humans (the famous Keeling Curve)?
Is it a social problem (what are some trends?)
What are some anthropogenic causes?
What groups are harmed (human and non-human species)?
Who benefits from the status quo? (fossil fuel industries, automotive industry, utilities, petrochemicals/oil and gas, transportation, advertising, American consumers (and others in industrial countries), media, etc.
'Framing' global warming as a social problem
- Astroturf and corporate front groups (CEI ads), ExxonMobil's funding of the counter campaign, other 'skeptic organizations')
- Hiring scientists to discredit scientific consensus (Tim Ball, Fred Singer, Stephen Milloy's 'junk science' website)
- Language--global warming and climate change
- Scientific Community -- Union of Concerned Scientists, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- Advertising's important contributions
- News media
- Al Gore's three miconceptions: 1) there is no scientific consensus; 2) societies have to choose between the environment and the economy, and; 3) If the earth is warming, and humans are a major contributor, maybe it's too big for us to tackle ('supply' and 'demand' side issues)
- The effects of persuasion attempts
- Counter arguments
- Greg Craven's video