ALBERT

Description: The atmospheric concentration of CO2 at which global glaciation (snowball) bifurcation occurs, changes throughout Earth's history, most notably because of the slowly increasing solar luminosity. Quantifying this critical CO2 concentration is not only interesting from a climate dynamics perspective, but also an important prerequisite for understanding past Snowball Earth episodes as well as the conditions for habitability on Earth and other planets. Here we use the coupled climate model CLIMBER-3α in an Aquaplanet configuration to scan for the Snowball bifurcation point for time slices spanning the last 4 billion years, thus quantifying the time evolution of the bifurcation and identifying a qualitative shift in critical state dynamics.

Description: The new climate dataset, BASD-CMIP6-PE, for Peru and Ecuador is based on bias-adjusted and statistically downscaled CMIP6 climate projections from 10 GCMs. It addresses the need for reliable high-resolution (1d, 10km) climate data covering Peru and Ecuador. This dataset includes historical simulations (1850-2014) and future projections (2015-2100) for precipitation and minimum, mean, and maximum temperature under three Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs:SSP1-2.6, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5). The BASD-CMIP6-PE climate data were generated using the trend-preserving Bias Adjustment and Statistical Downscaling (BASD) method (Lange, 2019, 2021) and data from regional observational datasets such as RAIN4PE (Fernandez-Palomino et al., 2021a,b) for precipitation and PISCO-temperature (Huerta et al., 2018) for temperatures as reference data. The reliability of the BASD-CMIP6-PE was evaluated using observational data and through hydrological modeling across Peruvian and Ecuadorian river basins in the historical period. The evaluation demonstrated the dataset’s reliability in describing spatial patterns of atmospheric variables and streamflow simulation, including mean, low, and high flows. This suggests the usefulness of the new dataset for assessing regional climate change impacts on agriculture, water resources, and hydrological extremes. The BASD-CMIP6-PE data are available for the domain covering Peru and Ecuador, located between 19°S and 2°N and 82°W to 67°W, with a spatial resolution of 0.1° and a daily temporal resolution. The unit for precipitation is millimeters (mm), and for temperature, it is degrees Celsius (°C). The BASD-CMIP6-PE dataset is organized within a "daily" folder, denoting its availability at a 1 daily temporal resolution. Within this directory, four subfolders are present: "historical" containing historical data, "ssp126" for SSP1-2.6, "ssp370" for SSP3-7.0, and "ssp585" for SSP5-8.5. Each of these subfolders further includes ten distinct folders, corresponding to different GCMs: CanESM5, IPSL–CM6A–LR, UKESM1–0–LL, CNRM–CM6–1, CNRM–ESM2–1, MIROC6, GFDL–ESM4, MRI–ESM2–0, MPI–ESM1–2–HR, and EC–Earth3. These folders store the data in the NetCDF format arranged by model, model member, experiment, variable, temporal resolution, and subset period, resulting in file names like "canesm5_r1i1p1f1_ssp126_pr_daily_2015_2020.nc". For a detailed description of the BASD-CMIP6-PE development and evaluation, readers are advised to read Fernandez-Palomino et al. (2023), for which this dataset is supplementary material.

Description: The atmosphere model of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL-AM2) is coupled to a slab ocean in order to analyse the monsoon's sensitivity to changes in various forcing parameters on a planet with idealized topography. This monsoon planet design of a water planet with a zonal circumglobal land stripe allows to extract the relevant monsoon behaviour and reduces the influence of topography. Besides the width and location of the land stripe, the atmospheric CO2 concentration, incoming solar radiation, sulfate aerosol concentration and surface albedo are variied. Horizontal grid resolution is 2° latitude x 2.5° longitude. For the vertical grid, a hybrid coordinate grid with 24 vertical levels is implemented. The lowest model level starts about 30 m above the surface and the top level is at about 3 hPa. The vertical resolution is decreasing towards higher altitudes. Advective and physics time steps are 10 minutes and 0.5 hours, for atmopsheric radiation 3 hours time steps are used. Instead of an ocean general circulation model, a mixed-layer slab ocean is used.

Description: This handbook provides comprehensive and critical coverage of the dynamic and complex relationship between democracy and sustainability in contemporary theory, discourse, and practice. Distinguished scholars from different disciplines, such as political science, sociology, philosophy, international relations, look at the present state of this relationship, asking how it has evolved and where it is likely to go in the future. They examine compatibilities and tensions, continuities and changes, as well as challenges and potentials across theoretical, empirical and practical contexts. This wide-spanning collection brings together multiple established and emerging viewpoints on the debate between democracy and sustainability which have, until now, been fragmented and diffuse. It comprises diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives discussing democracy’s role in, and potential for, coping with environmental issues at the local and global scales. This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of arguments, claims, questions, and insights that are put forward regarding the relationship between democracy and sustainability. In the process, it not only consolidates and condenses, but also broadens and captures the many nuances of the debate. By showing how theoretical, empirical and practical accounts are interrelated, focusing on diverse problem areas and spheres of action, it serves as a knowledge source for professionals who seek to develop action strategies that do justice to both sustainability and democracy, as well as providing a valuable reference for academic researchers, lecturers and students.

Description: Taking a comparative case study approach between Canada and Germany, this book investigates the contrasting response of governments to anti-wind movements. Environmental social movements have been critical players for encouraging the shift towards increased use of renewable energy. However, social movements mobilizing against the installation of wind turbines have now become a major obstacle to their increased deployment. Andrea Bues draws on a cross-Atlantic comparative analysis to investigate the different contexts of contentious energy policy. Focusing on two sub-national forerunner regions in installed wind power capacity – Brandenburg and Ontario – Bues draws on social movement theory to explore the concept of discursive energy space and propose explanations as to why governments respond differently to social movements. Overall, Social Movements against Wind Power in Canada and Germany offers a novel conceptualization of discursive-institutional contexts of contentious energy politics and helps better understand protest against renewable energy policy. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of renewable energy policy, sustainability and climate change politics, social movement studies and environmental sociology.

Description: 1. Introduction: Renewable Energy Politics and Protest 2. Contentious Wind Energy and Context 3. Renewable Energy Policy and Politics in Canada and Germany 4. Larger Setbacks, Saving the Forests: The Anti-Wind Movement in Germany, Case Study Brandenburg 5. Preserving Health, Curbing Costs: The Anti-Wind Movement in Canada, Case Study Ontario 6. Contention in Context: Governmental Response to Social Movements 7. Conclusion: The Changing Winds of Discourses on Decarbonization

Description: This book examines from different perspectives the moral significance of non-human members of the biotic community and their omission from climate ethics literature. The complexity of life in an age of rapid climate change demands the development of moral frameworks that recognize and respect the dignity and agency of both human and non-human organisms. Despite decades of careful work in non-anthropocentric approaches to environmental ethics, recent anthologies on climate ethics have largely omitted non-anthropocentric approaches. This multidisciplinary volume of international scholars tackles this lacuna by presenting novel work on non-anthropocentric approaches to climate ethics. Written in an accessible style, the text incorporates sentiocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric perspectives on climate change. With diverse perspectives from both leading and emerging scholars of environmental ethics, geography, religious studies, conservation ecology, and environmental studies, this book will offer a valuable reading for students and scholars of these fields.

Description: If the detrimental impacts of human-induced climate change continue to mount, technologies for geoengineering our climate – i.e. deliberate modifying of the Earth's climate system at a large scale – are likely to receive ever greater attention from countries and societies worldwide. Geoengineering technologies could have profound ramifications for our societies, and yet agreeing on an international governance framework in which even serious research into these planetary-altering technologies can take place presents an immense international political challenge. In this important book, a diverse collection of internationally respected scientists, philosophers, legal scholars, policymakers, and civil society representatives examine and reflect upon the global geoengineering debate they have helped shape. Opening with essays examining the historic origins of contemporary geoengineering ideas, the book goes on to explore varying perspectives from across the first decade of this global discourse since 2006. These essays methodically cover: the practical and ethical dilemmas geoengineering poses; the evolving geoengineering research agenda; the challenges geoengineering technologies present to current international legal and political frameworks; and differing perceptions of geoengineering from around the world. The book concludes with a series of forward looking essays, some drawing lessons from precedents for governing other global issues, others proposing how geoengineering technologies might be governed if/as they begin to emerge from the lab into the real world.

Description: If the detrimental impacts of human-induced climate change continue to mount, technologies for geoengineering our climate – i.e. deliberate modifying of the Earth's climate system at a large scale – are likely to receive ever greater attention from countries and societies worldwide. Geoengineering technologies could have profound ramifications for our societies, and yet agreeing on an international governance framework in which even serious research into these planetary-altering technologies can take place presents an immense international political challenge. In this important book, a diverse collection of internationally respected scientists, philosophers, legal scholars, policymakers, and civil society representatives examine and reflect upon the global geoengineering debate they have helped shape. Opening with essays examining the historic origins of contemporary geoengineering ideas, the book goes on to explore varying perspectives from across the first decade of this global discourse since 2006. These essays methodically cover: the practical and ethical dilemmas geoengineering poses; the evolving geoengineering research agenda; the challenges geoengineering technologies present to current international legal and political frameworks; and differing perceptions of geoengineering from around the world. The book concludes with a series of forward looking essays, some drawing lessons from precedents for governing other global issues, others proposing how geoengineering technologies might be governed if/as they begin to emerge from the lab into the real world. This book is an indispensable resource for scientists, activists, policymakers, and political figures aiming to engage in the emerging debate about geoengineering our climate.