EEB18

eeb18.md

EEB18

Sea Level Rise and Climate Models

At risk from rising seas

• 136 large coastal cities
• 40 million people
• 3 trillion in assets

Video: What climate change would actually look like

Ocean acidification

• decrease in organisms with calcium carbonate shells
• boeaching of coral reefs
• change in phytoplankton populations

Methane Hydrate Gasification

• 6 degrees of warming

Extreme events

• hurricane patricia, katrina, sandy
• stronger and more often

IPCC 2013 Concensus report

• 1m rise in sea level projected by 2100
• 2.7 degree change by 2100

Hansen et al. 2012

• Lethargy of current ice sheet models
• 5+ m sea level rise possible by 2100
• historical record

Feedback mechanisms

• Melting of ice
• release of methane from permafrost
• Warming of forests/tundra release of c02
• Adding freshwater to northern seas
  • disrupts local warm ocean currents

Chacaltaya, Bolvia

• Scientists predict all glaciers from the tropical andes will disapear midcentury

Even if we stopped burining fossil fuels today

• many predictions will still happen due to lag time

Solutions?

• EPA carbon regulation & obama climate action plan
• Cap and Trade (Kyoto protocol, CA, European Union)
• UnitedNations Fraemwork Convention on Climate Change

Possible Solutions - Society

• Cleaner decentralized energy source
• More regulations for clean air (EPA, international)
• Sustainable plant based agriculture
• Localization
• community planning
• lower energy consumption

The final report must address the following questions:
1.
Did you find this change difficult? What were the positive and
negative aspects of this
change? Do you think this lifestyle change made a positive impact on your life and/or the
environment? Will you continue this change after the class ends?
2.
What reactions did you receive from your peers, parents, or family member
s when you talked
about what you were doing?
3.
What was the environmental impact of your action? This should be a quantitative
measurement (e.g., If you rode your bike, how much gas and production energy did you save,
how much greenhouse gas emissions did y
ou avoid,
how much environmental destruction
did you avoid?)
The more impacts you include, the more points you will be given.
4.
What would be the environmental impact of your action if you were to continue this change
for a year (change was conducted over 7
weeks, so multiply by 52/7)?
5.
What would be the environmental impact if all students at UCLA were to do this for a year
(assume 30,000 students)? If all the US (assume 314 million people) were to do this for a
year?

December 1

Marine (cont.)

• Shifting baselines: losing track of what is natural from generation to generation
• Emptied Oceans: Five Gyres

  Bycatch and fishing

• For every lb of fish taken to market, 10-100x are thrown away as bycatch
• Overfishing is just as rampant in freshwater systems

  Overfishing - negative effects

• Loss of food source for humans
• Loss of biodiversity
• Climate change
• Cascade effects

  Can fishing ever be sustainable?

• Wild populations cannot provide infinite market growth
  Harvesting of top predators in large numbers is NOT sustainable

  Coral Reef Bleaching

Water continued

Poison Tap Water in Major USA cities

Ocean Pollution

• Toxins - mercury, PCBS, etc
• Nutrients
• Oil
• Plastics

Air Pollution

• Smog layer in LA
• Legislation: Air Pollution

Solutions

• Lower consumption
• Lower energy use
• Renewable energy
• Buying local

More Land Pollutants

• EMF
• Sound
• Light
• Nanoparticles

Who feels the most effects of air pollution

• Developing countreis
• Poor people
• Minorities

Indoor Pollutants

• Household cleaners
• Plastics
• Flame retardants

Waste management

• Catch materials before they reached the environment
• Composting
• EWaste

Reduce watste

• Refuse to buy/use, as the 4th R

Course conclusions