|
|
Vinaigrette or Oil and Vinegar?
Comparing Public Rationales for
Justice in Mitigation and Adaptation
Climate Policy Dilemmas
Dr. Sonja Klinsky
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge
The ideal relationship between climate change adaptation and mitigation policy has been long debated. Are they substitutes for each other, in which case the policy task is to find the optimal trade-off between the two, or can they be integrated to take advantage of win-win overlaps?
Instead of proposing how these policies should relate to one another from an abstract policy perspective, this study examines public rationales about justice and burden-sharing in each case. What arguments about justice resonate from a mitigation perspective, which ones are dominant from an adaptation perspective, and what might this suggest about the contours of politically acceptable climate policy?
Using think-aloud protocols and a structured elicitation approach with members of the lay public, this study provides evidence that the two types of climate policy trigger different sets of arguments about justice. When asked about mitigation burden-sharing participants overwhelmingly depending on arguments about causality. In contrast, in discussions of adaptation participants emphasized ideas of need and ability, and used social and spatial distance to modify the allocation of responsibility. Two considerations emerge from these findings.
First, the public is able to engage with the justice dilemmas of climate policy, suggesting that predictions of political palatability or public responses need to consider these concerns. Second, it is important to recognize that support for adaptation and mitigation policies stem from different arguments. This could make transition between mitigation and adaptation potentially much more difficult, especially if treated as complete substitutes.
Friday, March 25, 2011
3:30 pm
Room 426, Burnside Hall
McGill University
All are welcome to attend.
Université de Montréal
Département d’anthropologie
Équipe de recherche FQRSC
« Dispersion des Hominidés »
Conférences par
Dr. Gilles Ramstein
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LCSE)
Les climats de la Terre: l’impact des changements
climatiques passés sur l’Homme
Nous nous intéresserons aux régulations climatiques qui ont permis de maintenir à la surface de la Terre des conditions (température, cycle hydrologique…) compatibles avec la vie. Nous montrerons que par deux fois, cette régulation a failli au cours des 4 premiers milliards d’années. Enfin nous montrerons la spécificité du Quaternaire, les oscillations glaciaires interglaciaires, les impacts sur l’Homme et les conséquences à long terme du bouleversement climatique en cours.
&
Dre. Masa Kageyama (LSCE),
W. Banks (U. Bordeaux), J. Mignot (LOCEAN, Paris),
D. Swingedouw, M.-N. Woillez (LSCE).
Comprendre l’environnement des derniers
Néanderthals: modélisation du
climat et de la végétation du LGM.
Le climat de la dernière période glaciaire est connu pour avoir été sujet à des fluctuations rapides et importantes. Dans ce séminaire, nous montrerons qu’il est possible, à l’aide de modèles numériques, de mieux comprendre ces variations et en particulier le lien entre l’évolution du climat en différents endroits du globe. L’impact de ces variations sur la végétation a également été simulé. Enfin, ces résultats en termes de climat seront interprétés en termes de niches écologiques ou écoculturelles en Europe de l’Ouest.
Le 10 mars, 16 heures,
B-3340, Pavillon 3200 Jean-Brillant
Please note that the powerpoint presentation of “What Questions Should We Be Asking About Gas Shale?” by Dr. Robert W. Howarth (David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology, Cornell University) is now available.
McGill’s first annual Sustainability Symposium will take place on March 4th, 2011 from 9h30 to 5h at the Thompson House Ballroom (3650 McTavish, McGill Campus).
We welcome faculty, students, alumni and the general public to this all day event to take place at the ballroom of Thomspon House. The symposium will feature inspirational guest speakers, a poster session for graduate and undergraduate students to showcase current research or class projects, and a “world-cafe” discussion. The keynote speaker for this event is Jonathan Foley, current director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, whose work focuses on the complex global environmental systems and their interactions with human societies.
The field of sustainability crosses all departmental lines, and we welcome a diversity of approaches to sustainability. Graduate and undergraduate students in all faculties and departments are encouraged to participate in the poster session. If your work addresses any aspect of sustainability (environmental, economic, or social) on any scale, this is a wonderful opportunity to share your research with other members of the McGill community who share similar interests. There will be three $200 cash prizes for poster winners.
Registration for the symposium is now open!
To register for the event or to learn more about us, please visit our website or our Facebook page. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at sustainability.symp@gmail.com.
- The MSS Team
PLEASE NOTE START TIME : 11:00 A.M.
Contribution of the CALIPSO Mission in the A-Train
to the Characterization of Aerosol and Cloud
Radiative Properties
Dr. Jacques Pelon
LATMOS/IPSL (Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales/Institut Pierre Simon Laplace)
CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique)
Université Pierre et Marie Curie-UVSQ
Paris, France
The CALIPSO mission, developed between NASA in the USA and CNES in France, was designed to bring new insights into the vertical distribution of cloud and aerosol properties and on their impact on radiation budget. Almost five years after its joint launch with CloudSat, it has met most of the objectives identified in the preparation of the mission, leading to a critical refinement of previous climatologies on cloud and aerosol characterization. A high quality data base is now available (combined IIR/CALIOP products are being produced), and is used by a large number of groups, on cloud and aerosol related topics and linked to modeling but also on new topics such as the ocean-atmosphere interface.
After a review of some of the most significant results obtained in these domains where important questions remain, we will focus on the complementary brought by the two instruments implemented onboard the CALIPSO platform. We will illustrate the synergism between the lidar CALIOP and the IR Imager, more particularly studied by French groups, with examples on the quantification of microphysical properties of ice clouds and the identification of risk for aviation related to the mass concentration of suspended particles after recent volcanic eruptions.
The insertion of CALIPSO in the A-Train further offers extended capabilities in terms of combination of observations. Various advanced cloud and aerosol products have been defined within collaborative efforts from the combination of CloudSat and CALIPSO observations, which allow calibration procedures, as well as the retrieval of critical radiative parameters in multilayered systems, to be refined. The research products that are now obtained (and in preparation) at the ICARE data Center in France will be presented and some of their application for model parameterization briefly discussed.
Friday, February 11, 2011
11:00 a.m.
Room 426, Burnside Hall
McGill University
All are welcome to attend.
Funding opportunities are now available to students of GEC3 members
Deadline: February 4, 2011.
For additional information click here.
on Jan 27th the McGill Biology Dept will host Anne de Vernal of UQAM, who will give a talk at the Redpath Museum from 3-4 pm
Using microfossil remains for the reconstruction of climate history: examples of sea-surface temperature and sea-ice estimates from dinoflagellate cysts in polar and subpolar environments.
What Questions Should We Be Asking
About Gas Shale?
Dr. Robert W. Howarth
David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and
Environmental Biology
Cornell University
This presentation examines the wisdom of viewing natural gas as a transitional fuel over the coming decades, considering the pollution effects of hydraulic fracturing and the likelihood that the greenhouse gas footprint exceeds that of oil and perhaps even coal.
Friday, January 14, 2011
3:30 p.m.
Room 426, Burnside Hall
McGill University
All are welcome to attend.
|
About GEC3 ~ C3EG The Global Environmental and Climate Change Centre (GEC3) is a cross-disciplinary, multi-university research centre bringing together more than 40 researchers from six Quebec universities to study processes, modelling and impact of environmental and climate change. Our member institutions are: McGill University, Condordia University, Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, Université de Sherbrooke, Bishop's University, Université Laval and Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique.
|
