EC238 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Clip Show, Ozone Depletion, Precautionary Principle
Document Summary
Lesson 12: global environmental problems and course recap. Co2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion have risen since 1960s, leads to ghg which causes climate change/global warming/greenhouse effect. Future generations will face consequences, particularly in vulnerable areas of the world http://climaterealityproject. org/video/climate-101/ Precautionary principle: society should weight trade-off between costs of taking mitigating actions today vs benefits from reduced future risk. Level of action depends on severity of climate change (temperature changes) Ghg mitigating policies: taxes on carbon emissions, vehicle/building/appliance emission standards; +technological change. 3 major global enviro issues: 1) climate change, 2) ozone depletion, 3) loss of biological diversity. Not all countries will benefit equally in the future from taking expensive actions in the present. Need for international environmental treaties to address these concerns. Canadian federal policy failure to effectively reduce our ghg emissions. 3 canadian federal approaches (by nrtee): 1) kyoto approach, 2) turning the corner approach: copenhagen approach.
