GGR314H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: 2Degrees, Ecosystem Services, Natural Capital
13 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Chapter 10 a long-term perspective on climate change: values and ethics. Long term gaze into future can provide insights into the implicastions of the choices and decisions we are making today. We will look at: long-term nature of climate change, implications for future human generations, consequences from an ethical perspective of our inadvertent experiment on the planet"s climate for the rest of nature. Unspoken assumption that climate will return to pre-industrial state soon after emission reduction targets are achieved. Decrease in radiative forcing due to decreasing co2 concentration is largely compensated by slower transfer of heat from atmosphere to the ocean. Other features of climate system do not return to pre-industrial values for at least a millennium: ex. Consequences of these long term changes for human societies. Irreversible changes in cc raises questions about intergenerational equity. The failure of our generation would lead to consequences that would haunt humanity until the end of time.
