Climate Change and Projects
Monday’s Class : Climate Change: The Science
Before Class:
- See solutions for PS#4 posted on main class website.
- See this video about what causes climate changes CC Causes
- See the Effects of CC … Can you distinguish climate change from the ozone hole UV problems? and CC Slides, also see the Slide of GHG Sources
- Please read the GHG part of Arrhenius biography
- Read chapter 8 in DH’s book. Make sure you understand Radiative force and positive and negative Feedback Mechanisms.
- If you want more information about radiative forcing, see this NOAA document.
- Find out which was the hottest year so far. NPR says that 2018 was the fourth hottest.
- Assessments will cover class discussions including guest speakers as well as material that we tested before (especially if it didn’t go well the first time). Thus it may be a good idea to study assessment questions you get wrong, and to find out what happened in class if you don’t attend.
- Consider coming to the carbon free SLO kick off tomorrow, Tuesday 5:30 at SLO Brew on Higuera between Garden and Broad.
During Class
- Assessment #3.
After Class
Wednesday’s Class: Climate Change, the Policy and Politics.
Before Class:
- Bike Month starts TODAY! Wednesday, with a free bike breakfast for all who come to the bike kitchen… see details for lots of free events to bicyclists and pedestrians at SLOShift.org. See you there!
- If you are interested in electric vehicle infrastructure, consider coming to the physics talk at 11 AM Thursday, in 53-215 (details in flyer at right)
- Read chapter 8 in DH’s book. Make sure you understand Radiative forcing and positive and negative Feedback Mechanisms.
- Please see Social Change
- Please see the video Response to CC Also see Sides about Human Response
- Please look up and understand what the Anthropocene Epoch is.
- While you read about the Kübler-Ross model, please ponder why I’d have you read this while studying human response to climate change.
- Please see this very short video by the Competitive Enterprise Institute , the leader of which, Myron Ebell, Trump has chosen to lead the EPA transition team here’s the video from around 2006 CEI CO2 is life, a must see!
- In Tech Review’s recent article, the feasibility of geoengineering is not questioned; instead, it is the consideration of how consensus for such a plan – whose effects would undoubtedly have global reach – could be attained. The article poses that the aggregate environmental and socioeconomic risks of solar radiation management would likely pale in comparison to the benefits of a reduction in global temperatures. Yet, the unequal distribution of regions harmed versus benefiting from a geoengineered climate reality is likely to inspire heated debates among global politicians and industry leaders.
- Please see Science Guy Denial
- Please see this video: CC Policy
- Please look at Jones Kammen paper for problem set. See Fig. 2.
- We can speculate why Trump wanted the names of scientists working on climate change, but this isn’t the first time that there has been a Ban on talking about CC
- Please read this April, 2019, NPR article about how the FF industry undermined science of CC in history.
- Please read from CarbonBrief: CC will cause mass migration.
- THIS afternoon (today, Wednesday) there are two sessions being held in SLO city about the new housing code aimed at SLO’s commitment to be zero emissions. One is at 3:30 PM, the other at 6:00 PM at the Ludwick Center. Please read this Invitation from Chris Read (speaker last week) for details. I expect that the groups dedicated to GHG reductions will send at least one representative to one of these sessions.
- I’ve (finally) posted the self interventions on the self intervention webpage – accessible from the main class website. Please read through a few experiences, and make sure that your experience is documented – if it isn’t please resend me the Email you sent originally.
- Power Meters! You will do your own home electricity audit with the power meters I gave you. Please find an Excel Spreadsheet under Homework on the main class website. This is just how I might order my information. You can do it any way you like. Additionally, I just threw in some numbers.. I don’t know if any of these numbers are correct, so please check them yourself. For something like the refrigerator, you can watch the duty cycle… when it’s on and off, or if you have a power meter than can measure integrated energy use, you could just leave it on the refrigerator for 24 hours. Check your results against your electricity bill (if you can get a copy), and see if they are pretty close. I will collect these on Friday of next week. Feel free to do them as a group if everyone participates!
- PS #5 is posted.
- Assessment #3 solutions posted. Please read through them.
During Class
Friday: Activism, Action, Living
Before Class
The Permaculture stuff is for later, so it should be left off in the future.
- Please see Story of Stuff
- Please see Pete’s Energy Experiments at Home
- I wrote a chapter for an ecohomes book about our house: “Ten Years with a Bucket of Shit, and My Efforts to Live Consistent With My Values.”
- Please read my letter to SLO commissioners regarding Phillips 66 Oil Train Proposal. Our officials rejected Phillips 66 proposal to build a rail spur that would bring oil trains to their refinery – through San Luis Obispo, by Cal Poly.
- Please consider this video of Tomas Massie and John Kerry… Please consider what Kerry might have done differently. How do you field these kind of questions/attacks?
- Please read: Faced with the US retreat on Climate Change, Europe looks to China for leadership.
- Please read what I find to be todays (April 29. 2019) very disturbing news about an important development resulting from the withdraw of USA global leadership. Make sure you read the last paragraph.
- Here is more graphical information about the calculated figures that compare different foods in CO2 emissions per gram of protein.
- The Daily Show attempted to explain some of the political issues in a language and humor common to the public.
- This short article April 30, 2019 highlights the EJ (Environmental Justice) issues of Mozambique suffering it’s second hurricane and being in debt.
- Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old from Sweden has emerged as a global leader, calling for boycott of school for climate action. Please see this NPR article about the rise of the environmental youth movement and see (at least) the last video.
- Environmental Justice: Who benefits most from carbon dioxide production? Who bears the burden most? Poor Countries Demand Payment
- OK, so it’s happening in California… please see this notification I got about my PG&E bill. Did you get one?
- Please go to the Second Intervention Website (link on main class website) and consider your next intervention. Be ready to discuss this during class.
- Power Meters! You will do your own home electricity audit with the power meters I gave you. Please find an Excel Spreadsheet under Homework on the main class website. This is just how I might order my information. You can do it any way you like. Additionally, I just threw in some numbers.. I don’t know if any of these numbers are correct, so please check them yourself. For something like the refrigerator, you can watch the duty cycle… when it’s on and off, or if you have a power meter than can measure integrated energy use, you could just leave it on the refrigerator for 24 hours. Check your results against your electricity bill (if you can get a copy), and see if they are pretty close. I will collect these on Wednesday of next week. Feel free to do them as a group if everyone participates!
- I request that each project group meets with me at some point in the next week to talk about how your project is going. Please come during an office hour. If you can’t make an office hour work, please schedule a time that I am free in my office.
- Optional, if you are interested more on the diet and emissions, please read NPR article about Environmental Impact of Food Choices.
During Class
- Discuss intervention discussion
After Class
What I did not assign: