Climate “catastrophe

Scott, D. S. (2007). Smelling Land The Hydrogen Defense Against Climate Catastrophe. Canadian Hydrogen Association. 

D.S. Scott, Smelting land-the hydrogen defense against climate catastrophe, Canadian Hydrogen Association, Westmount, QC, 2007. 

There are data indicating that large volcano eruptions lead to an increase in the amount of aerosols present in atmosphere, which in turn may affect the climate. Catastrophic eruption of the Krakatau volcano in Indonesia in 1883 resulted in a discharge into the atmosphere of 18 km3 of ash consisting of solid particles of different sizes. The finest ashes remained suspended for several years. 

The third case, Sy, in Fig. 10 illustrates the strong influence of the discount rates on the computed optimal solutions. In contrast to the baseline scenario Sy and the zero-inertia scenario S, in which only the abatement costs were discounted, in scenario Sy both costs were discounted at the same rate of 2%, following standard economic practice. In this case, the optimal emission path leads to a climate catastrophe similar to the BAU case shown in Fig. 9. The explanation is simple since major climate change develops only after several centuries, the associated discount firctor is very small, and the discounted climate damage costs are negligible. Thus, there is only a small cost-penalty incurred in following the BAU path. This also explains why previous cost-benefit analyses (e.g. Nordhaus, 1993), ba.sed on the applicaton of uniform dis-... 

GEOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS It is obvious that the possibility or probability of climatic catastrophes such as hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes etc. can drastically reduce the attractiveness of a location. Even the quality of air and/or water is an important factor for a locational decision. 

In both the roles, insurance companies deal with the management of risk activities. In fact, climate change risk is managed by the insurers through the risks they accept from clients, given that climate change causes an increase in intensity and spreading the distribution of extreme weather events with resultant effects on property claims that could be catastrophic.5... 

In this way, the insurance industry provides a coverage for climate change consequences because climate experts predict changes in the intensity and the distribution of extreme weather events and of the resulting risk of catastrophic property claims. 

In the past few years, the insurance industry has developed financial products suitable for dealing with climate change-related risks in the direction to play a role far beyond simply compensating climate change s victims for their losses ex post. The activity of the insurance has become relevant as a political economic instruments within an ex ante strategy to financially manage large-scale catastrophes, as a complement of ex post instruments for the compensation of disaster losses. 

Individuals and companies that buy insurance products could be stimulated to address climate change-seeking mechanism to facilitate mitigation of GHG emissions and adaptation to the inevitable impacts of climate change [16]. In addition, the insurance companies themselves are motivated to take significant actions to mitigate GHG emissions and increase adaptive capacity to reduce overall uncertainty and other barriers to insurability and are also motivated to limit the insurers potential exposure to catastrophic risks in excess of their capacity to avoid the potential for property and liability claims in excess. 

The insurance industry is also developing new products that would have the consequences to stimulate the adaptation to climate change. On the one hand, products help to create the conditions for active adaptation to build physically resilient communities on the other hand, products provide capital and liquidity to help communities to cope with losses caused by climate change catastrophes. 

The second kind of insurance products that stimulate adaptation is based on the availability of capital to cope with catastrophes. These are financial arrangements intended to bring needed capital that will reduce the risk that could derive from future climate-related hazards for those who are most likely to be in peril. These products can be defined as adaptation oriented because they help to build the capacity of nations, communities, and businesses to cope with climate change impacts. 

A massive release of methane could cause catastrophic global climate change. Some researchers believe that the drastic climate change that occurred during the Pleistocene era was due to methane hydrate destabilization and widespread methane release. 

If the solar luminosity increases by 2%, the climate model produced by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies indicates a corresponding temperature increase of 4 °C. Climatologists do not usually make predictions over billions of years so this model has not been pursued. However, we may consider that a 10% increase in solar luminosity would lead to a temperature rise of around 12 °C. The result would certainly be catastrophic. Sea level would rise by some 40 cm as the ice caps melted. With a temperature increase of 21 °C, the ice caps would vanish completely and the climate would be changed forever. 

Global warming pressure groups would have the world believe that catastrophic changes in the earth s climate will occur without drastic limitations of carbon dioxide emissions—this in spite of the fact that the carbon dioxide levels in the earth s atmosphere have been much higher than today s for much of geological history. For example, as documented by the work of Berner,13 atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were some five 15... 

Climate changes manifest themselves both on global and regional scales. Natural catastrophes are one manifestation of these changes. Their intensity and number increased year on year. A serious increase in the number of great natural catastrophes was observed between 1960 and 2005. The frequency of these events more than doubled during this period. Subsequent years were characterized by various... 

Apparently, a future direction for studies into climatic instability and related catastrophic events, like Hurricane Katrina (13 years after the most powerful in the history of Miami Hurricane Andrew) in late August 2005 did huge economic damage, completely flooding New Orleans and destroying many buildings, is a search for connections between temperature variations at different scales in different basins... 

How likely is it that the consequences of climate change will be severe or catastrophic ... 

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