Responding to Climate Change

1. AP Environmental Science Mr. Grant Lesson 51 Responding to Climate Change

2. Objectives: • Define the term Kyoto Protocol. • Suggest ways we may respond to global climate change. • TED - With the same humor and humanity he exuded in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore spells out 15 ways that individuals can address climate change immediately, from buying a hybrid to inventing a new, hotter "brand name" for global warming. • TED - In this brand-new slideshow (premiering on TED.com), Al Gore presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists recently predicted. He challenges us to act.

3. Define the term Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto Protocol:

4. Suggest ways we may respond to global climate change. • Both adaptation and mitigation are necessary for responding to climate change. • Conservation, energy efficiency, and new clean and renewable energy sources will help reduce greenhouse emissions. • New automotive technologies and investment in public transportation will help reduce emissions. • Addressing climate change will require multiple strategies. • The Kyoto Protocol provided a first step for nations to begin addressing climate change.

5. Suggest ways we may respond to global climate change. • Despite failure of the Copenhagen conference, nations are continuing efforts to design a treaty to follow the Kyoto Protocol. • U.S. states and cities are acting to address emissions because the federal government has not. • Emissions trading programs provide a way to harness the free market and engage industry in reducing emissions. • Many people feel a carbon tax, specifically a fee-and-dividend approach, is a better option. • Individuals are increasingly exploring carbon offsets and other means of reducing personal carbon footprints.

6. Shall we pursue mitigation or adaptation?

7. We need both adaptation and mitigation The faster we reduce our emissions, the less we will alter the climate

8. Electricity generation A coal-fired, electricity-generating power plant

9. Conservation and efficiency

10. Sources of electricity

11. Transportation

12. Conventional cars are inefficient

13. We can reduce emissions in other ways

14. We need to follow multiple strategies

15. Strategies to stabilize CO2 emissions • 15 strategies could each take care of one wedge

16. The FCCC

17. The Kyoto Protocol tried to limit emissions

18. The Copenhagen conference

19. Will emissions cuts hurt the economy?

20. States and cities are advancing policies

21. Market mechanisms address climate change

22. Cap-and-trade emissions trading programs

23. Cap-and-trade programs already exist

24. Carbon taxes are another option

25. Carbon offsets are popular

26. You can reduce your carbon footprint

27. The International Day of Climate Action

28. TED Video Once the US Vice President, then star of An Inconvenient Truth, now Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore found a way to focus the world's attention on climate change. In doing so, he has invented a new medium -- the Keynote movie -- and reinvented himself. Al Gore on averting climate crisis (16:15) With the same humor and humanity he exuded in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore spells out 15 ways that individuals can address climate change immediately, from buying a hybrid to inventing a new, hotter "brand name" for global warming.

29. TED Video Once the US Vice President, then star of An Inconvenient Truth, now Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore found a way to focus the world's attention on climate change. In doing so, he has invented a new medium -- the Keynote movie -- and reinvented himself. Al Gore's new thinking on the climate crisis (27:52) In this brand-new slideshow (premiering on TED.com), Al Gore presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists recently predicted. He challenges us to act.