Search results for " Climate change"
showing 10 items of 175 documents
Sicilian CO2 vents show effects of ocean acidification on rocky shores
2011
Predicting the impacts of climate change on plant dynamics and tree-grass-shrub competition using a Cellular Automata model in a Mediterranean catchm…
2013
Climate Change and Energy Issues in the North
2011
Highly industrialized societies are mostly responsible for the emerging anthropogenic climate change. There are different ways to measure this responsibility (e.g., whether based on causal contribution or strict responsibility, see Muller et al. 2007). However, regardless of the specific method applied to measure the impact, presently, the USA and the EU are the global leaders in green house gas emissions with countries such as China, India and Brazil following closely behind. Globally, GHG emissions are still increasing among the highly industrialized countries, particularly in the USA – a country that never ratified the Kyoto Protocol. However, the EU has managed to curb its emissions, co…
Facilitating climate change adaptation through communication:Insights from the development of a visualization tool
2015
Climate change communication on anticipated impacts and adaptive responses is frequently presented as an effective means to facilitate implementation of adaptation to mitigate risks to residential buildings. However, it requires that communication is developed in a way that resonates with the context of the target audience, provides intelligible information and addresses perceived barriers to adaptation. In this paper we reflect upon criteria for useful climate change communication gained over a three year development process of a web-based tool – VisAdapt™ – aimed at increasing the adaptive capacity among Nordic homeowners. Based on the results from continuous user-testing and focus group …
KLUM@GTAP: Introducing Biophysical Aspects of Land-Use Decisions into a Computable General Equilibrium Model a Coupling Experiment
2008
In this paper, the global agricultural land use model Kleines Land Use Model is coupled to an extended version of the computable general equilibrium model (CGE) Global Trade Analysis Project in order to consistently assess the integrated impacts of climate change on global cropland allocation and its implication for economic development. The methodology is innovative as it introduces dynamic economic land-use decisions based also on the biophysical aspects of land into a state-of-the-art CGE; it further allows the projection of resulting changes in cropland patterns on a spatially more explicit level. A convergence test and illustrative future simulations underpin the robustness and potenti…
Mediterranean rocky reefs in the Anthropocene: Present status and future concerns
2021
Global change is striking harder and faster in the Mediterranean Sea than elsewhere, where high levels of human pressure and proneness to climate change interact in modifying the structure and disrupting regulative mechanisms of marine ecosystems. Rocky reefs are particularly exposed to such environmental changes with ongoing trends of degradation being impressive. Due to the variety of habitat types and associated marine biodiversity, rocky reefs are critical for the functioning of marine ecosystems, and their decline could profoundly affect the provision of essential goods and services which human populations in coastal areas rely upon. Here, we provide an up-to-date overview of the statu…
Towards the Post-Carbon Society: Searching for Signs of the Transition and Identifying Obstacles
2016
The transition to a post-carbon society, in which the consumption of fossil fuels falls over time, is determined by the need to prevent catastrophic climate change, the increasing cost of energy and complex combinations of both these causes. The transition will not only entail political adjustments and the replacement of some technologies by others, but will be accompanied by social and cultural changes that bring about substantial modifications in the organization of our societies and our ways of life. Based on the situation in Spain, this article analyses whether the current conditions, which date back to the crisis that began in 2007, favour a benign and smooth transition, or, on the con…
Climate change and the building sector: Modelling and energy implications to an office building in southern Europe
2018
Abstract The building sector is one of the most relevant sectors in terms of generation of wealth and occupation, but it is also one of the main contributor to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. at the European level it is currently responsible for 36% of CO2 emissions). For these reason this sector must play a key role in achieving a low-carbon economy consistent with the objective of holding the increase of the average temperature of the globe below 2 °C if compared to pre-industrial levels. In this context, the paper analyses the potential impact of climate change on the energy uses for heating and cooling in southern Europe, based on the assumptions of the latest Intergovernm…
Tourism and climate change: impacts, adaptation and mitigation
2014
In recent years, climate change has caused a set of disasters and economic troubles for the globalized economy. This book presents a clear diagnosis of the climate change dilemma for industrial and...
Suspected cutaneous leishmaniasis in a sample of Western Sicily residents: what correlation with occupation?
2017
Background: Leishmaniasis is a widespread infectious disease, but there is not much information about its prevalence in high risk occupational categories. Objectives: Te aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of Leishmania immunological positivity in human skin tissues collected from subjects living in Western Sicily, with suspected cutaneous Leishmania infection, in order to explore the risk possibly related to occupation. Methods: 318 consecutive subjects (M/F ratio=1.0, mean age=40±25.4 years), attending the Dermatology Department of the University of Palermo Hospital from 2013 to 2015, without any previous history of Leishmania infection and performing various occupations, were i…