Tag: anthropogenic climate change

bookmark_borderClimate Change: Inexplicable Consumer Behavior

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By Daniel Brouse
March 24, 2024

Climate change is primarily driven by the escalation of thermal energy affecting biogeophysical and socio-economic systems. While biogeophysical factors can be studied using math, physics, and historical records, socio-economic systems pose greater challenges due to the unpredictable consequences of human behavior and inexplicable consumer choices.

Inexplicable consumer behavior in the face of known consequences of anthropogenic climate change can manifest in various ways. Some examples include:

  1. Excessive Consumption: Despite awareness of the environmental impact of overconsumption, some individuals continue to engage in excessive buying behaviors, contributing to resource depletion, waste generation, and carbon emissions.
  2. Preference for Non-sustainable Products: Despite the availability of sustainable alternatives, some consumers may choose products with high environmental footprints due to perceived convenience, lower cost, or brand loyalty, ignoring the long-term consequences.
  3. Disregard for Energy Efficiency: Despite the availability of energy-efficient appliances and technologies, some consumers may prioritize other factors (e.g., aesthetics, initial cost) over energy savings, leading to higher energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
  4. Single-Use Plastic Consumption: Despite widespread knowledge of the detrimental effects of single-use plastics on the environment, some consumers continue to use disposable plastic products excessively, contributing to plastic pollution in oceans and ecosystems.
  5. Inefficient Transportation Choices: Despite awareness of the environmental impact of fossil fuel-powered vehicles, some consumers may prefer inefficient modes of transportation (e.g., driving alone in gas-guzzling vehicles) over sustainable alternatives (e.g., public transit, biking, walking).
  6. Food Waste: Despite understanding the environmental consequences of food waste, some consumers may continue to waste food due to overbuying, improper storage, or disregard for expiration dates, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions from landfills.
  7. Fast Fashion Consumption: Despite awareness of the environmental and social impacts of fast fashion, including water pollution, chemical usage, and labor exploitation, some consumers continue to support the industry by purchasing cheap, disposable clothing.
  8. Reluctance to Adopt Sustainable Practices: Despite increasing awareness of sustainable living practices (e.g., recycling, composting, reducing meat consumption), some consumers may be resistant to change due to inertia, lack of knowledge, or perceived inconvenience.

These examples illustrate how consumer behavior can sometimes defy logic or go against the imperative of addressing climate change and environmental degradation. Addressing these behaviors often requires a combination of education, policy interventions, market incentives, and societal norms to encourage more sustainable choices.

The Age of Loss and Damage Brouse (2023)

Tipping Cascades, Social-Ecological Systems, and the Hottest Year in History Brouse (2024)

bookmark_borderDroughts and Rising Sea Levels

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“There has been a 500% increase in the US drought area,” said Al Roker of the Today show while reporting on 2020 being tied for the hottest year.

The Washington Post reports, “Drought is the sleeper weather story you’ll hear more about in 2021.” [1}

“The impact of desertification is intensifying due to climate change, which is reducing the availability of freshwater, fertile soil, and forest and vegetation. As the degraded land loses value, investments in agriculture and rural development decline even more.” — Ban Ki-moonUnited Nations Secretary-General [2}

This doesn’t have to do with drought episodes. It has to do with areas prone to having droughts. As the area of land that is prone to flooding is increasing exponentially, so too is the land prone to severe, long term drought. We make it even worse by pumping ground water out for agriculture. This depletes the aquifers. The result is sinking land and rising sea levels. The depleted fresh water is then intruded by salt water. Salt water intrusion has a severe impact on the world food supply.

So, you have rising seas above and below the land. Compounding the problem — water expands when it gets warmer. About 1/3 of the rise in sea level is due to thermal expansion of water. [Volumetric Thermal Expansion] The warmer sea water also melts sea ice. The ocean doesn’t reflect the energy the way ice does. In fact just he opposite, the ocean absorbs the heat… making the water warmer… melting more sea ice…. and warming the planet. Which melts the land ice, which raises the sea level. A vicious feedback cycle of fresh water depletion and sea level rise has been created.

Climate change is making weather events more extreme and more frequent. More severe droughts, more severe floods, etc. Energy is being added to the system. “Climate change increases the odds of worsening drought in many parts of the United States and the world in the decades ahead. A changing climate can also alter atmospheric rivers (narrow streams of moisture transported in the atmosphere), which can especially disrupt precipitation patterns in the Western United States. Droughts can persist through a “positive feedback,” where very dry soils and diminished plant cover can further suppress rainfall in an already dry area.” [3]

“Risks from desertification are projected to increase due to climate change (high confidence). The combination of pressures coming from climate variability, anthropogenic climate change and desertification will contribute to poverty, food insecurity, and increased disease burden (high confidence).” [4]

1. Drought is the sleeper weather story you’ll hear more about in 2021. (The Washington Post)
2. DESERTIFICaTION (United Nations)
3. Drought and Climate Change (Center for Energy and Climate Solutions)
4. SPECIAL REPORT: Climate Change and Land Desertification (International Panel on Climate Change)