Equity Weighting and the Marginal Damage Costs of Climate Change

Climate change would impact different countries differently, and different countries have different levels of development. Equity-weighted estimates of the (marginal) impact of greenhouse gas emissions reflect these differences. Equity-weighted estimates of the marginal damage cost of carbon dioxide emissions are substantially higher than estimates without equity-weights; equity-weights may also change the sign of the social cost estimates. Equity weights need to be normalised. Our estimates differ by two orders of magnitude depending on the region of normalisation. A discounting error of equity weighted social cost of carbon estimates in earlier work (Tol, Energy Journal, 1999), led to an error of a factor two. Equity-weighted estimates are sensitive to the resolution of the impact estimates. Depending on the assumed intra-regional income distribution, estimates may be more than twice as high if national rather than regional impacts are aggregated. The assumed scenario is important too, not only because different scenarios have different emissions and hence warming, but also because different scenarios have different income differences, different growth rates, and different vulnerabilities. Because of this, variations in the assumed inequity aversion have little effect on the marginal damage cost in some scenarios, and a large effect in other scenarios.Marginal Damage Costs, Climate Change, Equity

Equity weighting and the marginal damage costs of climate change

Climate change would impact different countries differently, and different countries have different levels of development. Equity-weighted estimates of the (marginal) impact of greenhouse gas emissions reflect these differences. Equity-weighted estimates of the marginal damage cost of carbon dioxide emissions are substantially higher than estimates without equity-weights; equity-weights may also change the sign of the social cost estimates. Equity weights need to be normalised. Our estimates differ by two orders of magnitude depending on the region of normalisation. A discounting error of equity weighted social cost of carbon estimates in earlier work (Tol, Energy Journal, 1999), led to an error of a factor two. Equity-weighted estimates are sensitive to the resolution of the impact estimates. Depending on the assumed intra-regional income distribution, estimates may be more than twice as high if national rather than regional impacts are aggregated. The assumed scenario is important too, not only because different scenarios have different emissions and hence warming, but also because different scenarios have different income differences, different growth rates, and different vulnerabilities. Because of this, variations in the assumed inequity aversion have little effect on the marginal damage cost in some scenarios, and a large effect in other scenarios.marginal damage costs, climate change, equity

CHECKING THE PRICE TAG ON CATASTROPHE: THE SOCIAL COST OF CARBON UNDER NON-LINEAR CLIMATE RESPONSE

Research into the social cost of carbon emissions — the marginal social damage from a ton of emitted carbon — has tended to focus on “best guess” scenarios. Such scenarios generally ignore the potential for low-probability, high-damage events, which are critically important to determining optimal climate policy. This paper uses the FUND integrated assessment model to investigate the influence of three types of non-linear climate responses on the social cost of carbon: the collapse of the thermohaline circulation; the dissociation of oceanic methane hydrates; and climate sensitivities above “best guess” levels. We find that incorporating these impacts can increase the social cost of carbon by a factor of 20. Furthermore, our results suggest that the exclusive focus on thermohaline circulation collapse in the non-linear climate response literature is unwarranted, because other potential non-linear climate responses appear to be significantly more costly.climate change, catastrophe, non-linearity, impacts

Checking the price tag on catastrophe: The social cost of carbon under non-linear climate response. ESRI WP392, June 2011

Research into the social cost of carbon emissions — the marginal social damage from a tonne of emitted carbon — has tended to focus on “best guess” scenarios. Such scenarios generally ignore the potential for low-probability, high- damage events, which are critically important to determining optimal climate policy. This paper uses the FUND integrated assessment model to investigate the influence of three types of low-probability, high-impact climate responses on the social cost of carbon: the collapse of the Atlantic Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation; large scale dissociation of oceanic methane hydrates; and climate sensitivities above “best guess” levels. We find that incorporating these events can increase the social cost of carbon by a factor of over 3

Checking the price tag on catastrophe: The social cost of carbon under non-linear climate response

Research into the social cost of carbon emissions - the marginal social damage from a tonne of emitted carbon - has tended to focus on best guess scenarios. Such scenarios generally ignore the potential for low-probability, high-damage events, which are critically important to determining optimal climate policy. This paper uses the FUND integrated assessment model to investigate the influence of three types of low-probability, high-impact climate responses on the social cost of carbon: the collapse of the Atlantic Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation; large scale dissociation of oceanic methane hydrates; and climate sensitivities above best guess levels. We find that incorporating these events can increase the social cost of carbon by a factor of over 3

Rediscovering Filmmaking: A Personal Journey

This Culminating Experience Project is a portfolio demonstrating a large corpus of video content created and recorded for collaborative projects, work for hire, and any extracurricular activities that were taken up during the 2019–2020 school year at Berklee Valencia. The portfolio consists of sixteen (16) major projects the author either recorded or recorded and edited over the course of December 2019 – February 2020. The portfolio will ultimately be presented in an online only format on the video service Vimeo both as a single “megamix” video reel, as well as individual videos for each completed project.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1193/thumbnail.jp

A viscoelastic deadly fluid in carnivorous pitcher plants

Background : The carnivorous plants of the genus Nepenthes, widely distributed in the Asian tropics, rely mostly on nutrients derived from arthropods trapped in their pitcher-shaped leaves and digested by their enzymatic fluid. The genus exhibits a great diversity of prey and pitcher forms and its mechanism of trapping has long intrigued scientists. The slippery inner surfaces of the pitchers, which can be waxy or highly wettable, have so far been considered as the key trapping devices. However, the occurrence of species lacking such epidermal specializations but still effective at trapping insects suggests the possible implication of other mechanisms. Methodology/Principal Findings : Using a combination of insect bioassays, high-speed video and rheological measurements, we show that the digestive fluid of Nepenthes rafflesiana is highly viscoelastic and that this physical property is crucial for the retention of insects in its traps. Trapping efficiency is shown to remain strong even when the fluid is highly diluted by water, as long as the elastic relaxation time of the fluid is higher than the typical time scale of insect movements. Conclusions/Significance : This finding challenges the common classification of Nepenthes pitchers as simple passive traps and is of great adaptive significance for these tropical plants, which are often submitted to high rainfalls and variations in fluid concentration. The viscoelastic trap constitutes a cryptic but potentially widespread adaptation of Nepenthes species and could be a homologous trait shared through common ancestry with the sundew (Drosera) flypaper plants. Such large production of a highly viscoelastic biopolymer fluid in permanent pools is nevertheless unique in the plant kingdom and suggests novel applications for pest control

The discovery of new deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities in the Southern ocean and implications for biogeography

Since the first discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Gala´pagos Rift in 1977, numerous vent sites and endemic faunal assemblages have been found along mid-ocean ridges and back-arc basins at low to mid latitudes. These discoveries have suggested the existence of separate biogeographic provinces in the Atlantic and the North West Pacific, the existence of a province including the South West Pacific and Indian Ocean, and a separation of the North East Pacific, North East Pacific Rise, and South East Pacific Rise. The Southern Ocean is known to be a region of high deep-sea species diversity and centre of origin for the global deep-sea fauna. It has also been proposed as a gateway connecting hydrothermal vents in different oceans but is little explored because of extreme conditions. Since 2009 we have explored two segments of the East Scotia Ridge (ESR) in the Southern Ocean using a remotely operated vehicle. In each segment we located deep-sea hydrothermal vents hosting high-temperature black smokers up to 382.8uC and diffuse venting. The chemosynthetic ecosystems hosted by these vents are dominated by a new yeti crab (Kiwa n. sp.), stalked barnacles, limpets, peltospiroid gastropods, anemones, and a predatory sea star. Taxa abundant in vent ecosystems in other oceans, including polychaete worms (Siboglinidae), bathymodiolid mussels, and alvinocaridid shrimps, are absent from the ESR vents. These groups, except the Siboglinidae, possess planktotrophic larvae, rare in Antarctic marine invertebrates, suggesting that the environmental conditions of the Southern Ocean may act as a dispersal filter for vent taxa. Evidence from the distinctive fauna, the unique community structure, and multivariate analyses suggest that the Antarctic vent ecosystems represent a new vent biogeographic province. However, multivariate analyses of species present at the ESR and at other deep-sea hydrothermal vents globally indicate that vent biogeography is more complex than previously recognised

Nemzeti érdekek az EU-ban. Az olasz európa-politika tanulságai, különös tekintettel az európai gazdasági kormányzásban betöltött szerepre = National Interests in the EU. Experiences of Italy’s European policy with special regard to its role in the European economic governance

A disszertáció a hazai és a nemzetközi szakirodalom elemzésén keresztül vizsgálja a nemzeti és az európai (közösségi) érdek viszonyát, ezek alakulását az integrációs folyamatban. Választ próbál találni arra, hogy mi a fő oka annak az utóbbi évtizedben egyre inkább erősödő jelenségnek, amely az EU nemzetek feletti jellegének visszaszorulásában, és ezzel párhuzamosan a közösségi szakpolitikák alakításakor a kormányközi logika érvényesülésének erősödésében összegezhető. Az elemzés során nem lehet eltekinteni az európai integráció társadalmi aspektusaitól, így ezek között kiemelten a projekttel való lakossági azonosulás, más szóval az egyébként sokdimenziós, tagállamonként és időben változó identitás problematikájától. A dolgozat kiemelten foglalkozik az olasz Európa-politika fejlődésével és érvényesülésével. Róma EU-politikájának elemzése már csak azért is érdekes feladat, mert Itália európai középhatalmi státuszából adódóan az a klasszikus közösségi-államközi, látszólag ellentétes „módszer” metszéspontjában található. Megnyilvánulási formái ennek megfelelően – a külső szemlélő számára akár bizonytalankodásnak hatóan - váltakozó hangsúllyal ötvözik a nemzetek feletti és a kormányközi stratégiát. Az olasz integrációs politika hagyományainak, általános geopolitikai-külpolitikai keretrendszerének, változásainak részletes elemzése elengedhetetlen az egyes szakpolitikák terén tanúsított olasz törekvések megértéséhez. (...

Eye-tracking in map use, map user and map usability research: what are we looking for?

This overview paper summarises the ‘state of the art and of the science’ of eye-tracking, and its applications in map use research. Cartographic research is introduced, and its contemporary direction, which indicates that the main areas of such research are now focussed on human beings and their interaction with maps and geospatial displays, is stressed. A brief outline of several different methodologies for map use research is presented: observation, thinking loud, keyboard analysis, eye-tracking, and questionnaires. The role of eye-tracking as a major methodology for use, user, and usability investigation is explored; along with the possible choices for the researcher in the important areas of participant selection, eye-tracking equipment, set-up and use of the testing environment, and analysis of output data. Typical outcomes from eye tracking research are considered, with an assessment of its value in cartographic research in general. Future directions are suggested, along with the need for cartography to promote the valuable work done by researchers using eye-tracking for map use studies to the wider human-computer interaction community, expanding the scope of the geospatial-based stimuli in such experiments beyond maps, making use of the significant expertise and enthusiasm of cartographic researchers