Interdisciplinary Research on Climate and Energy Decision Making : 30 Years of Research on Global Change

This book explores the role and importance of interdisciplinary research in addressing key issues in climate and energy decision making. For over 30 years, an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students anchored at Carnegie Mellon University, joined by investigators and students from a number of other collaborating institutions across North America, Europe, and Australia, have worked together to better understand the global changes that are being caused by both human activities and natural causes. This book tells the story of their successful interdisciplinary work. With each chapter written in the first person, the authors have three key objectives: (1) to document and provide an accessible account of how they have framed and addressed a range of the key problems that are posed by the human dimensions of global change; (2) to illustrate how investigators and graduate students have worked together productively across different disciplines and locations on common problems; and (3) to encourage funders and scholars across the world to undertake similar large- scale interdisciplinary research activities to meet the world’s largest challenges. Exploring topics such as energy efficiency, public health, and climate adaptation, and with a final chapter dedicated to lessons learned, this innovative volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, energy transitions and environmental studies more broadly. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1 Tools to Analyze Uncertainty Technical Details for 1 Note 2 Let’s Do the Same for Climate Change Technical Details for 2 Notes 3 The ICAM Model of Climate Change Technical Details for 3 Notes 4 Getting Experts to Give Us Their “Betting Odds” Technical Details for 4 Notes 5 What the Public Knows About Climate Change Technical Details for 5 Notes 6 Social/Ecological Dimensions of Climate Change Background On Socio-Ecological Systems Modeling the Ecosystem Impacts of Climate Change Asking Experts How They Think Forests Will Respond to Climate Change Growing Corn to Make Biofuel Limiting Habitat Fragmentation From Gas Well Development Managing Soil Carbon Drivers and Dynamics of Environmental Policy Change Decision Aids for Resource Managers Technical Details for 6 Notes 7 Impacts On Public Health The Contextual Determinants of Malaria Climate Change Compared With Policy Impacts On Malaria Controlling the Spread of West Nile Virus Cryptosporidiosis Climate Mitigation and Air Pollution Technical Details for 7 Notes 8 Energy Efficiency Solid-State Lighting Energy-Efficiency Supply Curves DC for Buildings Consumer Choices for Energy-Efficient Technologies Technical Details for 8 Note 9 Energy Rebound Technical Details for 9 Note 10 Energy From the Wind and the Sun Technical Details for 10 Notes 11 Capturing and Disposing of Carbon Dioxide From Power Plants Capturing Carbon Dioxide From Power Plants Flexible Mandates to Incentivize Investment in CCS Technical Details for 11 Notes 12 Can Nuclear Power Help Solve the Climate Problem? Technical Details for 12 13 Making Electric Power More Resilient The Characteristics of Large Blackouts Jay Apt Disruptions Caused By Extreme Heat and Cold Jay Apt Assessing the Cost of LLD-Outages Granger Morgan Strategies to Increase Resilience to LLD-Outages Granger Morgan Technical Details for 13 Notes 14 Transportation Without Carbon Dioxide Cars and Light Trucks Heavy Freight Ships and Aircraft Technical Details for 14 Notes 15 Uncertainty in Energy and Other Forecasts Technical Details for 15 Notes 16 We Have No Choice But to Adapt Technical Details for 16 Notes 17 Scrubbing Carbon Dioxide Out of the Atmosphere Technical Details for 17 Notes 18 A Last Resort – Engineering the Planet Notes 19 What We Have Learned What We Learned About Deep Uncertainties, Integrated Assessment, and Climate Policy What We Learned About Conventional Tools for Analysis and Policy Advice What We Learned About the Need to Treat Climate as Just One Element of Global Change What We Learned About Building and Sustaining a Distributed Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration Some Final Thoughts In the Small, a Great Deal In the Large, Not as Much as We Would Have Liked Technical and Other Details for 19 Notes Appendix 1 Short Biographical Sketches of the Co-Authors Appendix 2 Publications Resulting From Work Supported By Our Three Centers CEDM Journals Books and Book Chapters Theses CDMC Journals Books and Book Chapters Theses HDGC Journals Books and Book Chapters Theses Appendix 3 Groups With Which One Or More of Our Centers Have Collaborated Index "This book explores the role and importance of interdisciplinary research in addressing key issues in climate and energy decision making. For over thirty years, an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students anchored at Carnegie Mellon University, joined by investigators and students from a number of other collaborating institutions across North America, Europe and Australia, have worked together to better understand the global changes that are being caused by both human activities and natural causes. This book tells the story of their successful interdisciplinary work. With each chapter written in the first person, the authors have three key objectives: 1 to document and provide an accessible account of how they have framed and addressed a range of the key problems that are posed by the human dimensions of global change; 2 to illustrate how investigators and graduate students have worked together productively across different disciplines and locations on common problems; and 3 to encourage funders and scholars across the world to undertake similar large-scale interdisciplinary research activities to meet the world's largest challenges. Exploring topics such as energy efficiency, public health, and climate adaptation, and with a final chapter dedicated to lessons learned, this innovative volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, energy transitions and environmental studies more broadly"-- Provided by publisher