Related papers: Our climate fix must be big and quick
Computing is at a moment of profound opportunity. Emerging applications -- such as capable artificial intelligence, immersive virtual realities, and pervasive sensor systems -- drive unprecedented demand for computer. Despite recent…
Improved knowledge of glacial-to-interglacial global temperature change implies that fast-feedback equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) is 1.2 +/- 0.3{\deg}C (2$\sigma$) per W/m$^2$. Consistent analysis of temperature over the full…
The transition from a fossil-based energy economy to one based on renewable energy is driven by the double challenge of climate change and resource depletion. Building a renewable energy infrastructure requires an upfront energy investment…
Paleoclimate data show that climate sensitivity is ~3 deg-C for doubled CO2, including only fast feedback processes. Equilibrium sensitivity, including slower surface albedo feedbacks, is ~6 deg-C for doubled CO2 for the range of climate…
This paper tests the feasibility and estimates the cost of climate control through economic policies. It provides a toolbox for a statistical historical assessment of a Stochastic Integrated Model of Climate and the Economy, and its use in…
Global warming is often framed in broad planetary numbers such as the 1.5C and 2C warming thresholds, creating the false impression that individual corporations efforts to reduce emissions are meaningless in the absence of collective…
We do several simple calculations and measurements in an effort to gain understanding of global warming and the carbon cycle. Some conclusions are interesting: (i) There has been global warming since the end of the "little ice age" around…
Confronting the escalating threat of climate change requires innovative and large-scale interventions. This paper presents a bold proposal to employ a buried nuclear explosion in a remote basaltic seabed for pulverizing basalt, thereby…
The offshore oil and natural gas platforms, mostly powered by diesel or gas generators, consume approximately 16TWh of electricity worldwide per year, which emits large amount of CO2. To limit their contribution to climate change, a…
Understanding the lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere is critical for predictions regarding future climate changes. A simple mass conservation analysis presented here generates tight estimations for the atmosphere's retention time constant.…
We estimate the national social cost of carbon using a recent meta-analysis of the total impact of climate change and a standard integrated assessment model. The average social cost of carbon closely follows per capita income, the national…
It is an open, but not unanswerable, question as to how much atmospheric CO2 is sequestered globally by vegetation fires. In this work I conceptualise the question in terms of the general CharXive Challenge, discuss a mechanism by which…
There are many published estimates of the social cost of carbon. Some are clear outliers, the result of poorly constrained models. Percentile winsorizing is an option, but I here propose conceptual winsorizing: The social cost of carbon is…
To reduce their environmental impact, cloud datacenters' are increasingly focused on optimizing applications' carbon-efficiency, or work done per mass of carbon emitted. To facilitate such optimizations, we present Carbon Containers, a…
Once carbon emission neutrality and other sustainability goals have been achieved, a widespread assumption is that economic growth at current rates can be sustained beyond the 21st century. However, even if we achieve these goals, this…
The stability of Earth's climate on geological timescales is enabled by the carbon-silicate cycle that acts as a negative feedback mechanism stabilizing surface temperatures via the intake and outgas of atmospheric carbon. On Earth, this…
Despite a surface dominated by carbon-based life, the bulk composition of the Earth is dramatically carbon poor when compared to the material available at formation. Bulk carbon deficiency extends into the asteroid belt representing a…
The goal of climate change governance is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations. This requires the reduction of anthropogenic global net emissions. In the pursuit of such a reduction, knowledge of greenhouse gas sources and sinks is…
The paper has been suggested by two observations: 1) the atmospheric CO$_2$ growth rate is smaller than that ascribed to the emission of fossil fuels combustion, 2) the fossil fuel reserves are finite. The first observation has lead the way…
Despite well-meaning scenarios that propose global CO2 emissions will decline presented in every IPCC report since 1988, the trend of global CO2 increase continues without significant change. Even if any individual nation manages to flatten…