A Method for Chainsaw Sound Detection Based on Haar-like Features

Boykoff and Mansfield (2008), in a recent paper in this journal, provide a detailedanalysis of the representation of climate change in the UK tabloid newspapers.They conclude that the representation of this issue in these papers ‘diverged fromthe scientific consensus that humans contribute to climate change’. That is,portrayal of climate change in tabloid newspapers contradicts the conclusions ofthe fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment (IPCC2007). Is it healthy to have the scientific consensus challenged so frequently? Butshould we worry about systematic misrepresentation of scientific consensus? Webelieve the answer to both of these questions is yes. To present regular updates onclimate change issues in the popular press is important because the changes inbehaviour needed to achieve substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissionsrequire a broad understanding of the basic facts. However, if the majority ofreaders receive misleading information, it will be difficult to achieve the level ofpublic understanding necessary to make such reductions needed to avoiddangerous climate change (Schellnhuber

Homo Sapiens Sapiens Progressive Defaunation During The Great Acceleration: The Cli-Fi Apocalypse Hypothesis

Global initiatives to prevent climate change

Pennsylvania State University, USADespite overwhelming consensus among scientists about thereality of anthropogenic climate change (Bray, 2010; Oreskes,2004), there remains significant reluctance on the part ofcitizens and politicians to take the action needed to addressit. This resistance has been repeatedly identified in socialresearch (Leiserowitz & Maibach, 2010; Leviston, Leitch,Greenhill, Leonard, & Walker, 2011; Lorenzoni & Pidgeon,2006; McCright & Dunlap, 2011; Reser, Bradley, Glendon,Ellul, & Callaghan, 2012) and is mirrored by the lack of prog-ress made by salient political summits (Rogelj et al., 2010).Perhaps as a response to this, scholarly journals and articlesthat are focused on climate change are growing. Naturalscientists tell us that we know what needs to be done to avertdangerous climate change (IPCC, 2014), and economists tellus that delaying action in the short term will lead to muchgreater costs in the long term (Stern, 2007). Understandingpublic responses to climate change and developing solutionsto catalyse action is a critical challenge for the social sciences,and we propose that the development and elaboration of asocial psychology of climate change would be a cornerstoneof such an approach.We do not make the claim that social psychology has all theanswers but rather that the theories, models and researchmethods of social psychology can provide a powerful arsenalto complement the approaches of other disciplines. Re-searchers have already begun to apply social psychologicaltheory and methods to the issue of climate change, and wehighlight in the following sections examples of the insightsthat have flowed from this. We cannot assume, though, thatour theories and findings will automatically generalise to theclimate change context. As Moser (2010) has noted, thereare unique dimensions to climate change that make it distinctfrom other environmental, risk and health issues: The causesof climate change are invisible to humans, the impacts are dis-tal and it is complex and riddled with uncertainties. Modernurban humans are to some extent insulated from their physicalenvironment, and the lags between the climate and social sys-tems make it difficult for people to understand their role ininfluencing climate.These factors suggest the importance of developing a socialpsychology of climate change, empirically testing, integratingand refining existing theories and models to develop newframeworks. The notion that psychology can play a role inunderstanding and addressing climate change is not a newone. The American Psychological Association’s Task Forceon the interface between psychology and global climatechange comprehensively detailed the ways in which psycho-logical research can help to understand people’s perceptionsof the risks of climate change, the contribution of human be-haviour to climate change, the psychosocial impacts of climatechange, the ways in which people can adapt and cope withclimate change and the psychological barriers that could limitclimate change action (Swim et al., 2009, 2011).It is also not a new idea that social psychology can play animportant role in understanding and addressing environmentalproblems and solutions (Clayton & Brook, 2005). Social psy-chology, specifically, has a long tradition oftheory andresearchthat is relevant to addressing key climate change questions.Attitudes, social cognition, persuasion and attitude change, so-cial influence, and intragroup and intergroup behaviour, forinstance, are fundamental foci for social psychology and havedirect relevance for understanding the human and social dimen-sionsofclimatechange.Thetimeisripetounderstandtherangeof research that has been developing in social psychology onattitudes, beliefs and actions, to build upon these insights, andintegrate them with knowledge from other sciences to developmodels and theories indigenous to the climate change context.In the following section, we provide a brief overview of re-cent social psychological research that addresses three broadthemes relevant to understanding and responding to climatechange. These themes are as follows: (i) social psychologicalinfluences on climate change attitudes and beliefs; (ii) facilita-tors and barriers to climate change action; and (iii) changingclimate change attitudes and behaviour. Although there issome overlap in these themes, as an organising principle theyintuitively map on to key questions that arise in relation to cli-mate change. Our aim is to highlight recent examples of socialpsychological research that provide interesting and importantinsights in relation to these themes. Swim, Markowitz, andBloodhart (2012) have noted that much of the social psycho-logical research on climate change has emerged since 2006;we focus in on the most recent of this research that has beenpublished since 2010. We also outline how the studies in thespecial issue relate to these themes. We recognise that theseare not the only areas where social psychological researchand theory can make important contributions but they never-theless relate to key questions that need to be addressed. Weconclude the introduction by proposing considerations thatsocial psychologists could take into account in their futureresearch on climate change.European Journal of Social Psychology, Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 44, 413–420 (2014)

So far, the climate on the Earth, from beginning to end, has been changing, making in circle and not stopping. About this point, the specialists seemly have no disagreement. However, About causes of climate change, they indeed have divergence, and as for whether carbon dioxide is or not main cause of global climate warming, their divergence is much more large. Some specialists considered that natural factors are main causes led to climate change, and influence of anthropological factors on climate change is very very small. However, the other specialists considered that anthropological factors are important cause led to climate change, and also emission of greenhouse gases is main causes led to climate warming and at which, emission of carbon dioxide is the most main cause led to global climate warming. Still also some specialists consisted that carbon dioxide emitted by human activities is a chief culprit led to global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that the climate on the Earth is warming. Emission of greenhouse gases led to climate warming, and carbon dioxide is main cause led to climate warming, and especially the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities is the most main cause led to global warming. Now, the climate on the earth is getting more and more warming. If the people did not control emission of carbon dioxide, the global climate warming would bring ecological cataclysm to the mankind. The climate change theory described by IPCC is called “Global warming” theory, or “Greenhouse effect” theory. The global warming theory, or greenhouse effect theory, has had very large influence on the all over the world. In China, also there are a lot of people who believe that “global warming” is true, is right and is scientific. Especially in Chinese academic circles, there are many specialists who especially believe “global warming”, and they forcefully trumpeted that the global climate is getting more and more warming. The carbon dioxide was considered as a chief culprit resulted led to global warming. Still also there are some people who placed “ global warming” theory on the god altar, and accepted some people to prostrate themselves in worship. The “Global warming” theory put forward by IPCC, at home and abroad, all has received a lot of serious criticism. According to basic theory of classical physics and basic fact of climate observation, we can prove that emission of greenhouse gases is not main cause led to climate change, and also carbon dioxide is not most main cause led to climate warming, and still also carbon dioxide emitted by human activities was not a chief culprit led to global warming. Thus, large decrease of emission of carbon dioxide cannot control the greenhouse effect, and also cannot prevent climate warming, and still also cannot stop happening of climate cataclysm.

The Black Summer of 2019/2020 saw the forests of southeast Australia go up in flames. The fire season started early, in September 2019, and by March 2020 fires had burned over 12.6 million hectares (Werner and Lyons). The scale and severity of the fires was quickly confirmed by scientists to be "unprecedented globally" (Boer et al.) and attributable to climate change (Nolan et al.). The fires were also a media spectacle, generating months of apocalyptic front-page images and harrowing broadcast footage. Media coverage was particularly preoccupied by the cause of the fires. Media framing of disasters often seeks to attribute blame (Anderson et al.; Ewart and McLean) and, over the course of the fire period, blame for the fires was attributed to climate change in much media coverage. However, as the disaster unfolded, denialist discourses in some media outlets sought to veil this revelation by providing alternative explanations for the fires. Misinformation originating from social media also contributed to this obscuration. In this article, we investigate the extent to which media coverage of the 2019/2020 bushfires functioned both to precipitate a climate change epiphany and also to support refutation of the connection between catastrophic fires and the climate crisis.

Debate over climate change is nothing new. Scientists have been arguing about whether greenhouse gases released by human activity might change the climate since the late nineteenth century, when Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius first proposed that industrial emissions might cause global warming.1 Fueled by partisan bickering, this dispute now is more bellicose than ever.

It is challenging to estimate how the regional climate will be shifted under future global warming. To reduce the potential risk of regional climate shift under future climates, examining the change in climate features over Asia is important, as approximately 60% of the world's population resides there. In this study, climate shifts are assessed over the Asian monsoon region under global mean temperature warming targets from 1.5°C to 5.0°C above preindustrial (PI) levels based on different shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) scenarios. Global warming impacts the individual climate variables, and consequently, it impacts the regional climate features across the Asian region. Temperature change patterns are more dominant contributors to the spatial extent and magnitude of climate shifts than precipitation change patterns. Changes in regional climates show different behaviors according to the degree of global warming rather than the type of SSP scenario. Climate shifts are intensified under a higher level of global warming that is above the PI levels. The largest climate shifts in this region are shown under global warming of 5.0°C based on the SSP5‐8.5 scenario, especially in current polar climate zones. Future change patterns in individual climate zone can differ. Regions with tropical climates and arid climates are likely to be expanded, whereas some regions with warm temperate climates, cold climates, and polar climates are likely to shrink under global warming conditions. Therefore, this study supports the necessity of mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and establishing an adaptation plan for future global warming conditions.

Anthony Costello: making climate change part of global health

The COVID19 pandemic has served as a salutary reminder of the potential fragility of our relationship with nature. It has forced us as individuals to accept unprecedented constraints on our ability to go about our everyday business, including not least our ability to travel long distances by car or on a plane, while governments have found themselves intervening in the economy in a fashion not seen since wartime. The decline in air pollution that has occurred in the wake of less movement across the globe has reminded us of the impact that our economic activity has on the environment. Yet, despite the fact that there is widespread concern in Britain about the impact of climate change, it will not necessarily be easy in the post-COVID world to persuade voters to take the individual actions or support the collective policies that are widely thought necessary to reverse the increase in global temperatures. In this paper, we examine recent attitudes towards climate change as revealed by a number of polls and surveys conducted during the course of the last decade. We begin by examining how many voters are concerned about climate change and whether concern has become more commonplace. We then turn to the crucial issue of the extent to which people believe that climate change/global warming are the product of human activity, and where responsibility for tacking action to deal with it is thought to lie. Thereafter, we examine attitudes towards both the collective and individual actions that might be taken to counteract global warming, and the extent to which these attitudes reflect their level of concern about the impact of human activity on the climate. We conclude by considering the implications for dealing with climate change in the post-COVID world.

Eighty-six EU policy options for reducing imported deforestation

Twitter is a key site for understanding the highly polarized and politicized debate around climate change. We examined large datasets comprising about 15 million tweets from different parts of the world referencing climate change and global warming. Our examination of the twenty most active users employing the term ‘global warming’ are likely to be automated accounts or bots than the most active users employing the term ‘climate change’. We used a mixed method approach including topic modelling, which is a digital method that automatedly identifies the top topics using an algorithm to understand how Twitter users engage with discussions on ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’. The percentage of the top 400 users who use the term ‘climate change’ and believe it is human-made or anthropogenic (82.5%) is much higher than users who use the term ‘global warming’ and believe in human causation (25.5%). Similarly, the percentage of active users who use the term ‘global warming’ were much more likely to believe it is a results of natural cycles (18%) than active users who use the term ‘climate change’ (5%). We also identified and qualitatively analysed the positions of the most active users. Our findings reveal clear politically polarized views, with many politicians cited and trolled in online discussions, and significant differences reflected in terminology.

A strong mitigation scenario maintains climate neutrality of northern peatlands

Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our times. Recent events have emphatically demonstrated our growing vulnerability to climate change. Climate change impacts range from affecting agriculture, further endangering food security, to sea-level rise and the accelerated erosion of coastal zones increasing the intensity of natural disasters, species extinction, and spread of vector-borne diseases. This issue is of immense importance for every global citizen. Hence it requires an initiative against it globally.[1] Youth play a crucial role in combating climate change. A questionnaire-based pilot survey was conducted in Pune city of Maharashtra state, Indiam to assess awareness about climate change among the college going youth. Amongst 201 respondents 66.2% were males and 33.8% were females studying in various faculties or courses. About 98.5% respondents said global climate is changing, 95.5% of the respondents also commented that human activities contribute to climate change. The study also assessed awareness regarding major international organizations and panels working on global climate change and its effects. Only 45.3% of the respondents knew about the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the Kyoto Protocol while 45.8% were aware of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which conducts scientific analysis of climate change, global warming and its impacts. About 54.5% of the respondents believed that youth could play a major role in combating climate change. As per the 60th annual DPI/NGO conference organized by the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) in collaboration with the NGO/DPI, an executive committee meet on “Climate Change: How It Impacts Us All” was held from September 5 to 7, 2007, at the United Nations Headquarters. It stressed the role of youth, the next generation which inhabits the Earth and inherits the responsibility to protect the planet, in fighting the complex scientific problems and social quandaries presented by climate change. Youth education represents one of the most effective tools to combat the destructive potential of climate change and cultivate an international understanding among members of the next generation since it is a long-term process that will impact an infinite number of future generations.[2] The theme of International Youth Day, 2008, was “Youth and Climate change: Time for action.” In his address, Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations said young people who are adept at spreading new habits and technologies are well placed to contribute to the fight against climate change. Mr. Ban stressed: “They (youth) are adaptable and can quickly make low-carbon lifestyles and career choices a part of their daily lives. Youth should therefore be given a chance to take an active part in the decision-making of local, national and global levels. They can actively support initiatives that will lead to the passage of far-reaching legislation.”[3] A more defined role should be given to the youth to prevent the impact of climate change. It is essential to conduct major studies among youth regarding awareness about climate change as well as role of youth in combating climate change.

Legal scholarship has come to accept as true the various pronouncements of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other scientists who have been active in the movement for greenhouse gas (ghg) emission reductions to combat global warming. The only criticism that legal scholars have had of the story told by this group of activist scientists - what may be called the climate establishment - is that it is too conservative in not paying enough attention to possible catastrophic harm from potentially very high temperature increases. This paper departs from such faith in the climate establishment by comparing the picture of climate science presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other global warming scientist advocates with the peer-edited scientific literature on climate change. A review of the peer-edited literature reveals a systematic tendency of the climate establishment to engage in a variety of stylized rhetorical techniques that seem to oversell what is actually known about climate change while concealing fundamental uncertainties and open questions regarding many of the key processes involved in climate change. Fundamental open questions include not only the size but the direction of feedback effects that are responsible for the bulk of the temperature increase predicted to result from atmospheric greenhouse gas increases: while climate models all presume that such feedback effects are on balance strongly positive, more and more peer-edited scientific papers seem to suggest that feedback effects may be small or even negative. The cross-examination conducted in this paper reveals many additional areas where the peer-edited literature seems to conflict with the picture painted by establishment climate science, ranging from the magnitude of 20th century surface temperature increases and their relation to past temperatures; the possibility that inherent variability in the earth’s non-linear climate system, and not increases in CO2, may explain observed late 20th century warming; the ability of climate models to actually explain past temperatures; and, finally, substantial doubt about the methodological validity of models used to make highly publicized predictions of global warming impacts such as species loss. Insofar as establishment climate science has glossed over and minimized such fundamental questions and uncertainties in climate science, it has created widespread misimpressions that have serious consequences for optimal policy design. Such misimpressions uniformly tend to support the case for rapid and costly decarbonization of the American economy, yet they characterize the work of even the most rigorous legal scholars. A more balanced and nuanced view of the existing state of climate science supports much more gradual and easily reversible policies regarding greenhouse gas emission reduction, and also urges a redirection in public funding of climate science away from the continued subsidization of refinements of computer models and toward increased spending on the development of standardized observational datasets against which existing climate models can be tested.