Potential emissions of CO2 and methane from proved reserves of fossil fuels: An alternative analysis

AbstractScientists have argued that no more than 275GtC (IPCC, 2013) of the world’s reserves of fossil fuels of 746GtC can be produced in this century if the world is to restrict anthropogenic climate change to ≤2°C. This has raised concerns about the risk of these reserves becoming “stranded assets” and creating a dangerous “carbon bubble” with serious impacts on global financial markets, leading in turn to discussions of appropriate investor and consumer actions. However, previous studies have not always clearly distinguished between reserves and resources, nor differentiated reserves held by investor-owned and state-owned companies with the capital, infrastructure, and capacity to develop them in the short term from those held by nation-states that may or may not have such capacity. This paper analyzes the potential emissions of CO2 and methane from the proved reserves as reported by the world's largest producers of oil, natural gas, and coal. We focus on the seventy companies and eight government-run industries that produced 63% of the world’s fossil fuels from 1750 to 2010 (Heede, 2014), and have the technological and financial capacity to develop these reserves. While any reserve analysis is subject to uncertainty, we demonstrate that production of these reported reserves will result in emissions of 440GtC of carbon dioxide, or 160% of the remaining 275GtC carbon budget. Of the 440GtC total, the 42 investor-owned oil, gas, and coal companies hold reserves with potential emissions of 44GtC (16% of the remaining carbon budget, hereafter RCB), whereas the 28 state-owned entities possess reserves of 210GtC (76% of the RCB). This analysis suggests that what may be needed to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference (DAI) with the climate system differs when one considers the state-owned entities vs. the investor-owned entities. For the former, there is a profound risk involved simply in the prospect of their extracting their proved reserves. For the latter, the risk arises not so much from their relatively small proved reserves, but from their on-going exploration and development of new fossil fuel resources. For preventing DAI overall, effective action must include the state-owned companies, the investor-owned companies, and governments. However, given that the majority of the world's reserves are coal resources owned by governments with little capacity to extract them in the near term, we suggest that the more immediate urgency lies with the private sector, and that investor and consumer pressure should focus on phasing out these companies’ on-going exploration programs

Attributing ocean acidification to major carbon producers

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Licker, R.; Ekwurzel, B.; Doney, S. C.; Cooley, S. R.; Lima, I. D.; Heede, R.; Frumhoff, P. C. Attributing ocean acidification to major carbon producers. Environmental Research Letters. 14(12), (2019): 124060, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab5abc.Recent research has quantified the contributions of CO2 and CH4 emissions traced to the products of major fossil fuel companies and cement manufacturers to global atmospheric CO2, surface temperature, and sea level rise. This work has informed societal considerations of the climate responsibilities of these major industrial carbon producers. Here, we extend this work to historical (1880–2015) and recent (1965–2015) acidification of the world's ocean. Using an energy balance carbon-cycle model, we find that emissions traced to the 88 largest industrial carbon producers from 1880–2015 and 1965–2015 have contributed ~55% and ~51%, respectively, of the historical 1880–2015 decline in surface ocean pH. As ocean acidification is not spatially uniform, we employ a three-dimensional ocean model and identify five marine regions with large declines in surface water pH and aragonite saturation state over similar historical (average 1850–1859 to average 2000–2009) and recent (average 1960–1969 to average of 2000–2009) time periods. We characterize the biological and socioeconomic systems in these regions facing loss and damage from ocean acidification in the context of climate change and other stressors. Such analysis can inform societal consideration of carbon producer responsibility for current and near-term risks of further loss and damage to human communities dependent on marine ecosystems and fisheries vulnerable to ocean acidification.The approach of using equation (1) benefited from discussions with Myles R Allen (University of Oxford) and Inez Fung (University of California, Berkeley). M W Dalton provided insights for the incorporation of the updated carbon producers data. Chloe Ames provided support for references. S Doney acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation and the University of Virginia Environmental Resilience Institute. R Licker, B Ekwurzel and P C Frumhoff acknowledge the support of the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Wallace Global Fund, and Rockefeller Family Fund to the Union of Concerned Scientists. R Heede gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Wallace Global Fund, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Union of Concerned Scientists. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, which greatly improved our manuscript

Library Resources Utilization: determining high yield resources for medical students

The University of Hawaii (UH) Health Sciences Library (HSL) provides a variety of resources critical for science and medical education at the UH, John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). These resources are accessible by all of the UH students and faculty, including affiliated sites. To provide tailored services for medical students, their educational needs must be identified. Currently, there is no standardized system that evaluates this. The usage data of HSL resources is collected through the number of log-in’s through the UH library system by all of UH Manoa users. As such, it does not distinguish between medical students and other UH users. We propose that resource utilization by medical students differs from those utilized by other UH users. The objectives of the survey were three-fold: 1) To identify utilization of HSL resources by medical students; 2) Compare the pattern of utilization of the HSL resources by medical students with UH Manoa users by comparing our survey results to 2021 HSL usage data; and 3) To identify utilization of resources not available through HSL system. An online survey was emailed to all current JABSOM medical students. The six item survey included two likert scale questions regarding utilization of library resources available and not available through the JABSOM library. Items were assigned a numerical value; Never =1, Rarely=2, Sometimes=3, Very Often=4, and Always=5 and an average value was calculated for each resource. The remaining four items were open-ended. Sixty-six total responses were obtained with 21% first years, 35% second years, 18% third years, and 26% fourth years. The most utilized HSL resources were Access Medicine, PubMed, Textbooks, and Clinical Keys. The least used library resources were Health and Psychology instruments, Natural Medicine database, JoVE, and Psych Articles. For both medical students and UH Manoa users, Access Medicine and Clinical Key were among the most used, whereas Health and Psych instruments, JoVE, and Natural Medicine database were among the least used. On the other hand, Cochrane was ranked higher and Psych Articles was ranked lower in overall relative usage among medical students compared to the relative ranking among UH Manoa users. The most utilized non-HSL resources among medical students were Boards and Beyond, Sketchy, Pathoma, and AMBOSS, respectively. In conclusion, our study assessed medical student resource utilization of library and non-library resources at the JABSOM library. The rank order of the utilized resources were similar between medical students and UH Manoa users, with some exceptions. The results identified the utility of non-HSL resources, suggesting they are key supplemental tools in medical education. Further studies should investigate why some resources are used more or less to guide efforts in improving availability of these services

Medical Students & Wikipedia Editing: Implications for reinforcing & improving information literacy skills

PosterThis poster presents the results of a pilot study that examines the use of Wikipedia editing with first-year medical students as an intervention for reinforcing and improving information literacy skills. The study took place at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, John A. Burns School of Medicine with students from the MD class of 2022. Methods: The students learned to edit and contribute to Wikipedia over a period of three months from August to November 2018. At the conclusion of the editing experience, students were asked to respond to a retrospective pre/post survey to assess the impact of Wikipedia editing on various information literacy skills. Results: Data gathered from the survey show a statistically significant improvement in the students' perceived information literacy skills

Friends of the Earth Trust Limited

Lassoing an iceberg approaching the Hibernia platform off Newfoundland

Climate Change and Social Conflicts

This article outlines the role of globalized mass media in the perception of environmental and social threats and its reciprocal conditionality in the globalized society. It examines the reasons why the global environmental crisis will not lead to a world-wide environmental movement for change of the basic imperatives of the world economicpolitical system. Coherency between globalized mass media and wide-spreading of consumer lifestyle exists despite the fact that it deepens the devastation of environment and social conflicts. Globalized mass media owned by transnational corporations are not only a part of the current global economic-political system, but also the prerequisite of its creation and existence, as well as social contradictions and conflicts