Twenty First Century Economic Slowdown and Its Impact on CO₂ Emissions in the United States

There is an emerging consensus among the academic community that United States economic growth will slow over the next century. However, there is an uncertainty regarding how quickly or by how much growth will slow. This project analyzes the effects of possible slowdowns in GDP per-capita growth on CO₂ emissions. The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) forecast slowdowns in economic growth based on assumptions made by the various SSP narratives. This project compares SSP growth forecasts with one of the more pessimistic projections offered by Robert Gordon. Gordon predicts that GDP per-capita growth will slow to the rate of 0.2% per-year (lower than any of the SSPs forecast). The methodology of this thesis creates modified SSPs based on Gordon’s growth projections to analyze the impact of slowing economic growth on CO₂ emissions. The result of this analysis suggests that slower growth in the Middle of the Road scenario (SSP2) will lead to a reduction of carbon emissions by half as much in 2100 as the reduction from shifting to the sustainability scenario (SSP1). The implication of Gordon’s economic projections could have a sizable impact on emission reduction, one comparable to significant changes to the energy sector

Patterned fen formation and development from the Great Sandy Region, south-east Queensland, Australia

The Great Sandy Region (incorporating Fraser Island and the Cooloola sand-mass), south-east Queensland, contains a significant area of Ramsar-listed coastal wetlands, including the globally important patterned fen complexes. These mires form an elaborate network of pools surrounded by vegetated peat ridges and are the only known subtropical, Southern Hemisphere examples, with wetlands of this type typically located in high northern latitudes. Sedimentological, palynological and charcoal analysis from the Wathumba and Moon Point complexes on Fraser Island indicate two periods of swamp formation (that may contain patterned fens), one commencing at 12 000 years ago (Moon Point) and the other ~4300 years ago (Wathumba). Wetland formation and development is thought to be related to a combination of biological and hydrological processes with the dominant peat-forming rush, Empodisma minus, being an important component of both patterned and non-patterned mires within the region. In contrast to Northern Hemisphere paludifying systems, the patterning appears to initiate at the start of wetland development or as part of an infilling process. The wetlands dominated by E. minus are highly resilient to disturbance, particularly burning and sea level alterations, and appear to form important refuge areas for amphibians, fish and birds (both non-migratory and migratory) over thousands of years