Earth Systems Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

2025, Journal of Ancient Judaism

The importance to Jewish history and identity of the events of the 160s BCE cannot be overstated: the Maccabean Revolt against Seleucid rule laid the political groundwork for the emergence of the independent kingdom of Judea and set its ideological direction. Among the critical episodes of that decade mentioned in narrative sources are two famines said to have been so severe that they altered the course of the rebellion. These have been little examined heretofore; however, recently improved dating of atmospheric aerosol records derived from polar ice cores and geoscientific studies of the impacts of volcanic eruptions on climatic and social conditions provide a new lens through which the consecutive famines can be understood, supporting the contention that volcanic forcing of the environment was a significant contributory factor for both occurrences. In addition, this fresh perspective enables a reassessment of the textual sources concerning these seminal episodes of Judean history.

2024

The climate crisis poses a pointed challenge to Western psychology, hobbled by its stubborn clinging to the Cartesian, scientific materialist worldview that gave birth to Western science, the medical model adopted by Western psychology, and the climate/biodiversity crisis itself. This dominant worldview is called into question by the ongoing quantum paradigm shift, it is at odds with Indigenous wisdom, and it supports the ongoing exploitation of the natural world. Given the existential dimension of the current meta-crisis, it is incumbent on those professions most responsible for promoting good mental health to become much more proactive and prescriptive in addressing the collective pathology grounded in the objectification of self, others and nature. Such a ‘radical’ reorientation requires the promotion of a positive psychology, rather than simply applying psychological triage to the symptoms of climate trauma. Such a positive psychology should be well-suited to bringing about the kinds of quantum leaps in social attitudes, civic relationships, and personal lifestyles that are going to be needed for humanity to become more resilient, naturally coherent and, ultimately, regenerative. The approach suggested here would have mental health professionals advocate for shared responsibility towards the climate and biosphere and, on that ethical ground, promote a holistic model of cultural indigeneity that would be instructive for individuals, families, and decision-makers. Pursuant to this approach, individuals’ self-regulation is to be viewed as a unique expression of Gaia’s own homeostasis, thus bringing us into relationship with Gaia based on co-regulation. A personal case study illustrates how that praxis can unexpectedly catalyze systemic changes in the ways that post-modern, post-colonial people relate to Indigenous communities and ecosystems, and how this kind of change can reverse global warming by drawing CO2 down from the atmosphere at scale.

2024

ÖNSÖZ er Sistemleri Bilimi, Yeryuvarı ile ilgili olan bilimleri içeren bir kompozisyon bilimdir ve bunların hepsini ifade etmek üzere bir anahtar terim olarak dikkat çeker. Yeryuvarını ilgilendirecek şekilde dört ortam mevcuttur. Bunlar Litosfer, Atmosfer, Hidrosfer ve Biyosferdir. Yerin geosferleri ve bu geosferlerden en üstte yer alan yerkabuğu litosferi meydana getirir. Dolayısıyla yerin içindeki sıvı ve ağdalı bölge ile en üstteki katı kabuk litosfere karşılık gelir. Sıvı haldeki sular, okyanuslar, denizler, göller, akarsular ve kaynaklar hidrosferi meydana getirir. Canlı organizmalar Biyosferi teşkil eder. Gazların ve dolayısıyla havanın yer aldığı kısım ise Atmosfer'dir. Bu küreler birbirleriyle bağlantılıdırlar ve büyük bir etkileşime sahiptirler. Bu etkileşim ve bunun doğurduğu sonuçlar da yer sistemlerinin konusu dâhilinde kalmış olur. Bu bakış açısı ile Yerin evrende bulunduğu konumu, Evren ve içindekiler, Atmosfer, Litosfer, Hidrosfer, Biyosfer, insan ve faaliyetleri ile doğal süreçler dayanan afetler bu çalışmada ele alınarak ortaya konulmuştur. Kitabın baskıya hazırlanması sırasında yardımlarını gördüğüm İbrahim Palalı Bey'e, basım işini üstlenen Akademi Titiz Yayınları mensuplarına teşekkür ederim.

2024, Journal of Geological Resource and Engineering

Geoethics is a new term that could be unknown in the Arab world, where its translation in Arabic language poses some problems, especially in Egypt. Spreading this term and its importance to professionals and population is not an easy task. These cultural and awareness problems force us to understand and act to solve them. In this paper the authors have studied two samples of people with different education levels: the first one is formed by young geoscientists and the other one is formed by young people coming from different disciplines. The two groups of people have been initially the subject of a survey (by monitoring a base level) about the knowing of geoethics. In a second phase, they have been the subject of another survey after giving them some lectures and workshops on geoethics. The goal of the research was to find out how people accept the term "geoethics" and its application and how we can spread it effectively into communities in different ways. In Egypt there are some cultural problems that could affect on spreading of any new concept. These problems could be overcome by some scientific, social and culture actionable recommendations, and these recommendations could be applied in both Arab and African countries with few modifications.

2024, Theological Studies/Teologiese Studies

How to cite this article: Buitendag, N., 2023, 'Can norms bridge boundaries? Systems theory's challenge to eco-theology and Earth system law', HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 79(2), a8587.

2024

This paper analyzes the theoretical and pragmatic implications, for international relations and world politics, of the new holistic approach to climate change articulated by Pope Francis in the Encyclical Laudato si’, particularly through the notion “integral ecology”. Far for being just a new chapter in the unfolding process of the “greening” of religions, the document raises in radical terms the issue of the sustainability of the present world system. I contend that the perspective of the Encyclical calls for a radical transformation of international relations, since it puts emphasis on the deep implications of environmental issues on the entire spectrum of security, development, economic and ethical challenges of contemporary world politics. Against this backdrop, I connect the main tenets of the Encyclical to the environmental turn in International Relations Theory and to the new epistemological challenges related to paradigm shift induced by the new planetary condition of the A...

2023

2023, EarthArXiv (California Digital Library)

The planetary boundaries framework defines the "safe operating space for humanity" represented by nine global processes that can destabilize the Earth System if perturbed. The water planetary boundary attempts to provide a global limit to anthropogenic water cycle modifications, but it has been challenging to translate and apply it to the regional and local scales at which water problems and management typically occur. We develop a cross-scale approach by which the water planetary boundary could guide sustainable water management and governance at subglobal contexts defined by physical features (e.g., watershed or aquifer), political borders (e.g., city, nation, or group of nations), or commercial entities (e.g., corporation, trade group, or financial institution). The application of the water planetary boundary at these subglobal contexts occurs via two approaches: (i) calculating fair shares, in which local water cycle modifications are compared to that context's allocation of the global safe operating space, taking into account biophysical, socioeconomic, and ethical considerations; and (ii) defining a local safe operating space, in which interactions between water stores and Earth System components are used to define local boundaries required for sustaining the local water system in stable conditions, which we demonstrate with a case study of the Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta wetlands in Colombia. By harmonizing these two approaches, the water planetary boundary can ensure that water cycle modifications remain within both local and global boundaries and complement existing water management and governance approaches.

2023, HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies

The following article was written to honour Johan Buitendag’s contribution to the discipline of eco-theology. Assuming an interdisciplinary stance, eco-theology in general and his work, in particular, is observed from the position of legal theory and sociology. As such, eco-theology is not assessed on theological grounds but is treated interdisciplinary through comparison with environmental law. More specifically, the project of eco-theology is shown to share certain characteristics with the nascent subdiscipline of Earth systems law within environmental law. It is argued that one of the most important of these is the use of norms as an ecological strategy. This is understandable as both the religious and legal systems rely on the norm form to a lesser or greater extent. However, in the legal sociology of systems theory, the shortcomings of norms have been eloquently argued. This article thus posits the limits of norms to eco-theology and Earth systems law as a challenge deserving a...

2023, HTS Theological Studies

2023, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

availability and quality, and biodiversity (Erisman et al. 2008). Such improvements will require significant advances in observations, prediction, and understanding of the complex interactions between the physical-biological-chemical Earth system 1 and global societies (NRC 2007, 2008). Recognizing this challenge, delegates and scientists associated with the (refer to the appendix for acronym expansions) WMO, WCRP, WWRP, GAW, and IGBP proposed the Earth-System Prediction Initiative (EPI) at the 2007 GEO Summit in Cape Town, South Africa (Shapiro et al. 2007). A major objective of EPI is to develop and foster collaborative research priorities between these international programs. The 2008 World Modeling Summit for Climate Prediction at the ECMWF in Reading, United Kingdom, recommended the creation of advanced climate research and computing facilities (Shukla et al. 2009). The WCC3, (www.wmo.int/wcc3/page_en.php) in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2009, proposed a Global Framework for Climate Services to strengthen production, delivery, and application of science-based climate prediction and services. More recently, the ESSP, involving four global environmental change research programs under the ICSU (i.e., Diversitas, IGBP, the IHDP, and WCRP) developed a closely related strategic vision for its program (Leemans et al. 2009). ICSU, in cooperation with the ISSC, is spearheading a process on Earth system visioning (www.icsu-visioning. org/) to develop a new vision and strategic framework for Earth system research (Walter et al. 2009). The ICSU study (www.icsu.org/2_resourcecentre/

2023, Organization

The functioning of the biosphere and the Earth as a whole is being radically disrupted due to human activities, evident in climate change, toxic pollution and mass species extinction. Financialization and exponential growth in production, consumption and population now threaten our planet’s life-support systems. These profound changes have led Earth System scientists to argue we have now entered a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene. In this introductory article to the Special Issue, we first set out the origins of the Anthropocene and some of the key debates around this concept within the physical and social sciences. We then explore five key organizing narratives that inform current economic, technological, political and cultural understandings of the Anthropocene and link these to the contributions in this Special Issue. We argue that the Anthropocene is the crucial issue for organizational scholars to engage with in order to not only understand on-going anthropogenic problem...

2023, SpringerBriefs in Geoethics

This book contributes to the current discussion on geoethics and global ethics within the geoscience and humanities communities. It provides new content and insights into developing convergent human actions in response to global... more

2023, International Journal of Education (IJE)

Indigenous peoples'; have complex knowledge systems within current biodiversity trends and climate impacts. We aim to capture this knowledge through an IFAD funded project. In this project we seek to combine storytelling, as real-life multi-species stories, with problem-based (active) learning where the listener can interact and shape the story. Psomos & Kordaki [23] found that such storytelling facilitates the convergence of student-centered learning. Our conclusion seeks to expand indigenous knowledge for the design and implementation of best practices in complying with all interest groups for the furtherance of our target community.

2023

Engineers and scientists claim to “know” the planet in myriad ways. Tey count its biospheric populations, probe and measure its material fuxes. Tey build towers, dig holes, launch vessels and spacecraft, photographing the blue marble to be transmitted at hundreds of megabytes per second. Ecological and geographical sciences, long based in on-the-ground observation and counting operations, are complemented and corroborated with data-based models and extra-planetary pixel-vision, data-based models of climate, land use, vegetation cover and erosion. During a week-long programme of knowledge exchanges, artist-researchers will visit Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Biological and Environmental sciences to interact and observe experimentation and feldwork at the site ( June 10-16, 2018). Following these visits, the group will travel to Tromsø, Norway, the site of multiple incoherent scatter radar and synthetic aperture radar installations.

2023, Global Environmental Change

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are... more

2022, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space

Early engagement with geoengineering by social scientists indicates a certain suspicion over the motives and modes of operation of scientific research in the field. In part, this reflects the prominence of the critique of the politics of emergency in recent social and political thought: A thematisation that links securitisation measures with foreclosures of the political. This paper turns the attention back on the social sciences, arguing that recent styles of ontological and political thought do not prepare us well for engaging with geologic issues in general, and geoengineering in particular. It is suggested that, rather than viewing geoengineering discourses and imaginaries as a retreat from politics, we might view them as playing an important role in opening up new kinds of politics oriented towards earth systems and their dynamics. This new ‘geologic politics’ involves a turn from issues hinging on territorial divisions of the earth's surface toward the strata that compose ...

2022

The planetary boundaries framework defines the ‘safe operating space for humanity’ in terms of nine important global processes influenced by humans which can destabilize the Earth System if perturbed. The planetary boundary for freshwater use attempts to provide a global limit to anthropogenic water cycle modifications, but it has been challenging to translate and apply it to the regional and local scales at which societally relevant water problems and management typically occur. We develop an integrative cross-scale approach considering how the water planetary boundary could help guide sustainable water management and governance at different sub-global contexts defined by physical features (e.g. watershed or aquifer), political borders (e.g. city, nation, or group of nations), or commercial entities (e.g. a corporation, industry or trade group, financial institution). The integration of the water planetary boundary at these sub-global contexts occurs via two approaches: (i) calcula...

2022

2022, Organization

2022, Global Environmental Change

Since it was first proposed in 2000, the concept of the Anthropocene has evolved in breadth and diversely. The concept encapsulates the new and unprecedented planetary-scale changes resulting from societal transformations and has brought to the fore the social drivers of global change. The concept has revealed tensions between generalized interpretations of humanity's contribution to global change, and interpretations that are historically, politically and culturally situated. It motivates deep ethical questions about the politics and economics of global change, including diverse interpretations of past causes and future possibilities. As such, more than other concepts, the Anthropocene concept has brought front-andcenter epistemological divides between and within the natural and social sciences, and the humanities. It has also brought new opportunities for collaboration. Here we explore the potential and challenges of the concept to encourage integrative understandings of global change and sustainability. Based on bibliometric analysis and literature review, we discuss the now wide acceptance of the term, its interpretive flexibility, the emerging narratives as well as the debates the concept has inspired. We argue that without truly collaborative and integrative research, many of the critical exchanges around the concept are likely to perpetuate fragmented research agendas and to reinforce disciplinary boundaries. This means appreciating the strengths and limitations of different knowledge domains, approaches and perspectives, with the concept of the Anthropocene serving as a bridge, which we encourage researchers and others to cross. This calls for institutional arrangements that facilitate collaborative research, training, and action, yet also depends on more robust and sustained funding for such activities. To illustrate, we briefly discuss three overarching global change problems where novel types of collaborative research could make a difference: (1) Emergent properties of socioecological systems; (2) Urbanization and resource nexus; and (3) Systemic risks and tipping points. Creative tensions around the Anthropocene concept can help the research community to move toward new conceptual syntheses and integrative action-oriented approaches that are needed to producing useful knowledge commensurable with the challenges of global change and sustainability.

2022, Water Resources Research

Sociohydrology was launched as the science dealing with feedbacks between coupled human and water systems. Much of the early work in sociohydrology involved studies in spatially isolated domains (e.g., river basins) dealing with phenomena that involved emergent patterns in the time domain, with a focus on formulating and testing hypotheses about how they arise. The papers collected in this Special Section "Sociohydrology: Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Coupled Human-Water Systems" illustrate that the scientific scope of sociohydrology has broadened over the last few years, with a rich diversity of phenomena studied and an expansion of the knowledge foundations and methodologies applied. These Special Section papers now incorporate methodologies and approaches from a wide range of social science disciplines, including anthropology, complex systems, economics, and sociology. The major themes tackled by these papers are understanding (i) water metabolism-the economic use of water; (ii) interactions between humans and droughts; (iii) interactions between humans and floods; and (iv) the role of human institutions, policy, and management. These collected papers provide a foundation for future research that strives to understand how to achieve water resources sustainability (society to water) and reduce the risk of hydrological hazards in society (water to society). Going forward, we suggest that the development of a common sociohydrology framework will be paramount for research development and student training. Additionally, increased engagement with the broader water management communities will enhance sociohydrology understanding and impact.

2022, IEEE Intelligent Systems

2022, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

2022

Maarten Ambaum, Neil Bowler, Jim Caughey, Andrew Challinor, Andrew Charlton, Rosalind Cornforth, Helen Dacre, Sarah Dance, Huw Davies, Andreas Dörnbrack, John Eyre, Evan Fraser, Alan Gadian, Ricardo García Herrera, Jose Antonio Garcia–Moya, Luis Gimeno, Stuart Goldstraw, Andy Gouldson, Suzanne Gray, Robin Hogan, Klaus-Peter Hoinka, Anthony Illingworth, Thomas Jung, Detlev Majewski, John Marsham, Brian Mills, Thor-Erik Nordeng, Doug Parker, Robert Plant, Ricardo M. Trigo, Mathias Rotach, Conny Schwierz, Mel Shapiro, Lenny Smith, Olivier Talagrand, Emma Tompkins, Hans Volkert, Martin Weissmann, Volker Wulfmeyer, Günther Zängl and Michal Ziemianski

2022, Unlearning Nihilism Conference

The cosmopolitical imperative to reshape our planetary imaginary in the face of the anthropocene or climate crisis faces not only the question of the spatiality of the planet we inhabit but its temporality. The need to create a new pluralist cosmology becomes, as Lukáš Likavčan has described, a comparative planetology, a composition of topological images internal to the dynamics of the planet itself, and we would say to the Universe. The breakdown of a planetary equilibrium is a breakdown of the internal composition of the planet's images, a subordination to the linearity of the Modern, in the collapse of the curved Sky to the flat Earth, appearing as a positive feedback, J-form reproduction of population, use of resources, and disposal of waste. Unable to enact a cyclical, or periodic, reintegration of waste and death-to partake in the negative feedbacks that keep the Sky-Earth System in balance-the Modern situation appears instead as the nihilism of unending "growth," which reproduces ever more suffering and death. It is the Modern's linear and asymmetric thinking that defines the nihilism of the Modern, the inability to get out of the finite in the very way that the Modern fails to integrate the finite other-the animal-death as the reciprocal of life. The Modern is unable to reverse entropy, for they see such reversal as simply as its denial, a timesymmetry (to use the terms of physics) that makes the two sides indifferent equivalents of each other, eliminating time altogether. The Moderns themselves create the alternative by which they already exclude the "cyclic" thinking of the ancients : either the static elimination of time through an indifferent symmetry, or the preserving of diachrony through an ever-incomplete asymmetry (the arrow of time). The Modern simultaneously over-generalizes the Earth in its horizontality and at the same time is unable to give a "justification" for the Earth, for the animal. The secular and monotheist Modern debases the animal and loses the God in the same fell swoop-from the disciplinarian Catholic boarding-school to the Nazification of agriculture-never finding the Human that is their crossing, the person at the Center of the Universe, who suspends the impersonality of the World.

2022

2022, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Whether on an urban or planetary scale, covering time scales of a few minutes or a few decades, the societal need for more accurate weather, climate, water, and environmental information has led to a more seamless thinking across disciplines and communities. This challenge, at the intersection of scientific research and society’s need, is among the most important scientific and technological challenges of our time. The “Science Summit on Seamless Research for Weather, Climate, Water, and Environment” organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 2017, has brought together researchers from a variety of institutions for a cross-disciplinary exchange of knowledge and ideas relating to seamless Earth system science. The outcomes of the Science Summit, and the interactions it sparked, highlight the benefit of a seamless Earth system science approach. Such an approach has the potential to break down artificial barriers that may exist due to different observing systems, model...

2022, Annals of Geophysics

The international debate in the field of geoethics focuses on some of the most important environmental emergencies, while highlighting the great responsibilities of geoscientists, whatever field they work in, and the important social, cultural and economic repercussions that their choices can have on society. The Geoitalia 2009 and 2011 conferences that were held in Rimini and Turin, respectively, and were organized by the Italian Federation of Earth Science, were two important moments for the promotion of geoethics in Italy. They were devoted to the highlighting of how, and with what tools and contents, can the geosciences contribute to the cultural renewal of society. They also covered the active roles of geoscientists in the dissemination of scientific information, contributing in this way to the correct construction of social knowledge. Geology is culture, and as such it can help to dispel misconceptions and cultural stereotypes that concern natural phenomena, disasters, resources, and land management. Geological culture consists of methods, goals, values, history, ways of thinking about nature, and specific sensitivity for approaching problems and their solutions. So geology has to fix referenced values, as indispensable prerequisites for geoethics. Together, geological culture and geoethics can strengthen the bond that joins people to their territory, and can help to find solutions and answers to some important challenges in the coming years regarding natural risks, resources, and climate change. Starting from these considerations, we stress the importance of establishing an ethical criterion for Earth scientists, to focus attention on the issue of the responsibility of geoscientists, and the need to more clearly define their scientific identity and the value of their specificities.

2022

Noise pollution in Malta and more specifically in the Birkirkara-Mrieħel region is not studied. This is mainly due to lack of regulations as well as due to the lack of management plans set in place to monitor and reduce high levels of noise. The area of study was chosen because it incorporated three different land-use types, which were domestic, agricultural and industrial zones. Noise was monitored and compared between the three different zones, as well as between different hours within the day time frame (7a.m.-7p.m.).
Measurements were taken during the peak periods in weekdays. Inititially, the potential use of smartphones for future crowd-sourced assessment for noise pollution and/or their use for the identification of unhealthy noise levels was investigated. This was done by comparing the data collected by various phone makes with that recorded by professional sound level meters. The results derived from this study showed that noise was louder in industrial zones than in domestic zones and that agricultural zones were as loud as domestic ones. It also showed that there were variations between noise in the morning and noise in the afternoon in the industrial area, but there were no significant differences between morning and afternoon measurements for the domestic and the agricultural zone. Results also showed that there is the possibility of using smartphones to measure noise however measurements are not accurate enough to fall within the range required for professional noise-measuring equipment, and results are influenced by the phone brand and by the phone application used to collect data.

2022, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Expanding capabilities and new requirements for atmospheric information services create an exciting new era with economic and political challenges and a need for clear priorities. R apid change is sweeping through atmospheric science and services in response to new scientific opportunities and new demands for atmospheric information. The scientific opportunities arise from advances in observing and predicting atmospheric events and from rapidly developing computer and communications capabilities. At the same time, new information is required as the management of weather risk expands from protection of life and property to reduction of profit volatility in weather-sensitive industries. These two dimensions of dramatic changeadvancing scientific skill coupled with more sophisticated management of weather and climate risk-are largely a consequence of rapidly expanding capability for managing and communicating complex streams of data and information. Indeed, the opportunities and demands merge as atmospheric observations and predictions are combined with business data in corporate computer databases and models.

2022, Bulletin of the …

An international interdisciplinary initiative to accelerate advances in knowledge, prediction, use and value of weather, climate and Earth-system information. ... MA Shapiro1, CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: MA Shapiro, National Center for... more

2022

We are nothing more than accumulated cosmic dust assembled and fused together through a continuum of time with no accurately established beginning, nor an absolute final conclusion. How is it that we have become an organism, a species that possesses an ability to adapt and survive? What is conscious awareness, and is everyone in the human family cognizant of it? Are we the only functioning organism that can demonstrate this ability? Is what we do not know, what we do not know knowledge lost, or does it even exist? Are we as a species compatible with the natural ecosystem, the planet, the universe?

2022, МАИСП 2021 13

A specialized vision of a “sphere of the archaic” is proposed. Extraterrestrial archaeosphere, humanly modified ground, fossil reality, archaeological record, and totality of archaeological objects are among the concepts that have contributed to the newer construct. The archaeosphere’s form, nature, essence, and function are revealed by analyzing its components in terms of formation processes as well as in view of the mutuality continuum amongst archaeological universals. The model treats this global system as a coherent universalized hierarchy of doublenatured entities which are subject to deposition and recovery, an extensive systemic imprint of behavioral and non-behavioral conversion of the variety of phenomena of culture-to-nature synergy. Further discussion is expected, with the archaeosphere amidst Earth systems, its structure and periodization under special vigilance. What the archaeological megadiscipline regularly does is creating an archaeospheric conception of reality.
Key words: Earth, archaeosphere, cultural genesis, archaeogenesis, universals, archaeology, archaeohistory.

2022, Bulletin of the …

2022, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment (THORPEX) was a 10-yr, international research program organized by the World Meteorological Organization’s World Weather Research Program. THORPEX was motivated by the need to accelerate the rate of improvement in the accuracy of 1-day to 2-week forecasts of high-impact weather for the benefit of society, the economy, and the environment. THORPEX, which took place from 2005 to 2014, was the first major international program focusing on the advancement of global numerical weather prediction systems since the Global Atmospheric Research Program, which took place almost 40 years earlier, from 1967 through 1982. The scientific achievements of THORPEX were accomplished through bringing together scientists from operational centers, research laboratories, and the academic community to collaborate on research that would ultimately advance operational predictive skill. THORPEX included an unprecedented effort to make operational pro...

2021, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

The polar regions have been attracting more and more attention in recent years, fueled by the perceptible impacts of anthropogenic climate change. Polar climate change provides new opportunities, such as shorter shipping routes between Europe and East Asia, but also new risks such as the potential for industrial accidents or emergencies in ice-covered seas. Here, it is argued that environmental prediction systems for the polar regions are less developed than elsewhere. There are many reasons for this situation, including the polar regions being (historically) lower priority, with fewer in situ observations, and with numerous local physical processes that are less well represented by models. By contrasting the relative importance of different physical processes in polar and lower latitudes, the need for a dedicated polar prediction effort is illustrated. Research priorities are identified that will help to advance environmental polar prediction capabilities. Examples include an impro...

2021, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

2021, Science

Motivated by the rapid increase in atmospheric CO 2 due to human activities since the Industrial Revolution, several international scientific research programs have analyzed the role of individual components of the Earth system in the global carbon cycle. Our knowledge of the carbon cycle within the oceans, terrestrial ecosystems, and the atmosphere is sufficiently extensive to permit us to conclude that although natural processes can potentially slow the rate of increase in atmospheric CO 2 , there is no natural "savior" waiting to assimilate all the anthropogenically produced CO 2 in the coming century. Our knowledge is insufficient to describe the interactions between the components of the Earth system and the relationship between the carbon cycle and other biogeochemical and climatological processes. Overcoming this limitation requires a systems approach.

2021, Science

2021, IEEE Intelligent Systems

2021

Geoethics was developed as a reflection on the meaning of geosciences and the roles and values of reference of the geoscientific community. More recently, the perimeter of geoethical analysis has expanded to include the global issues of modern societies, above all anthropogenic environmental changes, which are redefining the prospects and expectations of human life on the planet. The current definition of Geoethics describes both its philosophical dimension and aspects related to its practical application in the scientific and social fields. Its formulation has numerous implications and aims to provide reference points for a novel way of intending and relating to the planet. This chapter intends to present the fundamental characteristics, objectives, and general vision of Geoethics, framing it in a synthetic way within some currents of contemporary thoughts.

2021, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

The institutions that made American science famous figure less and less in the leadership and management of American science. Causes for this decline, especially evident in ocean and atmospheric sciences, include large programs that cut across institutions, the volume of federal funds, the scale of scientific instruments and facilities, easier travel and telecommunications, and time horizons of entrepreneurial science. The pattern emerging results not from a deliberate policy of bypassing major institutions and their management, but from radical changes in the structure of scientific activity. Science is matching industry in a trend toward flatter management and functional, rather than geographic, organization. Some risks and needs arise with the new balance-or imbalanceof power.

2021, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society