[POST 4] Summary of WA1

First, natural ecosystems control biogeochemical cycles. Global warming is caused by the emissions of excessive greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere. Intact natural ecosystems, on the other hand, can reduce the build-up of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Forests, peat lands, oceans and other ecosystems control carbon and other global biogeochemical cycles. For example, ocean can sequester more than 2 gigatonnes of carbon (Turner, Oppenheimer and Wilcove, 2009). The authors of the article also state that if we reduce deforestation and forest degradation rates, global emissions would be slashed by up to 1 gigatonne of carbon a year, which is more than the total amount of emissions of passenger cars (ibid). Furthermore, restoring the world’s marginal and degraded lands to natural habitats will store away around 0.65 gigationnes of carbon a year (ibid). Therefore, preserving natural ecosystems is an effective way to control climate change.
Second, maintenance and restoration of natural habitats may be the safest, easiest and cheapest way to reduce greenhouse gases while it also promotes adaptation to unavoidable changes. Moreover, maintenance and restoration of natural habitats can provide a lot of jobs and it also has considerable potential ability to fight against global warming.
Therefore, an approach which regards climate change as one problem for both human and nature must be come up with.


1. Turner, W.R., Oppenheimer, M., & Wilcove, D.S. (19 Nov. 2009). A force to fight global warming. Nature, Vol 462

[Post 2] Comment by Hongchuan over Jieyang's Summary

The summary written by Jieyang is well-structured. He first gave an introduction about the meeting held in Copenhagen and he stated that the meeting was not a success. I also personally agree with him. As a matter of fact, the energy consumption to run this event is huge. The meeting was originated to solve global warming but ironically, it became a great source of carbon emission.

Jieyang's elaboration started with the fact that there are certain difficulties for the treaty/agreement to be established as developed countries and developing countries are just two completely different worlds, they will seek for their own good so the treaty cannot be agreed mutually and Jieyang also provided some solutions and approaches to solve this difficulties and he mentioned that responsibility is the key element for both developed and developing countries to solve this global issue.

Overall, his summary was not bad but there's still room for improvements. Hope he will do it well in final draft!

[Post 2] Comment by Jieyang over Haiyuan's Summary

This essay is about an integrated approach to combating global warming. In the introduction part, Haiyuan listed many bad results of global warming showing that the necessity of an integrated approach and indicated two reasons why an integrated approach must be come up with.
The first reason was that natural ecosystems control biogeochemical cycles. Haiyuan used many examples to show the power of natural ecosystem in fighting against global warming. These were good enough to support his view. The second reason was that natural habitats were the safest, easiest and cheapest way to deal with global warming. However, example used here was similar to examples which used in the first reason. I think Haiyuan should choose an example to explain why natural habitats were safe, easy and cheap way to reduce greenhouse gas.
The conclusion part emphasized that an integrated approach was necessary to fight against global warming.
This is a good essay. However, the whole essay did not include citation which is required when used outside information. If Haiyuan could choose more suitable examples to support his ideas, the essay would be much impressive.

[Post 2] Comment by Zheming over Guanjie's Summary

The essay by Guan Jie on Question 1 analyzes the different factors that need to be considered and solved by developing country and developed country and compares what the two kinds of countries must to do to bring about an agreement.The essay discusses the situations of developing countries,especially China and India first and lists the problems and contradictions on their way for developing as well as limiting greenhouse gas emitting.Then it discusses what the developed countries should do.Finally it concludes that the cooperation in all the countries is the way to save the earth.
The essay’s structure is good and the various transition signals make it smooth to read.The content mainly contains sufficient analysises and discussion to answer the question.Expression of writer’s idea is clear and grammatical is accurate.The final conclusion also shows writer’s main idea simply and clearly.
One of the problems of this essay is that the thesis statement at the beginning of it is not very obvious and the first paragraph is too long.Another problem is that proofs as well as raletive data which can be used to support writer’s idea are not enough.Besides,the order of the discussion makes it like a essay list what the two kinds of countries should do respectly and cannot show the comparison between them.
Over all,it’s a perfect essay to express the unique idea of writer on what countries should do to save our planet.

[Post 2] Comment by Haiyuan over Hongchuan's Summary

Firstly, this essay needs an introduction. Although the topic asks us to show the 2 arguments the author used to support his case, it is still a little bit strange for an essay to come without an introduction. Moreover, there should be a thesis statement along with the introduction to show the readers what is going to be talked about.

Secondly, Hongchuan caught exactly the 2 arguments which shown in the essay. Using a single paragraph for each argument, he uses the topic sentence in each paragraph, which makes this essay better structured and helps readers to follow him.

Thirdly, he added a lot of arguments in this essay to support the necessity of an integrated approach. This shows his wide range of knowledge. However, I think he needs to add some references along with these additional arguments. What’s more, like the tutor said, this essay is to show the 2 arguments used by the author in the essay “a force to fight global warming “rather than to talk about the importance of an integrated approach for the issue; so I think Hongchuan should emphasize more on the arguments given in the essay.

Generally speaking, Hongchuan’s essay is quite a good essay although there still needs some improvement. I believe the final draft will be an amazing essay.

[Post 1] Summary by Haiyuan

Dear fellow group members,

As you know, we need to post a summary on the lecture conducted on Friday regarding the topic of global warming.

Because we have 6 people in our group, 3 will be posting a summary and the other 3 will be writing a comment for any one of the summary.

The following summary is written by Haiyuan.

Please read and leave a comment. THX

Summary

In the lecture given by Prof. Sovacool, we have had an overview of the climate change, institutional solutions to climate change and individual solutions to climate change, which help us have a better understanding about climate change.

The first graph shown told us that CO2 from fossil fuels and other sources is the largest resource of greenhouse gas while more than 50% of greenhouse gas is emitted by the sector of energy supply and use. What’s more, United states and China, the G2, each emits more than 7000 million metric tons of carbon dioxide which is even twice as much as the third, Indonesia. On the second graph, we found that the percentage change in carbon dioxide emission varies a lot from countries to countries. Korea, along with Turkey, increases its emission the most while countries like Slovak Republic and Czech Republic reduced their emission.

Since policies, measures and instruments shown to be environmentally effective, institutional actions is our first choice. However, what institutional actions could be taken? Firstly, we can change our energy supply by reduction of fossil fuel subsidies, feed-in tariffs for renewable energy technologies and providing producer subsidies. Secondly, we can do some change to transportation. We can apply mandatory fuel economy, biofuel blending and carbon dioxide standards for road transportation. We can also set taxes and fees on vehicle purchase, registration, use and motor fuels, road and parking pricing. Moreover, limiting the number of driving days and investment in attractive public transport facilities and non-motorized forms of transport may also help. Thirdly, we can do something to agriculture and forestry like financial incentives to increase forest area, to reduce deforestation and to maintain and manage forest. Applying harvest quotas and limits on timber extraction, promotion of bioorganic fertilizers and pest control and payments for ecosystem services could also be very efficient. When most of these methods have been applied, we are half way to stop climate change.

As components of the society, every one of us should make contribution to help our earth. The individual actions for climate stabilization are sustainable electricity, food, homes and technology. Firstly, we should use renewable electricity, increase the energy efficiency and combine heat and power. Secondly, we can eat locally grown and produced food; become a vegan or vegetarian even for a day; reduce food package and waste; moreover, we can visit a farm. Thirdly, we should have a sustainable homes including using space heating and cooling; take lukewarm or cold showers; switch all bulbs to CFLs or LEDs; cook meals together, reuse dishes; store only essential items, minimize open doors and the most important, be satisfied with enough. Despite the magnitude of the world’s energy, food and climate changes, the roots of there crises are in individual behavior.

It’s time to take institutional and individual actions, otherwise, it will be too late.

[Post 1] Summary by Hongchuan

Dear fellow group members,

As you know, we need to post a summary on the lecture conducted on Friday regarding the topic of global warming.

Because we have 6 people in our group, 3 will be posting a summary and the other 3 will be writing a comment for any one of the summary.

The following summary is written by me (Hongchuan).

Please read and leave a comment. THX

Summary of lecture on “Institutional & Individual response to climate change issues”

The lecture conducted by associate professor Sovacool was quite inspiring. His presentation changes the way we usually think about global warming.

Firstly, Sovacool’s presentation started with some facts and statistics that our environment is getting worse due to increasing carbon dioxide emission which is the most contributing factor causing global warming and the largest source of CO2 emission comes from fossil fuels, energy supply and energy consumption. Deforestation was also mentioned because tree can actually absorb CO2 and purify the air condition.

Second, to my surprise, Sovacool’s trying to illustrate and elaborate that everyone of us is contributing to the global warming like eating extra food especially meat, using take-away styrofoam container, using tissue instead of handkerchief, buying private car instead of taking public transportation and etc. However, he was trying to convince us that if we are to make little change every day, we can decrease the rate which global warming is taking place, in fact we can improve our environment gradually and these changes we are going to make would benefit ourselves like eating locally grown and produced food(the food tends to be fresh thus healthy to ourselves), using fan instead of air-conditioner(you will save a lot of money) and etc.

Finally, Sovacool mentioned that the solutions to global warming come from every perspective of the society, both individually and institionally. Government can issue more policies and regulations to stop or limit the CO2 emission from various industries. Universities and research institutes can also promote related studies and researches on development of green technology and most importantly, we need to increase our awareness of global warming and educate others to save our environment together.

[Post 1] Summary by Jieyang

Dear fellow group members,

As you know, we need to post a summary on the lecture conducted on Friday regarding the topic of global warming.

Because we have 6 people in our group, 3 will be posting a summary and the other 3 will be writing a comment for any one of the summary.

The following summary is written by Jieyang.

Please read and leave a comment. THX


Summary of the lecture – Institutional and individual response to climate change

59.4% of greenhouse gas CO2 is emitted by burning fossil fuel and 53.2% of the greenhouse emission is because of energy supply and use. Both parts are the major sections of their category. To fight against climate change, policies, measures and instruments must be done from the government, including energy supply, transport, buildings, industry, agriculture, forestry and waste management. Indonesia, Brazil and Malaysia are the top 3 countries of sharing of emission from deforestation. For individuals, we can change our food habits by eating locally grown and produced food or becoming a vegan. In our home, we can use a fan to substitute for the air-con, cook meals together, reuse dishes and purchase only essential technologies. More than 95% of the goods most people buy are no longer in use after the first year and they cause toxic pollution. We can use a towel instead of paper, replace items when they wear out or purchase environmentally friendly or neutral items. Individual behavior is the root of fighting climate change. Individuals like us can make a difference by educating ourselves and others, investing or voting.

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