Climate Change and Risk: A Multidisciplinary Risk Course

Glenn Harrison; Harold Weston

Authors

Glenn Harrison Georgia State University
Harold Weston Georgia State University

Abstract

Climate change is one of the biggest risks we face. It is studied worldwide across many disciplines, such as atmospheric science, meteorology, oceanography, biology, botany, political science, economics, finance, law, insurance, and ethics, to name some. Yet risk studies, which itself is an assembly of multiple disciplines focused on probabilities, uncertainty, consequences and their management, has not really engaged the issue much except as to catastrophes and insurance. This article explains a course on climate change risk with studies across many disciplines.

Author Biographies

Glenn Harrison, Georgia State University

Professor

C.V. Starr Chair of Risk Management and Insurance

Harold Weston, Georgia State University

Harold Weston,

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dept. of Risk Management and Insurance

References

BOOKS AND ARTICLES CITED

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Jared Diamond, Collapse (2005)

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Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth (video)

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Stephen Gardiner, A Perfect Moral Storm (2011).

Glenn Harrison, “Experimental Methods And The Welfare Evaluation Of Policy Lotteries,” European Review of Agricultural Economics, vol. 38, no. 3 (2011), pp. 335-360.

William D. Nordhaus, The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World (2013).

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WEBSITES PROVIDED IN APPENDIX TO THE ARTICLE

Ice sheets and sea-level rise, from Australian government

http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/fact-files/climate-change/ice-sheets-and-sea-level-rise

Sea level rise paper with links

http://papers.risingsea.net/index.html

Sea levels: Rising Sea Levels A Threat to U.S. in New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/science/earth/study-rising-sea-levels-a-risk-to-coastal-states.html?src=me&ref=general

Sea level rise and San Francisco, on Living on Earth

http://www.livingonearth.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=10-P13-00037&segmentID=6

Climate Watch (rising sea levels, mega-droughts, and more) on California Report

http://www.kqed.org/news/science/climatewatch/

Sea level rise map

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121197147

Sea Walls, the good and bad, from Mother Jones & Climate Desk

http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/04/climate-desk-sea-level-rise-epa-wall

Global warming threatens California parks, from San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/27/MN4F1G291R.DTL

Bus Rapid Transit is energy efficient, in World Watch

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4660

Bus Rapid Transit in Bogata, Columbia, in New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/world/americas/10degrees.html

http://www.gobrt.org/Transmilenio.html

Energy Secretary Steven Chu on efficiency, with YouTube video interview, from New York Times

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/dr-chu-talks-efficiency/

Carbon Productivity, from McKinsey Global Consultants:

http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/reports/pdfs/Carbon_Productivity/MGI_carbon_productivity_full_report.pdf

investing in green technology, and low carbon prosperity, from World Economic Forum publications

http://www.weforum.org/en/media/publications/ClimateReports/index.htm

White roofs and reflective asphalt in city of 1 m reduce GHG by 57 gigatons, from Lawrence Berkeley Labs

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2010/07/19/cool-roofs-offset-carbon-dioxide-emissions/

Atlanta inventor Lonnie Johnson, "fuel cell" engine that converts heat into electricity without moving parts, in The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/shooting-for-the-sun/8268/

Baseball stadiums add solar power, from NRDC

http://www.onearth.org/article/solar-powered-world-series

Amory Lovins – Rocky Mountain Institute

http://rmi.org/rmi/

Amory Lovins' lecture: Profitable Solutions for Climate, Oil and Proliferation

http://www.rmi.org/Default.aspx?Id=2318&vid=2351&cat=

Amory Lovins on radio program Forum, Sept. 30, 2009

http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R909301000

Natural Resources Defense Counsel economic analysis of proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/cap2.0/files/ebargain.pdf

Natural Resources Defense Counsel blog on climate change

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=climatechange&limit=20

Weird Weather in a Warming World, New York Times Sept 8, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/opinion/08revkin.html?_r=1

Yale University Project on Climate Change (leads to pdf)

http://environment.yale.edu/climate/

University of Maryland: Hidden Costs of Climate Change (news release)

http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/sociss/release.cfm?ArticleID=1521

University of Maryland: Hidden Costs of Climate Change (report)

http://www.cier.umd.edu/climateadaptation/

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Global Change

http://web.mit.edu/cgcs/www/

University of California Television: Climate Change and Environmental Governance

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=17606

University of California Television: How Will Our Cities Cope With Climate Change

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=19386

University California San Diego - Presentation on global warming

http://lsmarr.calit2.net/presentations?slideshow=2924955

Earth Institute at Columbia University

http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2124

Climate change law blog, from Columbia University Law School

http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/

University of Washington: "Preparing for Climate Change: A Guidebook for Local, Regional and State Governments"

http://www.cses.washington.edu/db/pdf/snoveretalgb574.pdf

Climate change moral equivalent of slavery, per J Hansen, in Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/06/nasa-scientist-climate-change

University of Washington: "A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate Change, Intergenerational Ethics and the Problem of Corruption"

http://www.hettingern.people.cofc.edu/Environmental_Philosophy_Sp_09/Gardner_Perfect_Moral_Storm.pdf

Air pollution stunts lung development, in New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/health/30lung.html

Air pollution, freeways, ultra-fine particles and asthma, UCLA study

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/uoc--upi070110.php

Air pollution, freeways, childhood asthma, at University Southern California

http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/11614.html

Air pollution, freeways and lung impairment, in Los Angeles Times

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/26/science/sci-lungs26

Air pollution, diesel exhaust, and lung harm, on KQED

http://www.kqed.org/quest/about/diesel-extra-wa/

Coal-fired power plants link pollution to deaths and disease

http://fpn.advisen.com/fpnHomepagep.shtml?resource_id=127880936305386445&userEmail=hweston@gsu.edu#top

Coal-Burning Shortens Lives in China, New Study Shows, from National Geographic

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/07/130708-coal-burning-shortens-lives-in-china/

Ship pollutants kill 60,000, from Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-04/ship-smog-seen-as-next-target-to-clear-hong-kong-skies.html

UC-Berkeley economic model: Clean Energy and Climate Policies

http://are.berkeley.edu/~dwrh/CERES_Web/Docs/EAGLE%20Fact%20Sheet%20on%20ACES.pdf

Insurer - Marsh: "Looking Forward and Back on Climate Change"

http://www.mmc.com/knowledgecenter/viewpoint/Looking_Forward_and_Back_on_Climate_Change.php

Insurance Implication of Climate Change, from Edwards Wildman

http://www.eapdlaw.com/events/detail.aspx?firmEvent=416

Marsh (insurance brokerage and consulting): Climate Change, A New World of Risk (video)

http://solutions.marsh.com/climates/ClimateChangebriefing/index.htm

Climate - Major Tipping Points, by Allianz Insurance

http://knowledge.allianz.com/climate_tipping_points/climate_en.html

Climate Fundamentals, History and Projections, from Allianz Insurance

https://www.allianz.com/static-resources/en/about_allianz/sustainability/media/documents/v_1250777706000/allianz_climate_brochure.pdf

Geneva Reports: The Insurance Industry and Climate Change

https://www.allianz.com/static-resources/en/about_allianz/sustainability/media/documents/v_1250779866000/geneva_report2009.pdf

Climate Economics of Climate Change - Shaping Climate Resilient Development, by Swiss Rehttp://media.swissre.com/documents/rethinking_shaping_climate_resilent_development_en.pdf

Insurer - Swiss Re on climate change

http://www.swissre.com/rethinking/climate/

National Academy of Sciences: "America's Climate Choices" (video)

http://www.americasclimatechoices.org/study-video.shtml

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on global warming

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/climate.html

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency on climate change

http://coastalmanagement.noaa.gov/climate.html

National Geographic on Climate Change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJAbATJCugs&feature=fvw

U.S. Global Change Research

http://www.globalchange.gov/

Natural Resources Defense Counsel on climate change (multiple links to articles & videos)

http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/

National Academy of Sciences reports on climate change

http://www.americasclimatechoices.org/panelscience.shtml

Pew Center on Global Climate Change (many reports, articles, links)

http://www.pewclimate.org/

Climate Change NYC 2010, Sept. 20 - 26, at the United Nations (videos)

http://www.climateweeknyc2010.org/news/videos

The Tragedy of the Commons (on Google Scholar)

http://books.google.com/books?id=kQt9Kg-chXAC&ots=seG5YwF8I5&dq=Two%20Lectures%20on%20the%20Checks%20to%20Population&lr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Climate Change: Risk and Opportunities for Global Financial Services, by Oliver Wyman ( Marsh)

http://www.mmc.com/knowledgecenter/ClimateChangeRisksOpportunitiesFinancialServices.pdf

Climate Change: A New World of Risk by Marsh

http://solutions.marsh.com/climates/ClimateChangebriefing/index.htm

Will Insurers Be Burned by the Climate Change Phenomenon?, by Aon

http://www.aon.com/about-aon/intellectual-capital/attachments/risk-services/will_insurers_be_burned_by_the_climate_change_phenomenon.pdf