In this lecture in climate change philosophy, we introduce some "skeletal terms" that will serve as foundations for later thinking about climate policies and solutions. We build these around "mitigation, adaptation, and geoengineering" and "the Kaya Identity."

1. 10. Building our
Climate Change
Vocabulary
Adam Briggle (he/him/his)
UNT Philosophy 4250 Climate Change
adam.briggle@unt.edu

2. Ackbar Digs the Data Viz!
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-
RcQixZs6E
Plus…a missing lecture?! Climate Science as
Climate Scientists
https://thebestschools.org/features/top-climate-change-scientists/

3. Outline
• Objective: (to take stock of key
concepts/terms we have already learned – in
the notes) and add some more, as we develop
climate change literacy.
• After all this module is about climate science
and “basic terms”
• Some preliminaries
• New vocabulary
• One framework for climate solutions: Mitigation,
Adaptation, and Geoengineering
• Another framework for climate solutions: The
Kaya Identity
• A couple of bonus terms

4. Preliminaries: Climate Science “and Basic Terms”
a. Not a comprehensive list of our vocabulary – skeletal terms.
b. Not the only time we will encounter them
c. So, I won’t spend lots of time on them here – just an introduction.
d. Of course, understanding climate change takes critical thinking and not just a
well-developed vocabulary… but it takes that too!
e. See the notes for some concepts we have already covered…

5. Some New Vocabulary
a. Mitigation, Adaptation, and Geoengineering – often discussed as the main categories for types
of climate policies.
i. Carbon Budget – the allowable amount of additional emissions in order to stay under a
temperature increase target such as 1.5 or 2oC.
ii.Collective Action Problem (see also the Tragedy of the Commons) – a situation in which
all individuals would be better off cooperating but fail to do so because of competing
interests.
iii.Externality - a cost that is not included (internalized) in a market transaction. A carbon tax
is one way to internalize the costs of greenhouse gasses.

6. Some
New
Vocabular
y • Global
GHG
Sankey
Diagram

7. Some New Vocabulary
The Kaya Identity – a skeleton key for climate change conversations. It shows there are four main levers to
pull in trying to tackle the problem: population, wealth, energy intensity of the economy (efficiency, that is,
the amount of energy per unit of GDP), and carbon intensity of energy (amount of carbon emitted per unit
of energy).
C = P x W/P x E/W x C/E
C is Carbon
P is population
W is wealth
E is energy

8. Some New Vocabulary
i. Decarbonization
ii. Jevon’s Paradox
iii.Decoupling
iv.Degrowth
C = P x W/P x E/W x C/E

9. And a few bonus terms
Stationarity
i. Positive feedback
Climate change denial – unwarranted (unfounded, illegitimate, conspiratorial) doubt that
dismisses the basic scientific consensus on climate change. The book Merchants of Doubt is
an excellent source here. This is not the same, I would say, as ‘skeptics’ as in the use at the
link above on top climate scientists.

10. “You know that one time
when Princess Leia strangled
Jabba the Hutt?…that’s like
what knowledge does to
ignorance.”
-- Ackbar, cosmic champ