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Communities around the world are already facing the impacts of climate change. In this 1°C warmer world, many of those who have already endured impacts have little recourse, while ‘big emitters’ have largely externalized costs of their activities. The field of climate accountability has emerged as a response to this uneven distribution of harms and gains. The question—who ultimately is responsible for climate impacts?—has been asked with increasing frequency over the past decade in both policy spheres and litigation as extreme events have increased in both likelihood and intensity. In this dissertation, I interrogate this broader field of climate accountability, leveraging cross-disciplinary methodologies to build evidence for—and identify gaps in—this field. The central question underpinning the dissertation is: who is responsible for climate impacts, and how can the field of climate accountability best serve impacted communities?To do so, I build a conceptual framework to guide allocating causal responsibility (Chapter 1). Identifying causality for impacts is an insufficient and yet necessary component of all proposed climate accountability mechanisms. The bulk of this dissertation then tests this conceptual framework by conducting ‘end-to-end attribution’—or attributing climate impacts to sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—by focusing on climate change-related drought impacts in the Southwestern United States. End-to-end attribution broadly includes three components: extreme event attribution (Chapter 2), impact attribution (Chapter 3), and source attribution (Chapter 4). Chapter 2 presents two detection and attribution (D&A) analyses, quantifying the impact of increased temperatures from anthropogenic climate change on local vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and vegetation health in the Four Corners region of the Southwest. The studies find that anthropogenic forcing increased temperatures, corresponding to sizeable increases in VPD and substantial impacts on vegetation health. Chapter 3 examines ...

Although charged particles in space have been detected with radiation detectors on board spacecraft since the discovery of the Van Allen Belts, reports on the effects of direct exposure to space radiation in biological systems have been limited. Measurement of biological effects of space radiation is challenging due to the low dose and low dose rate nature of the radiation environment, and due to the difficulty in distinguishing the radiation effects from microgravity and other space environmental factors. In astronauts, only a few changes, such as increased chromosome aberrations in their lymphocytes and early onset of cataracts, are attributed primarily to their exposure to space radiation. In this study, cultured human fibroblasts were flown on the International Space Station (ISS). Cells were kept at 37°C in space for 14 days before being fixed for analysis of DNA damage with the γ-H2AX assay. The 3-dimensional γ-H2AX foci were captured with a laser confocal microscope. Quantitative analysis revealed several foci that were larger and displayed a track pattern only in the Day 14 flight samples. To confirm that the foci data from the flight study was actually induced from space radiation exposure, cultured human fibroblasts were exposed to low dose rate γ rays at 37°C. Cells exposed to chronic γ rays showed similar foci size distribution in comparison to the non-exposed controls. The cells were also exposed to low- and high-LET protons, and high-LET Fe ions on the ground. Our results suggest that in G1 human fibroblasts under the normal culture condition, only a small fraction of large size foci can be attributed to high-LET radiation in space.

Initiatives that use information to catalyze collective action have proliferated in recent years, and represent a significant shift away from more traditional governance strategies, such as regulation. This dissertation analyzes this phenomenon of "information-based governance" in the context of the environmental arena, where non-profit organizations, government agencies, and companies have developed a wide range of product eco-labels and corporate sustainability ratings to evaluate the environmental performance of products and companies. The dissertation presents several theoretical perspectives that highlight the underlying nature of this form of governance, and describes the characteristics of a sample of 245 of these initiatives that are relevant to the United States marketplace. It also presents data on the relative popularity of these cases and the degree to which certain characteristics are associated with such popularity. Information on the public's preferences for different types of eco-labels and green ratings is presented from a survey of over 500 respondents as well. The dissertation also discusses the perceived effects and effectiveness of these programs, based on 70 interviews with consumers and representatives from government agencies, non-profit organizations, corporations, and academic institutions.In this dissertation, eco-labels and sustainability ratings are described in the context of their "information supply chains," which determine the issues they cover, the organizations they are affiliated with, the data they use, and the mechanisms by which they deliver their information. Data collected suggest that climate change and energy are their most commonly covered issues, non-profit organizations are their most common implementers, government agencies and corporations are their most common data sources, and certifications and awards are the most common form of the information they provide. The top two attributes preferred by the survey respondents were independence and transparency, although a minority of the 245 cases surveyed displayed these characteristics. More generally, the credibility of the data used by these programs was more important to respondents than either the trustworthiness of the organizations or the importance of the issues covered. While popular cases showed higher levels of criteria and outcome transparency, they are actually less likely to use independent data. Programs that have been in existence for more than three years and are associated with non-profit organizations and government programs are also more likely to be popular, while programs that have media connections and cover pollution issues are less likely to be popular. While the interview participants did not agree on an overarching definition of the effectiveness of these programs, they discussed several important dimensions of such effectiveness. The most commonly cited was improved environmental outcomes, and others included changes in consumer behavior, corporate behavior, and public policy. It was clear from these discussions that these initiatives can operate through multiple effect pathways that are not limited to consumer responsiveness. Indeed, these programs contribute to well-functioning democracies not only through the creation of specific public and private goods, but by providing information that is critical for citizens and their representatives to make wise decisions about society's priorities. Thus the accuracy of this information is critically important, and given its overall lack of transparency and independence, efforts are necessary to improve its accountability. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of recent developments in the field of eco-labels that represent different approaches to monitoring and governing these initiatives themselves.

Abstract Average energy consumption per U.S. household has fallen by just under 20% in the last ten years. Much of this drop occurred after 1979, when gas and electricity prices as well as oil prices rose in real terms. The response of households to higher prices has involved physical modifications on and in the home and changes in behavior. Many actions have been taken by households, but the most important single factor has been a significant reduction in indoor temperatures. The greater energy efficiency of new homes and appliances has also helped to depress residential energy demand, although improvements have levelled off in the last few years. There are signs that the momentum of energy conservation is less now than it was 2 years ago, but it appears that energy prices will be high enough to discourage households from returning to former energy-using practices. Along with the continued replacement of homes and appliances with more efficient models, and other factors such as the migration to wanner regions and the movement to more apartments and smaller homes, this will probably keep U.S. residential energy consumption at about its present level through the 1980s.

The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act are major environmental statutes that aim to control air and water pollution using federal standards and state implementation programs. Although these laws have succeeded in reducing some forms of pollution, they have not been effective against two types of environmental harm: greenhouse gases, resulting from fossil fuel use, and nitrogen runoff, resulting from agricultural fertilizer use. Greenhouse gases lead to climate change, and nitrogen runoff can lead to nitrate contamination of drinking water, hypoxia in surface water bodies, and harmful algal blooms. States, cities, counties, and others affected by climate change have recently filed lawsuits against fossil fuel manufacturers that do not allege Clean Air Act violations, instead framing the issues primarily in tort law terms. A case study of this set of lawsuits reveals shared features that inform a possible approach to the nitrogen runoff problem, and common challenges that may arise while using this model. The scientific and legal issues arising from nitrogen runoff bear substantial similarities to those that arose in the climate change lawsuits. Using the model presented by the climate change suits, municipal drinking water utilities and others affected by nitrogen runoff may be able to sue fertilizer manufacturers, framing their cases in tort law terms rather than alleging Clean Water Act violations.

Recent shifts in the geographic distribution of marine species have been linked to shifts in preferred thermal habitats. These shifts in distribution have already posed challenges for living marine resource management, and there is a strong need for projections of how species might be impacted by future changes in ocean temperatures during the 21st century. We modeled thermal habitat for 686 marine species in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans using long-term ecological survey data from the North American continental shelves. These habitat models were coupled to output from sixteen general circulation models that were run under high (RCP 8.5) and low (RCP 2.6) future greenhouse gas emission scenarios over the 21st century to produce 32 possible future outcomes for each species. The models generally agreed on the magnitude and direction of future shifts for some species (448 or 429 under RCP 8.5 and RCP 2.6, respectively), but strongly disagreed for other species (116 or 120 respectively). This allowed us to identify species with more or less robust predictions. Future shifts in species distributions were generally poleward and followed the coastline, but also varied among regions and species. Species from the U.S. and Canadian west coast including the Gulf of Alaska had the highest projected magnitude shifts in distribution, and many species shifted more than 1000 km under the high greenhouse gas emissions scenario. Following a strong mitigation scenario consistent with the Paris Agreement would likely produce substantially smaller shifts and less disruption to marine management efforts. Our projections offer an important tool for identifying species, fisheries, and management efforts that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts.

Network connectivity has become nearly ubiquitous, and the energy use of the equipment required for this connectivity is growing. Network equipment consists of devices that primarily switch and route Internet Protocol (IP) packets from a source to a destination, and this category specifically excludes edge devices like PCs, servers and other sources and sinks of IP traffic. This paper presents the results of a study of network equipment energy use and includes case studies of networks in a campus, a medium commercial building, and a typical home. The total energy use of network equipment is the product of the stock of equipment in use, the power of each device, and their usage patterns. This information was gathered from market research reports, broadband market penetration studies, field metering, and interviews with network administrators and service providers. We estimate that network equipment in the USA used 18 TWh, or about 1percent of building electricity, in 2008 and that consumption is expected to grow at roughly 6percent per year to 23 TWh in 2012; world usage in 2008 was 51 TWh. This study shows that office building network switches and residential equipment are the two largest categories of energy use consuming 40percent and 30percent of the total respectively. We estimate potential energy savings for different scenarios using forecasts of equipment stock and energy use, and savings estimates range from 20percent to 50percent based on full market penetration of efficient technologies.

Long-term experiments started before sustainability became the hot issue it is at present. As a consequence the designs of these experiments were not directed, at least not explicitly, towards solutions of sustainability questions. Nevertheless, long-term experiments may provide, often after re-interpretation, important and sometimes surprising insights in the current research problems. The subject of sustainable agriculture does not only refer to continuing soil productivity, but also to the impacts of farming on the environment. In this paper, however, the discussion is narrowed down to the following questions: do agricultural practices inevitably threaten the sustainability of soil productivity; what is the role of plant nutrients in sustained productivity; what can we learn from the long-term experiments carried out for different purposes than the study of sustainability. In this paper we try to analyze the outcomes of three long-term trials, carried out in different ecological settings in Kenya, Vietnam, and The Netherlands. For that purpose we apply two simple models, one on formation and decomposition of soil organic matter, and another on the residual effect of fertilizer P, and we make use of some rather recently introduced concepts with regard to soil fertility and required nutrient inputs, balanced plant nutrition, and optimum nutrient management. The general objective of the analysis is to arrive at general insights into the main requirements of sustainable soil productivity. The fact that the studied field trials could exist for a long time does already preclude situations, where processes like erosion, salting-up, acidification and the like, obviously make soil productivity unsustainable.

Wood smoke in the atmosphere often accounts for 20–30% of the ambient fine‐particle concentrations. In communities where wood is burned for home heating, wood smoke can at times contribute the majority of the atmospheric fine‐particle burden. Chemical mass balance receptor models that use organic compounds as tracers can be used to determine the contributions of different emission sources, including wood smoke, to atmospheric fine‐particle samples. In order for organic chemical tracer techniques to be applied to communities across the United States, differences in wood smoke composition that arise from differences in the type of wood burned in various regions must be understood. A continental‐scale accounting of particulate organic compound emissions from residential wood combustion has been constructed which helps to quantify the regional differences in wood smoke composition that exist between different parts of the United States. Data from a series of source tests conducted on 22 North American wood species have been used to assemble a national inventory of emissions for more than 250 individual organic compounds that are released from wood combustion in fireplaces and wood stoves in the United States. The emission rates of important wood smoke markers, such as levoglucosan, certain substituted syringols and guaiacols, and phytosterols vary greatly with wood type and combustor type. These differences at the level of individual wood type and combustion conditions translate into regional differences in the aggregate composition of ambient wood smoke. By weighting the source test results in proportion to the availability of firewood from specific tree species and the quantities of wood burned in each locale, it is possible to investigate systematic differences that exist between wood smokes from different regions of North America. The relative abundance of 10 major wood smoke components averaged over the emissions inventory in different regions of the United States is computed and then used to illustrate the extent to which wood smoke composition differs from region to region in North America.