Required Reading (everyone):

• The Climate Fix, Ch. 3.
• Climate Casino, Ch. 14.

Reading Notes:

In both chapters, the focus is on what it would take to reduce CO₂ emissions around the world.

Key concepts that you should understand are:

• We will be discussing national and global energy consumption in terms of quads (see p. 63 in Climate Fix). You should have a good feeling for how much a quad is and how many quads the US consumes.

• The Kaya Identity and the factors that go into it (p. 71 of The Climate Fix; you might also go back and quickly review pp. 19–23 of Climate Casino, which we read for Aug. 28).:

  • Total CO₂ emissions (\(F\))
  • Population (\(P\))
  • Per-capita GDP (\(g\))
  • Energy intensity of the economy (\(e\))
  • Carbon intensity of the energy supply (\(f\))

• How would you make sense of the fact that the U.S. has a much greater \(F\) than India and a slightly smaller \(F\) than China, but a much smaller \(e\) and \(f\) than either India or China?

• What trends have we seen over the past several decades in the energy intensity of the economy and the carbon intensity of the energy supply? (pp. 74–79 of The Climate Fix and Fig. 3 on p. 22 of Climate Casino)

• What is primary energy consumption and how does it differ from other kinds of energy consumption?

• Why does Pielke argue that energy dependence leads to energy insecurity?

• In Climate Casino, look at Figure 23 and the table of carbon emissions on p. 159. How do different fuels compare in terms of carbon emissions?

• In Climate Casino, look at Table 6 and get a sense of what activities cause the most CO₂ emissions.

• What does the Kaya Identity and the material from Climate Casino suggest for where we should focus in our economy to reduce CO₂ emissions?