The domino effect in climate change. (1st January 2002)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Frondel, Manuel; Oertel, Kristina; Rubbelke, Dirk
• Is Part Of: International journal of environment and pollution. Volume 17:Number 3(2002)
• Page Start: 201
• Page End: 210
• Publication Date: 2002-01-01
• Subjects: climate change -- entropy -- global common -- technological efficiency; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental engineering -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Periodicals; 363.73
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0957-4352

Abstract

This paper provides a concise summary of the natural and the anthropogenic greenhouse effect and the major causes for climate change. This summary may be particularly accessible for readers who are not familiar with natural sciences. Building on these explanations, we develop a simplifying atmospheric model that demonstrates a widely unknown aspect of global warming: the greenhouse effect enhances its own causes and, as a repercussion, induces a further global warming. This effect, referred to as domino effect, is based on the additional production of heat in the atmosphere, happening substantively while heat passes our atmosphere on its way to outer space. On the basis of our considerations, in principle, technological efficiency improvements appear to be an attractive measure for mitigating global warming.