Climate change mitigation

This dissertation tests an original hybrid methodology to explore the rapid spread
of the idea of human-made climate change that began in the 1950s after the idea had lain
dormant for half a century. It describes the 1950s rhetorical events that triggered the
idea’s diffusion, then traces how its rhetorical uses gradually gave root to the end-of-thecentury
political impasse over how to respond to the societal implications of the idea.
The research methodology rests on the simple logic that an idea can only spread
by being used in human discourses. It combines traditions of rhetorical historiography
with a philosophical view of intellectual history as the cumulative effect of a “natural
selection” of ideas and their spread by human individuals over time and geography. It
calls for sampling and analyzing rhetorical artifacts in light of the rhetorical situations in
which they originate, focusing on how the idea of human-made climate change is used
rhetorically in scientific and other discourses. The analyses form the basis of a narrative giving emphasis both to rhetorical continuities and to conversation-changing rhetorical
events. They also show how these rhetorical dynamics involve interactions of human
communities using or attacking the idea for their communal purposes.
The results challenge science-focused understandings of the history of the idea
itself and also suggest that the methodology may be more broadly useful.
As to the history, the analyses highlight how changes in the rhetorical uses of the
idea made possible its 1950s breakout in climate science, then led to uses that spread it
into other sciences and into environmentalism in the 1960s, attached it to apocalyptic
environmentalism in the 1970s, injected it into partisan politics in 1980s and shaped the
political impasse during the 1990s.
The data show that the methodology reveals elements of the discourses missed in
histories emphasizing the “power of ideas,” suggesting that a focus on the usefulness of
ideas may be more fruitful. A focus on rhetorical uses of ideas grounds the causation of
intellectual change in human motivation and agency, expressed in material acts that
multiply and disperse naturally through communities and populations.

In “Letters from the Inside,” Stephanie Anderson presents a vision for sustainable, regenerative agriculture from the perspective of someone born and raised on a conventional cattle ranch. From Florida to New Mexico to the Dakotas, she traces the stories of farmers and ranchers who are already creating such an agriculture. She argues that producers, in tandem with consumers and government, hold the power to change what is currently an environmentally and socially destructive food system.

Trends in streamflow extremes at a regional scale linked to the possible influences of four major oceanic-atmospheric oscillations are analyzed in this study. Oscillations considered include: El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The main emphasis is low flows in the South-Atlantic Gulf region of the United States. Several standard drought indices of low flow extremes during two different phases (warm/positive and cool/negative) of these oscillations are evaluated. Long-term streamflow data at 43 USGS sites in the region from the Hydro-Climatic Data Network that are least affected by anthropogenic influences are used for analysis. Results show that for ENSO, low flow indices were more likely to occur during La Niña phase; however, longer deficits were more likely during El Niño phase. Results also show that for PDO (AMO), all (most) low flow indices occur during the cool (warm) phase.

Increasing sea levels have the potential to place important portions of the infrastructure we rely on every day at risk. The transportation infrastructure relies on roads, airports, and seaports to move people, services, and goods around in an ever connected global economy. Any disturbances of the transportation modes have reverberating effects throughout the entire economic spectrum. The effects include delays, alterations of routes, and possible changes in the origin and destinations of services and goods. The purpose of this project is to develop an improved methodology for a sea level rise scenario vulnerability assessment model. This new model uses the groundwater elevation as a limiting factor for soil storage capacity in determining previously underestimated areas of vulnerability. The hope is that early identification of vulnerability will allow planners and government officials an opportunity to identify and either remediate or create alternative solutions for vulnerable land areas before high consequence impacts are felt.