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7 - Changing places and changing emissions: comparing local, state, and United States emissions
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- By William E. Easterling, Professor of Geography and Earth Sytem Science Pennsylvania State University, Colin Polsky, NOAA/UCAR Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow with the Research and Assessment Systems for Sustainability program Harvard University, Douglas G. Goodin, Associate Professor of Geography Kansas State University, Michael W. Mayfield, Professor Department of Geography and Planning, Appalachian State University, William A. Muraco, Research Professor & Professor Emeritus University of Toledo, Brent Yarnal, Professor of Geography and Director of the Center for Integrated Assessment Pennsylvania State University
- Association of American Geographers GCLP Research Team
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- Book:
- Global Change and Local Places
- Published online:
- 31 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 26 June 2003, pp 143-157
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Summary
The greenhouse gas emission inventories that currently inform abatement policy discussions have been developed almost exclusively from national-scale data, leavened only rarely with state or provincial inventories. Yet much of the capacity to abate greenhouse gas emissions necessarily resides within local institutions and communities. Policy may be debated and established at national and global scales, but it can be implemented only primarily by local action. This chapter examines how much information is lost when greenhouse gas emissions are estimated only at national scales (the United States in this instance) rather than at state or local levels, as in the four Global Change and Local Places study areas. That information may be critical to linking global and national policies to local actors and behavior.
Comparison of differences in the composition of greenhouse gas emission sources at three nested scales (national, state, local) for the four Global Change and Local Places study sites reveals good agreement in the by-gas composition of greenhouse gas emissions among national, state, and local inventories. Considerable differences are evident, however, in the by-source composition of greenhouse gas emissions among national, state, and local inventories. Geographical sovereignty is evident with respect to the composition of emissions, but geographical sovereignty does not hold for the sources of those emissions, suggesting that continuous monitoring of state and local emissions sources is needed to track geographical and temporal deviations from national trends.
Fugitive emissions and global perspectives
Human-induced greenhouse gases, once released into the atmosphere, recognize no boundaries.
3 - Global change and Southwestern Kansas: local emissions and non-local determinants
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- By John Harrington, Professor and Head of the Department of Geography Kansas State University, David E. Kromm, Professor Emeritus of Geography Kansas State University, Lisa M. B. Harrington, Associate Professor of Geography Kansas State University, Douglas G. Goodin, Associate Professor of Geography Kansas State University, Stephen E. White, Interim Dean College of Arts and Sciences, Kansas State University
- Association of American Geographers GCLP Research Team
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- Book:
- Global Change and Local Places
- Published online:
- 31 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 26 June 2003, pp 57-78
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Summary
Landscape, life, and livelihood
The Southwestern Kansas study area (Figure 2.1) lies within the American High Plains, a semi-arid region west of the 100° meridian that extends northward from West Texas through Kansas and Nebraska to the Dakotas. Characterized by nineteenth century explorers as the ‘Great American Desert,’ the first European-American landholders introduced cattle ranching to this nearly treeless shortgrass prairie. Through the Homesteading Act and the efforts of railroads, much of the High Plains was settled by crop farmers in the late nineteenth century. The area of land successfully cultivated varied with precipitation cycles, however, and the particularly long dry spell that occurred in the 1930s resulted in land abandonment through much of the region, lending the High Plains a new name: The Dust Bowl.
The study site lies at the center of the High Plains and in the heart of the former Dust Bowl. Its six counties encompass an area of approximately 14,120 square kilometers (5,450 square miles), inhabited by slightly more than 90,000 people and over 900,000 cattle. The three principal settlements are Garden City (2000 population of 28,451), Dodge City (25,276), and Liberal (19,666). Southwestern Kansas lies at relatively high elevation: 610–1,070 m (2,000–3,500 ft) above sea level, but contains little internal topographical relief.
The study area's climate is semi-arid with mean monthly temperatures ranging from -1 to +27°C (30–80°F). Precipitation averages less than 58 cm (23 in) per year, most of which falls as spring and summer rain (Goodin et al. 1995).