Title: The domino effect in climate change

Authors: Manuel Frondel, Kristina Oertel, Dirk Rubbelke

Addresses: ZEW, Centre for European Economic Research, L7.1, D-68161, Mannheim, Germany. Department of Economics, University of Technology Chemnitz, D-09107 Chemnitz, Germany. Department of Economics, University of Technology Chemnitz, D-09107 Chemnitz, Germany

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.

Keywords: climate change; entropy; global common; technological efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2002.000666

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2002 Vol.17 No.3, pp.201-210

Published online: 09 Jul 2003 *

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