H Damon Matthews
Biographic Data
| ID | 197124 |
|---|---|
| NAME | H Damon Matthews |
| GIVEN NAMES | H Damon |
| FAMILY NAME | Matthews |
| SIGNATURE | MATTHEWS H D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Concordia University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3625-390X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 42 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Environmental impact and net-zero pathways for sustainable artificial intelligence servers in the USA
The rapidly increasing demand for generative artificial intelligence (AI) models requires extensive server installation with sustainability implications in terms of the compound energy–water–climate impacts. Here we show that the deployment of AI servers across the United States could generate an annual water footprint ranging from 731 to 1,125 million m3 and additional annual carbon emissions from 24 to 44 Mt CO2-equivalent between 2024 and 2030…
Interpreting archaeological mortuary jar traditions in the Philippines: Forms, lids, and regional connections in Island Southeast Asia
The jar burial tradition in the Philippines is commonly perceived as a single entity, but it is clear from recent analysis that similarities are occurring throughout the region based on interment method and associated artefacts. Nevertheless, there is little discussion that includes jar forms and lids as basis for comparison. This study considers this information while also taking unpublished and untranslated reports into account. This research u…
Increased transparency is needed for corporate science-based targets to be effective
Mothers of disabled infants had higher cortisol levels in a free‐ranging group of Japanese macaques ( Macaca fuscata )
Glucocorticoids (GCs) are hormones released in response to stressors and can provide insight into an organism's physiological well‐being. Experiencing chronic challenges to homeostasis is associated with significant deviations from baseline fecal GCs (fGCs) in many species, providing a noninvasive biomarker for assessing stress. In the group of free‐ranging Japanese macaques ( Macaca fuscata ) at the Awajishima Monkey Center in Japan, ~17% have c…
Differentiation of greenhouse gases in corporate science-based targets improves alignment with Paris temperature goal
Companies are increasingly setting greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets to align with the 1.5 °C goal of the Paris Agreement. Currently, companies set these science-based targets (SBTs) for aggregate GHGs expressed in CO 2 -equivalent emissions. This approach does not specify which gases will be reduced and risk misalignment with ambitious mitigation scenarios in which individual gas emissions are mitigated at different rates. We propo…
Renewable energy certificates threaten the integrity of corporate science-based targets
Using cumulative carbon budgets and corporate carbon disclosure to inform ambitious corporate emissions targets and long‐term mitigation pathways
With increasing pressure for climate action, commitments to setting scientifically supported emissions targets have become more common among firms. The target‐setting methods currently endorsed by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) use emission pathways that are aligned with 1.5°C and well‐below 2°C long‐term temperature goals to inform near‐term corporate targets. However, most of these scenarios lead to a temperature overshoot, followe…
Moderate support for the use of digital tracking to support climate-mitigation strategies
Reply to Comment on ‘From the Paris Agreement to corporate climate commitments: Evaluation of seven methods for setting “science-based” emission targets’
The Science Based Targets initiative has published a Comment to our study (Bjørn et al 2021 Environ. Res. Lett. 16 054019). We see the Comment as an important step towards addressing our study’s call for more systematic presentation of methods for setting science-based targets and increased transparency behind the initiative’s method recommendations. We also agree with some of the Comment’s points of criticism of our study and the related nuances…
A portrait of the different configurations between digitally-enabled innovations and climate governance
Rapid societal transformations are required to keep global average temperature rise well below 2 °C by 2050. An increasingly diverse set of initiatives are leveraging digital technologies to transform society. Given the rapid pace at which these initiatives emerge and the accelerated rate of technological innovation, few connections are made as to their common approaches and motivations. To address this, we developed a database of such initiative…
Asymmetry in the climate–carbon cycle response to positive and negative CO2 emissions
From the Paris Agreement to corporate climate commitments: Evaluation of seven methods for setting ‘science-based’ emission targets
While large companies routinely announce greenhouse gas emissions targets, few have derived targets based on global climate goals. This changed in 2015 with the creation of the science based targets (SBTs) initiative, which provides guidelines for setting emission targets in line with the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. SBTs have now been set by more than 500 companies. Methods for setting such targets are not presented in a comparable w…
Shifting economic activity to services has limited potential to reduce global environmental impacts due to the household consumption of labour
The tertiary (or ‘service’) sector is commonly identified as a relatively clean part of the economy. Accordingly, sustainable development policy routinely invokes ‘tertiarization’—a shift from primary and secondary sectors to the tertiary sector—as a means of decoupling economic growth from environmental damages. However, this argument does not account for environmental impacts related to the household consumption of tertiary sector employees. He…
The impact of aerosol emissions on the 1.5 °C pathways
To assess the impact of anthropogenic aerosol emission reduction on limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 °C or 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, two climate modeling approaches have been used (MAGICC6, and a combination of ECHAM-HAMMOZ and the UVic ESCM), with two aerosol control pathways under two greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction scenarios. We found that aerosol emission reductions associated with CO _2 co-emissions had a significant warmin…
Climate and health implications of future aerosol emission scenarios
Anthropogenic aerosols have a net cooling effect on climate and also cause adverse health effects by degrading air quality. In this global-scale sensitivity study, we used a combination of the aerosol-climate model ECHAM-HAMMOZ and the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model to assess the climate and health effects of aerosols emissions from three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5) and two new (LOW and HI…
Global Climate Models
Global climate models are three‐dimensional representations of the climate system and its components. Using mathematical equations, climate models can simulate the exchange of air, water, and energy between components, given user‐specified input parameters. Using model validation techniques and sensitivity studies, climate modelers can assess a model's accuracy in simulating global climate change as well as establish a cause‐and‐effect relationsh…
Emission budgets and pathways consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 °C
Seasonal climate change patterns due to cumulative CO 2 emissions
Cumulative CO _2 emissions are near linearly related to both global and regional changes in annual-mean surface temperature. These relationships are known as the transient climate response to cumulative CO _2 emissions (TCRE) and the regional TCRE (RTCRE), and have been shown to remain approximately constant over a wide range of cumulative emissions. Here, we assessed how well this relationship holds for seasonal patterns of temperature change, a…
Carbon cycle and climate effects of forcing from fire-emitted aerosols
Aerosols emitted by landscape fires affect many climatic processes. Here, we combined an aerosol–climate model and a coupled climate–carbon model to study the carbon cycle and climate effects caused by fire-emitted aerosols (FEA) forcing at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface. This forcing (‘best guess’ present-day values of −0.10 and −1.3 W m ^−2 at the top of the atmosphere and surface, respectively) had a predominant cooling influence…
Focus on cumulative emissions, global carbon budgets and the implications for climate mitigation targets
The Environmental Research Letters focus issue on 'Cumulative Emissions, Global Carbon Budgets and the Implications for Climate Mitigation Targets' was launched in 2015 to highlight the emerging science of the climate response to cumulative emissions, and how this can inform efforts to decrease emissions fast enough to avoid dangerous climate impacts. The 22 research articles published represent a fantastic snapshot of the state-or-the-art in thi…
On the proportionality between global temperature change and cumulative CO 2 emissions during periods of net negative CO 2 emissions
Recent research has demonstrated that global mean surface air warming is approximately proportional to cumulative CO2 emissions. This proportional relationship has received considerable attention, as it allows one to calculate the cumulative CO2 emissions ('carbon budget') compatible with temperature targets and is a useful measure for model inter-comparison. Here we use an Earth system model to explore whether this relationship persists during p…
Assessing the implications of human land-use change for the transient climate response to cumulative carbon emissions
Recent research has shown evidence of a linear climate response to cumulative CO _2 emissions, which implies that the source, timing, and amount of emissions does not significantly influence the climate response per unit emission. Furthermore, these analyses have generally assumed that the climate response to land-use CO _2 emissions is equivalent to that of fossil fuels under the assumption that, once in the atmosphere, the radiative forcing ind…
A Global-Scale Evaluation of Primate Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Change
A probabilistic analysis of cumulative carbon emissions and long-term planetary warming
Efforts to mitigate and adapt to long-term climate change could benefit greatly from probabilistic estimates of cumulative carbon emissions due to fossil fuel burning and resulting CO 2 -induced planetary warming. Here we demonstrate the use of a reduced-form model to project these variables. We performed simulations using a large-ensemble framework with parametric uncertainty sampled to produce distributions of future cumulative emissions and co…
Allocating a 2 °C cumulative carbon budget to countries
Recent estimates of the global carbon budget, or allowable cumulative CO2 emissions consistent with a given level of climate warming, have the potential to inform climate mitigation policy discussions aimed at maintaining global temperatures below 2 °C. This raises difficult questions, however, about how best to share this carbon budget amongst nations in a way that both respects the need for a finite cap on total allowable emissions, and also ad…
A Global-Scale Evaluation of Primate Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Change
Indigenous Climate Change Adaptation Planning Using a Values-Focused Approach: A Case Study with the Gitga'at Nation
Local values and knowledge can be important components in creating robust climate change adaptation strategies for marginalized communities. Incorporating local values into the climate change planning process in a structured way and effectively using local knowledge not only improves the identification of priority actions for climate change adaptation, but also supports successful implementation. Much of climate change adaptation planning in rece…
Birth in Free-ranging Macaca fuscata
Social consequences of disability in a nonhuman primate
Environmental impact and net-zero pathways for sustainable artificial intelligence servers in the USA
The rapidly increasing demand for generative artificial intelligence (AI) models requires extensive server installation with sustainability implications in terms of the compound energy–water–climate impacts. Here we show that the deployment of AI servers across the United States could generate an annual water footprint ranging from 731 to 1,125 million m3 and additional annual carbon emissions from 24 to 44 Mt CO2-equivalent between 2024 and 2030…
A portrait of the different configurations between digitally-enabled innovations and climate governance
Rapid societal transformations are required to keep global average temperature rise well below 2 °C by 2050. An increasingly diverse set of initiatives are leveraging digital technologies to transform society. Given the rapid pace at which these initiatives emerge and the accelerated rate of technological innovation, few connections are made as to their common approaches and motivations. To address this, we developed a database of such initiative…
Climate–Carbon Cycle Feedback Analysis: Results from the C4MIP Model Intercomparison
Eleven coupled climate–carbon cycle models used a common protocol to study the coupling between climate change and the carbon cycle. The models were forced by historical emissions and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A2 anthropogenic emissions of CO2 for the 1850–2100 time period. For each model, two simulations were performed in order to isolate the impact of climate change on the …
Monkeys with disabilities: Prevalence and severity of congenital limb malformations in Macaca fuscata on Awaji Island
Stabilizing climate requires near‐zero emissions
Current international climate mitigation efforts aim to stabilize levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, human‐induced climate warming will continue for many centuries, even after atmospheric CO 2 levels are stabilized. In this paper, we assess the CO 2 emissions requirements for global temperature stabilization within the next several centuries, using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity. We show first that a single p…
The proportionality of global warming to cumulative carbon emissions
Of mongooses and mitigation: Ecological analogues to geoengineering
Anthropogenic global warming is a growing environmental problem resulting from unintentional human intervention in the global climate system. If employed as a response strategy, geoengineering would represent an additional intentional human intervention in the climate system, with the intent of decreasing net climate impacts. There is a rich and fascinating history of human intervention in environmental systems, with many specific examples from e…
Climate engineering and the risk of rapid climate change
Recent research has highlighted risks associated with the use of climate engineering as a method of stabilizing global temperatures, including the possibility of rapid climate warming in the case of abrupt removal of engineered radiative forcing. In this study, we have used a simple climate model to estimate the likely range of temperature changes associated with implementation and removal of climate engineering. In the absence of climate enginee…
Future CO 2 Emissions and Climate Change from Existing Energy Infrastructure
What We're In For What would our climate future look like if we stopped building any new infrastructure that used fossil fuels? Davis et al. (p. 1330 ; see the Perspective by Hoffert ) made the assumption that all existing infrastructure will be used until the end of its lifetime, after which it will be replaced by infrastructure that does not produce CO 2 . They then calculated the amount of additional CO 2 that will be added to the atmosphere. …
Accounting for carbon cycle feedbacks in a comparison of the global warming effects of greenhouse gases
Greenhouse gases other than CO2 make a significant contribution to human-induced climate change, and multi-gas mitigation strategies are cheaper to implement than those which limit CO2 emissions alone. Most practical multi-gas mitigation strategies require metrics to relate the climate warming effects of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Global warming potential (GWP), defined as the ratio of time-integrated radiative forcing of a particular gas to…
Birth in Free-ranging Macaca fuscata
Disability, Compensatory Behavior, and Innovation in Free‐Ranging Adult Female J apanese Macaques ( M acaca Fuscata )
Little is known about consequences of disability in nonhuman primates, yet individuals with disabilities can reveal much about behavioral flexibility, innovation, and the capabilities of a species. The M acaca fuscata population surrounding the A wajishima M onkey C enter has experienced high rates of congenital limb malformation for at least 40 years, creating a unique opportunity to examine consequences of physical impairment in situ , in a rel…
Observed decreases in the Canadian outdoor skating season due to recent winter warming
Global warming has the potential to negatively affect one of Canada's primary sources of winter recreation: hockey and ice skating on outdoor rinks. Observed changes in winter temperatures in Canada suggest changes in the meteorological conditions required to support the creation and maintenance of outdoor skating rinks; while there have been observed increases in the ice-free period of several natural water bodies, there has been no study of pot…
The long-term effect of increasing the albedo of urban areas
Solar reflective urban surfaces (white rooftops and light-colored pavements) can increase the albedo of an urban area by about 0.1. Increasing the albedo of urban and human settlement areas can in turn decrease atmospheric temperature and could potentially offset some of the anticipated temperature increase caused by global warming. We have simulated the long-term (decadal to centennial) effect of increasing urban surface albedos using a spatiall…
National contributions to observed global warming
There is considerable interest in identifying national contributions to global warming as a way of allocating historical responsibility for observed climate change. This task is made difficult by uncertainty associated with national estimates of historical emissions, as well as by difficulty in estimating the climate response to emissions of gases with widely varying atmospheric lifetimes. Here, we present a new estimate of national contributions…
A growing commitment to future CO 2 emissions
The construction of new fossil fuel energy infrastructure implies a commitment to burn fossil fuels and therefore produce CO _2 emissions for several decades into the future. The recent letter by Davis and Socolow (2014 Environ. Res. Lett. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/8/084018 9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/8/084018 ) highlights the current and growing commitment to future emissions, and argues that this emission commitment shou…
Social consequences of disability in a nonhuman primate
Indigenous Climate Change Adaptation Planning Using a Values-Focused Approach: A Case Study with the Gitga'at Nation
Local values and knowledge can be important components in creating robust climate change adaptation strategies for marginalized communities. Incorporating local values into the climate change planning process in a structured way and effectively using local knowledge not only improves the identification of priority actions for climate change adaptation, but also supports successful implementation. Much of climate change adaptation planning in rece…
A probabilistic analysis of cumulative carbon emissions and long-term planetary warming
Efforts to mitigate and adapt to long-term climate change could benefit greatly from probabilistic estimates of cumulative carbon emissions due to fossil fuel burning and resulting CO 2 -induced planetary warming. Here we demonstrate the use of a reduced-form model to project these variables. We performed simulations using a large-ensemble framework with parametric uncertainty sampled to produce distributions of future cumulative emissions and co…
Allocating a 2 °C cumulative carbon budget to countries
Recent estimates of the global carbon budget, or allowable cumulative CO2 emissions consistent with a given level of climate warming, have the potential to inform climate mitigation policy discussions aimed at maintaining global temperatures below 2 °C. This raises difficult questions, however, about how best to share this carbon budget amongst nations in a way that both respects the need for a finite cap on total allowable emissions, and also ad…
Sensitivity of carbon budgets to permafrost carbon feedbacks and non-CO 2 forcings
The bar representing the carbon budget for the 2 C temperature change target for the model configuration with non-CO 2 forcings from figure 4(a) was mislabelled. The bar was mistakenly labelled with the value for RCP 8.5 instead of RCP 6.0. The correct value is 810 Pg C. The corrected figure follows
On the proportionality between global temperature change and cumulative CO 2 emissions during periods of net negative CO 2 emissions
Recent research has demonstrated that global mean surface air warming is approximately proportional to cumulative CO2 emissions. This proportional relationship has received considerable attention, as it allows one to calculate the cumulative CO2 emissions ('carbon budget') compatible with temperature targets and is a useful measure for model inter-comparison. Here we use an Earth system model to explore whether this relationship persists during p…
Assessing the implications of human land-use change for the transient climate response to cumulative carbon emissions
Recent research has shown evidence of a linear climate response to cumulative CO _2 emissions, which implies that the source, timing, and amount of emissions does not significantly influence the climate response per unit emission. Furthermore, these analyses have generally assumed that the climate response to land-use CO _2 emissions is equivalent to that of fossil fuels under the assumption that, once in the atmosphere, the radiative forcing ind…
A Global-Scale Evaluation of Primate Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Change
Global Climate Models
Global climate models are three‐dimensional representations of the climate system and its components. Using mathematical equations, climate models can simulate the exchange of air, water, and energy between components, given user‐specified input parameters. Using model validation techniques and sensitivity studies, climate modelers can assess a model's accuracy in simulating global climate change as well as establish a cause‐and‐effect relationsh…
Emission budgets and pathways consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 °C
Seasonal climate change patterns due to cumulative CO 2 emissions
Cumulative CO _2 emissions are near linearly related to both global and regional changes in annual-mean surface temperature. These relationships are known as the transient climate response to cumulative CO _2 emissions (TCRE) and the regional TCRE (RTCRE), and have been shown to remain approximately constant over a wide range of cumulative emissions. Here, we assessed how well this relationship holds for seasonal patterns of temperature change, a…
Climate change (29 works) · Environmental Science (28 works) · Greenhouse gas (23 works) · Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics (20 works) · Climatology (20 works) · Global warming (20 works) · Climate Change Policy and Economics (18 works) · Ecology (18 works) · Atmospheric sciences (17 works) · Geography (15 works)