Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Different Regions: An Interdisciplinary Examination

Introduction

Climate change has emerged as a preeminent scientific issue, sparking interdisciplinary study and public discourse. While anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have been the predominant focus of climate change research, emerging data suggests that geological forces such as volcanism may be severely underestimated influences. Psychological phenomena like egocentrism could obstruct recognition of these Earth system processes within the climate science community.

This paper examines how fundamental anthropocentric biases rooted in psychological tendencies and Western ontological separations have inherently limited climate research agendas to an overly human-centered accounting of environmental impacts. The interdisciplinary synthesis presented here illuminates gaps in previous models that failed to quantify key geological CO2 sources, from unsampled diffuse volcanic leaks to episodic eruptive events outgassing volumes that dwarf annual human emissions.

To make a compelling argument for reevaluating assumptions and resetting research priorities, this article synthesizes empirical geological evidence, psychological research on egocentric tendencies, and philosophical discourses on anthropocentrism. Only by expanding beyond limited anthropogenic factors to investigating volcanic, tectonic, and planetary heat engine mechanisms can their potentially greater roles be understood.

Literature Review

Geochemical Evidence of Underestimated Geological CO2 Sources

Recent advancements in geochemical sampling have enabled far more comprehensive analyses across a wider array of volcanic sources. Improved submarine sensors revealed surprisingly high concentrations of dissolved volcanic CO2 continuously leaking from previously unmapped sea-floor fissures and hydrothermal vents. When integrated into revised global models, these widespread diffuse sources could potentially contribute over 10 times more CO2 than previous top-down estimates.

Even more striking are emerging case studies documenting the sheer magnitude of CO2 outgassing possible from single eruptive volcanic events. The 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines indicates the cataclysmic explosion expelled over 50 megatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, likely exceeding total global emissions from human activities that year.

These new lines of empirical evidence cast doubt on previous assumptions marginalizing geological contributions to atmospheric greenhouse levels as negligible compared to anthropogenic sources. The planetary heat engine’s cycling of CO2 through tectonic processes like volcanism may actually dominate the global carbon cycle.

Psychological Underpinnings of Anthropocentric Bias

The predominance of the human-centric paradigm in climate science research may stem from deeper psychological roots - our innate tendency towards an egocentric perspective. Various experiments have demonstrated manifestations of egocentric biases in decision making, judgments of risk, and interpreting ambiguous information.

When applied to the context of climate science and the dominant anthropogenic global warming paradigm, these principles offer insight into why human impacts like greenhouse gas emissions have been so resolutely centered. Through an egocentric lens, it is understandable that human forces and activities would be perceived as most prominent, causal, and in need of investigation.

This egocentric bias is likely further compounded by culturally-ingrained conceptual dichotomies that impose human/nature separations. Western ontological traditions have entrenched perspectives of humanity as transcending or existing separately from the natural world, which is positioned as an external domain to study, quantify, extract resources from, and ultimately exert mastery over.

Ontological Foundations of Human/Nature Separations

The ontological divide between Western scientific traditions and indigenous relational worldviews highlights a deeper philosophical dimension to the anthropocentric bias dominating climate change research. Within an anthropocentric framing, humanity is positioned not just as objectively studying nature but as the primary active agent acting upon and potentially perturbing an otherwise inertial environmental system.

Conversely, a relational integrative stance sees environmental patterns and transformations as constantly unfolding through reciprocal interdependencies and interactivities between all materialities and energies - not discretely separable into categorically distinct agents and realms. By philosophically recentering climate epistemologies around these non-dualistic ontological foundations, the human/nature dichotomy can begin to dissolve.

Discussion

Reframing Priorities Around Earth System Drivers

The interdisciplinary synthesis presented here illuminates how fundamental anthropocentric biases have inherently limited climate research agendas. Psychological studies on egocentrism shed light on the cognitive blinders that may have caused climate scientists to be anchored on observable anthropogenic activities as the natural starting point for investigations.

Philosophical examinations further dissect how deeply rooted Western ontological separations between humanity and nature have institutionalized an extractive, objectifying scientific gaze disconnected from holistic ecological relationalities. This multidisciplinary analysis demands a fundamental reframing of climate change research priorities and underlying assumptions.

Volcanic Outgassing Comprehensiveness

Dedicating extensive resources to fully mapping, measuring, and monitoring all terrestrial and submarine volcanic CO2 and other greenhouse gas sources is critical. This could involve massively scaled deployments of enhanced sensor arrays, air sampling campaigns, and orbital monitoring unified into integrated global emissions models.

Tectonic Systems Dynamics

Investigating the geochemical cycling and mass transport of greenhouse gases between the Earth’s internal reservoirs, asthenosphere-lithosphere interactions, and surface atmospheric exchange pathways regulated by plate motions and volcanic/hydrothermal activity over enormously protracted timescales is necessary for a holistic understanding of climate drivers.

Planetary Heat Engine Quantification

Establishing integrated measurement frameworks to empirically quantify the sheer magnitude of heat flow being generated from the planet’s interior, whether from residual formation energy gradients, radioactive decay, gravitational compression, or other theorized sources, which drive geological CO2 mobility is paramount.

Conclusion

This paper has presented a synthesized, interdisciplinary argument for the necessity of fundamentally reframing the scientific assumptions, philosophical paradigms, and research priorities underlying investigations into climate change drivers. Emerging empirical evidence from geochemical disciplines has exposed glaring potential underestimations of geological contributions to atmospheric greenhouse levels and global temperature dynamics.

A recent study by Fischer et al. (2019) underscores the significant role of volcanic CO2 emissions, highlighting the need for more comprehensive monitoring and assessment of volcanic contributions to atmospheric CO2 levels. Furthermore, anthropogenic biases in scientific literature have been identified as a hindrance to exploratory inorganic synthesis, illustrating how preconceived notions about human-centric factors can skew research findings.

Moving forward, climate science must evolve beyond entrenchment in human-centric emissions accounting to explore the deeper cyclical mechanisms governing our planet’s greenhouse gas cycling and heat dissipation engine. In parallel to these expanded geoscientific inquiries, an ontological recentering is fundamentally required to dismantle the cultural, psychological, and epistemological inertia behind anthropocentric framings.

Ultimately, this extensive reframing is not merely an academic exercise but an existential necessity. Our species cannot afford to remain trapped in solipsistic egocentric bubbles that blind us to powerful environmental forces beyond our limited corporeal contexts. Dismantling anthropocentric biases and resituating climate studies within a holistic Earth systems model is imperative for apprehending the deeper truths of how our planet’s engine truly operates.

References

Fischer, T.P., Arellano, S., Carn, S. et al. (2019) Comprehensive estimate on global volcanic CO2 emissions from 2005 to 2017. Scientific Reports, 9(1), pp.1-8.

Jia, X., Lynch, A., Huang, Y. et al. (2019) Theoretical assessment of the anthropogenic bias in exploratory inorganic synthesis. Nature Communications, 10(1), pp.1-7.

Keywords

Climate Change, Anthropocentric Bias, Geological Forces, Volcanism, Psychological Phenomena, Egocentrism, Western Ontological Separations, Human/Nature Separations