The Atlas of Climate Change by
This highly acclaimed atlas distills the vast science of climate change, providing a reliable and insightful guide to this rapidly growing field. Since the 2006 publication of the first edition, climate change has climbed even higher up the global agenda. This new edition reflects the latest developments in research and the impact of climate change, and in current efforts to mitigate and adapt to changes in the worlds weather.
Climate Change by
There is no doubt that climate change is happening and that mankind is increasingly to blame. This text provides a solid basis for the discussion about climate change, by addressing the arguments from both sides of the debate and offering an objective evaluation of the facts.
Climate Change by
"This is, for my money, the best single-source primer on the state of climate change." - New York Magazine"The right book at the right time: accessible, comprehensive, unflinching, humane." - The Daily Beast"A must-read." - The GuardianThe essential primer on what will be the defining issue of our time, Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to KnowRG is a clear-eyed overview of the science, conflicts, and implications of our warming planet. From Joseph Romm, Chief Science Advisor for National Geographic's Years of Living Dangerously series and one of Rolling Stone's "100 people who are changing America," Climate Change offers user-friendly, scientifically rigorous answers to the most difficult (and commonly politicized) questionssurrounding what climatologist Lonnie Thompson has deemed "a clear and present danger to civilization." Questions about climate change addressed in this guide include:* How will climate change affect day-to-day life in the coming decades?* What are the implications of owning coastal property in the age of climate change? * Is retirement to South Florida (or the U.S. Southwest, or even Southern Europe) safe? * What are the implications of the United States' withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty? * What does Donald Trump's presidency mean for climate action in the United States and around the globe? * Are efforts to combat climate change making a difference? As the global response to climate change continues to evolve, Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to KnowRG offers smart, unbiased answers to the most difficult questions in an area dogged by misunderstanding and politicization.
Climate Change by
Most of us are familiar with the term climate change but few of us understand the science behind it. We don't fully comprehend how climate change will affect us, and for that reason we might not consider it as pressing a concern as, say, housing prices or unemployment. This book explains the scientific knowledge about global climate change clearly and concisely in engaging, nontechnical language, describes how it will affect all of us, and suggests how government, business, and citizens can take action against it. This completely revised and updated edition incorporates the latest scientific research and policy initiatives on climate change. It describes recent major legislative actions, analyzes alternative regulatory tools including new uses of taxes and markets, offers increased coverage of China and other developing nations, discusses the role of social media in communicating about climate change, and provides updated assessments of the effects of climate change. The book first explains the basic scientific facts about climate change and its global impact. It discusses the nature of scientific consensus and the strong consensus of mainstream science on climate change. It then explores policy responses and corporate actions in the United States and the rest of the world, discusses how the communication of climate change information by journalists and others can be improved, and addresses issues of environmental justice -- how climate change affects the most vulnerable populations and regions. We can better tackle climate change, this book shows us, if we understand it.
Climate Management by
Climate Management focuses on changing human behavior as the first step toward a positive management system that will benefit current society and those to come. This new full-color resource explores human psychology and how cultural value systems, politics, and news dissemination affect people's opinions, thereby driving public response. Informing readers on how global warming affects national security and terrorism and why its progression is a very real threat to everyone's future, this accessible resource presents various conservation programs that have been developed and looks at what is and isn't working. Climate Management also outlines the importance of public education and the role it plays in the future.
Climate Myths by
Climate Myths is both a primer on climate change and a definitive rebuttal of climate science denial. The book can thus be used to help educate students, teachers, and the general public about the controversy over climate change. Climate Myths puts the campaign against climate science in historical, political, and economic context and juxtaposes the claims of climate change deniers with the facts about climate change as revealed by authoritative climate science. Climate Myths dispels common misunderstandings about climate change and spotlights the companies, organizations, and individuals who have promoted climate myths in the course of their highly successful, multimillion dollar climate disinformation campaigns. Drawing on the principles and achievements of climate science, Climate Myths summarizes the imminent threat of rapid climate change, pointing readers toward needed action.
Climate Systems by
Climate Systems gives students the basic scientific framework needed to understand how climate systems work and what global warming involves. Outlining the concepts of global systems, climate cycles, and the atmosphere's structure, this full-color book discusses the local motions in the atmosphere that affect weather and climate—from regional and local wind systems to extreme weather and emergency preparedness. This informative volume also examines various countries and how they contribute to the problem as well as strategies for coping with global climate change, current research, and what lies ahead.
Climate Warming in Western North America by
Western North America is a unique area to use as a laboratory for climate change. Aridity makes it highly sensitive to changes in precipitation and the majority of its water resources come from mountain streams fed by snowfall. Water availability in the West is dependent on both precipitation and evapotranspiration loss. Any change to water availability has a direct affect on agriculture and livestock ranching throughout the region.
Climate change is a subject of extreme breadth and complexity. This book focuses largely on climate change during the twentieth century and the associated environmental effects in western North America. It also uses models based on twentieth-century changes to project twenty-first-century changes. The scientific evidence presented here does not engage in policy advocacy, but provides policy makers useful information in planning for the future.
Earth's Climate Evolution by
To understand climate change today, we first need to know how Earth's climate changed over the past 450 million years. Finding answers depends upon contributions from a wide range of sciences, not just the rock record uncovered by geologists. In Earth's Climate Evolution, Colin Summerhayes analyzes reports and records of past climate change dating back to the late 18th century to uncover key patterns in the climate system. The book will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about future climate change. The book takes a unique approach to the subject providing a description of the greenhouse and icehouse worlds of the past 450 million years since land plants emerged, ignoring major earlier glaciations like that of Snowball Earth, which occurred around 600 million years ago in a world free of land plants. It describes the evolution of thinking in palaeoclimatology and introduces the main players in the field and how their ideas were received and, in many cases, subsequently modified. It records the arguments and discussions about the merits of different ideas along the way. It also includes several notes made from the author's own personal involvement in palaeoclimatological and palaeoceanographic studies, and from his experience of working alongside several of the major players in these fields in recent years. This book will be an invaluable reference for both undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in related fields and will also be of interest to historians of science and/or geology, climatology and oceanography. It should also be of interest to the wider scientific and engineering community, high school science students, policy makers, and environmental NGOs.
Earth under Fire by
Six years ago, award-winning photojournalist Gary Braasch began an extraordinary journey around the world to observe and document environmental changes resulting from the warming of our climate. In this stunning, eye-opening book, he brings us along to witness firsthand what he saw as he crossed both the Antarctic and Arctic Circles, trekked above 15,000 feet in the Andes, dove on damaged coral reefs, and followed scientists into the field on four continents. In more than one hundred photographs, including dramatic before-and-after comparisons, Braasch records communities, landscapes, and animals at risk because of receding glaciers, eroding coastlines, rising sea levels, and thawing permafrost. In the accompanying text he surveys the science behind climate change and introduces native people, lifelong observers, scientists, and others who are noticing striking changes right now. Alongside Braasch's compelling words and images, essays by eminent scientists discuss the impacts of climate change on the oceans, biodiversity, fresh water, mountain cultures, plants and animals, and our health. More than a warning, Earth under Fire, the most complete illustrated guide to the effects of climate change now available, offers an upbeat and intelligent account of how we can lessen the effects of our near total dependence on fossil fuel using technologies and energy sources already available.
Encyclopedia of Global Warming (3 Volumes) by
Philander, a member of the geosciences faculty at Princeton University and research director of the African Centre for Climate and Earth System Science in Cape Town, South Africa, has gathered authors from fields as diverse as anthropology, chemistry, geography, and medicine to put together an encyclopedia of about 750 articles. The entries cover countries, climate models, atmospheric sciences, institutions studying climate change, and people studying the climate. Individual country entries highlight changes by country instead of by broad climatic regions and will help users understand global-warming issues in, say, Argentina or Tuvalu. Organizational entries are predominately focused on U.S. institutions and governmental entities. Although the preface notes that “scientific objectivity have been the watchwords” for the encyclopedia, entries provide a range of perspectives. One example is found in Alternative energy, overview, which states, “A comparison of production costs shows that fossil fuels are simply cheaper to produce than alternative fuels, which often need government subsidies to make them economically feasible.” This statement ignores the enormous subsidies given to the fossil-fuel industry in the U.S. and elsewhere that have allowed production costs to remain falsely low compared to alternative fuels. As the preface states, “Different perspectives that various authors have on some of these issues are part of the conversation that citizens or students concerned about the environment ignore at their own risk.” Though illustrations within the entries are in black and white, the introduction, which is repeated in each volume, has full-color climate-change maps. Also repeated in each volume are the alphabetical list of articles, the thorough index, and the appendixes, which contain graphs and charts that cover sea-level rise, temperatures, warming projections, and other statistics. Articles have see also references to related entries and a bibliography of works used. A “Resource Guide” listing books, articles, periodicals, and Internet resources as well as a brief glossary are available in volume 3. This is a useful set because of the individual country entries as well as the general-audience language. Libraries seeking a more academic or scientific approach might prefer either the Encyclopedia of Global Change (Oxford, 2002) or Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change (Wiley, 2002), but because of the importance of the topic, Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change belongs in most academic and large public libraries. --Steve Stratton
The Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate Change by
The Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate Change takes the reader beyond simple definitions to explore where weather comes from and the roles played by oceans and water cycles, and explains such related phenomena as the shaping of landforms, the creation of biological provinces, and the lasting ramifications of climate change. It also discusses how humans have survived and adapted in extreme climates like deserts, jungles, and icy regions. Each of the book's six sections is written and vetted by a different expert. "Engine" discusses what weather is, the solar powerhouse that supplies it, and Earth's atmospheric systems and seasons. "Action" delves into the dynamics of various weather forms. "Extremes" covers blizzards, heat waves, wildfires, and more. "Watching" tracks how weather is measured, mapped, monitored, and forecast. "Climate" delineates the continental climate zones and describes the plant, animal, and human adaptations for each. "Change" considers the history of climate change—ice ages, dinosaur extinction, melting glaciers, human impact, and more—and what we can expect in the future.
Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems by 
Global Warming Trends by
Global Warming Trends presents an overview of significant climatic periods of the Earth's past and introduces the concept of climate proxies, or natural indicators that can be used to infer past climate. This accessible new book discusses the concept of geochronology and how scientists determine the relative ages of objects on Earth. It also examines how scientists use pollen, tree rings, plant remains, and other life forms to make inferences about past climatic conditions. Global Warming Trends concludes with the most current information from climate experts, exploring the futuristic role of computer modeling and how it is helping scientists discover the past in order to predict the future.
Global Weirdness by
Produced by Climate Central--a highly regarded independent, nonprofit journalism and research foundation founded in 2008--and reviewed by scientists at major educational and research institutions the world over, Global Weirdness summarizes, in clear and accessible prose, everything we know about the science of climate change; explains what is likely to happen to the climate in the future; and lays out in practical terms what we can and cannot do to avoid further shifts.
nbsp;
Sixty easy-to-read entries tackle such questions as: Is climate ever "normal"? Why and how do fossil-fuel burning and other human practices produce greenhouse gases? What natural forces have caused climate change in the past? What risks does climate change pose for human health? What accounts for the diminishment of mountain glaciers and small ice caps around the world since 1850? What are the economic costs and benefits of reducing carbon emissions?
nbsp;
Global Weirdness enlarges our understanding of how climate change affects our daily lives, and arms us with the incontrovertible facts we need to make informed decisions about the future of the planet and of humankind.
With black-and-white images interspersed throughout.
A Great Aridness by
With its soaring azure sky and stark landscapes, the American Southwest is one of the most hauntingly beautiful regions on earth. Yet staggering population growth, combined with the intensifying effects of climate change, is driving the oasis-based society close to the brink of aDust-Bowl-scale catastrophe.In A Great Aridness, William deBuys paints a compelling picture of what the Southwest might look like when the heat turns up and the water runs out. This semi-arid land, vulnerable to water shortages, rising temperatures, wildfires, and a host of other environmental challenges, is poised to bear theheaviest consequences of global environmental change in the United States. Examining interrelated factors such as vanishing wildlife, forest die backs, and the over-allocation of the already stressed Colorado River - upon which nearly 30 million people depend - the author narrates the landscape'shistory - and future. He tells the inspiring stories of the climatologists and others who are helping untangle the complex, interlocking causes and effects of global warming. And while the fate of this region may seem at first blush to be of merely local interest, what happens in the Southwest,deBuys suggests, will provide a glimpse of what other mid-latitude arid lands worldwide - the Mediterranean Basin, southern Africa, and the Middle East - will experience in the coming years. Written with an elegance that recalls the prose of John McPhee and Wallace Stegner, A Great Aridness offers an unflinching look at the dramatic effects of climate change occurring right now in our own backyard.
The Handbook of Carbon Accounting by
Carbon Accounting is a vital tool in enabling organisations to measure and report on their greenhouse gas emissions. As the need to respond to the causes and impacts of climate change becomes increasingly urgent, emissions calculations and inventories are a vital first step towards mastering climatic risk. The Handbook of Carbon Accounting offers an accessible and comprehensive presentation of the discipline. The book examines the different methods or instruments implemented by countries and companies - such as carbon taxation, carbon markets and voluntary offsetting - while revealing how these stem not simply from the aim of reducing emissions for the lowest cost, but more as a compromise between divergent interests and individual world views. It also explores the historical context of the emergence of carbon accounting, assessing its evolution since the Rio Conference in 1992 and the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, to the latest Conference of Parties in 2015 in Paris.The book concludes with a very practical guide to calculate, reduce, offset and disclose your carbon footprint.Like other management tools, carbon accounting may not be an exact science, but its contribution has never been more important. The Handbook of Carbon Accounting is a vital educational resource that will help readers - including those with no prior knowledge of the field - to understand carbon flows and stocks and to take action. It forms part of a movement that heralds the start of a new economic era in which the search for prosperity can live in harmony with the environment.
High Mountain Glaciers and Climate Change by
Climate change is causing signifcant mass loss of glaciers in high mountains worldwide. Although glacier systems show a great amount of inherent complexity and variation, there are clear overall trends indicating global glacier recession, which is likely to accelerate in coming decades. Large gaps remain in our understanding and ability to model accurately the key processes and cause-effect relationships driving glacier response to climate change. In addition, a lot of data on glacier mass changes are not available to the public due to national interests concerning water supply.
The Melting World: a journey across America's vanishing glaciers by
Global warming usually seems to happen far away, but one catastrophic effect of climate change is underway right now in the Rocky Mountains. In The Melting World , Chris White travels to Montana to chronicle the work of Dan Fagre, a climate scientist and ecologist, whose work shows that alpine glaciers are vanishing rapidly close to home. For years, Fagre has monitored the ice sheets in Glacier National Park proving that they--and by extension all Rocky Mountain ice--will melt far faster than previously imagined. How long will the ice fields survive? What are the consequences on our environment? The Melting World chronicles the first extinction of a mountain ecosystem in what is expected to be a series of such global calamities as humanity faces the prospect of a world without alpine ice.
Overheated by
The theory that human activity is causing the earth to warm is broadly known. Yet while the vast majority of scientists who study the issue think that global warming is both real and dangerous, nations have done very little to halt - much less reverse - the process. The main reason for this isthat crafting policies to reduce global warming presents a serious collective action problem: the threat today seems minor, yet taking it on alone puts nations at a competitive disadvantage with those who simply elide the issue. Moreover, amidst this environment of buck passing, there is a vocalminority that contends that global warming is not even occurring. And there are others who admit that while it might be occurring, it is an entirely manageable threat. In Overheated, Andrew Guzman stresses that a major problem facing proponents of global warming reduction policies is that it remains an abstract issue for most. Yes, it might occur, but ordinary people really do not have a sense of how it will impact their lives. Guzman moves beyond abstractions andspells out the real-world consequences for human societies if we continue on the path that we're presently on: pandemics resulting from escalating urbanization and migration, massive flooding, the impact of rising sea levels on coastlines, and oscillations in food production. Guzman argues that onlyby establishing the increasing likelihood of these sorts of catastrophes can we begin to implement changes in national and international policy. By shifting the discussion away from scientific evidence that has no apparent effect on people's daily lives to global warming's wide-ranging impact onhuman societies, Overheated brings global warming down to earth. In doing so, it forces us to confront the very real ways in which climate change will negatively transform the lives of billions of people if we fail to institute effective policies to mitigate it.
The Story of More : how we got to climate change and where to go from here by
"Hope Jahren is an award-winning geobiologist, a brilliant writer, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. The Story of More is her impassioned open letter to humanity as we stand at the crossroads of survival and extinction. Jahren celebrates the long history of our enterprising spirit--which has tamed wild crops, cured diseases, and sent us to the moon--but also shows how that spirit has created excesses that are quickly warming our planet to dangerous levels. In short, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions--from electric power to large-scale farming and automobiles--that, even as they help us, release untenable amounts of carbon dioxide. She explains the current and projected consequences of greenhouse gases--from superstorms to rising sea levels--and the science-based tools that could help us fight back. At once an explainer on the mechanisms of warming and a capsule history of human development, The Story of More illuminates the link between our consumption habits and our endangered earth. It is the essential pocket primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it"
Trees in Trouble : wildfires, infestations, and climate change by
A story of the devastating and compounding effects of climate change in the Western and Rocky Mountain states, told through in-depth reportage and conversations with ecologists, professional forest managers, park service scientists, burn boss, activists, and more. Climate change manifests in many ways across North America, but few as dramatic as the attacks on our western pine forests. Daniel Mathews tells the urgent story of this loss, accompanying burn crews and forest ecologists as they study the myriad risk factors and refine techniques for saving this important, limited resource. Mathews transports the reader from the exquisitely aromatic haze of ponderosa and Jeffrey pine groves to the fantastic gnarls and whorls of five-thousand-year-old bristlecone pines, from genetic test nurseries where white pine seedlings are deliberately infected with their mortal enemy to the hottest megafire sites and neighborhoods leveled by fire tornadoes or ember blizzards. Trees in Trouble not only explores the devastating ripple effects of climate change, but also introduces us to the people devoting their lives to saving our forests. Mathews also offers hope: a new approach to managing western pine forests is underway. Trees in Trouble explores how we might succeed in sustaining our forests through the challenging transition to a new environment.
The Uninhabitable Earth by
It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible. In California, wildfires now rage year-round, destroying thousands of homes. Across the US, "500-year" storms pummel communities month after month, and floods displace tens of millions annually. This is only a preview of the changes to come. And they are coming fast. Without a revolution in how billions of humans conduct their lives, parts of the Earth could become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century. In his travelogue of our near future, David Wallace-Wells brings into stark relief the climate troubles that await -- food shortages, refugee emergencies, and other crises that will reshape the globe. But the world will be remade by warming in more profound ways as well, transforming our politics, our culture, our relationship to technology, and our sense of history. It will be all-encompassing, shaping and distorting nearly every aspect of human life as it is lived today. Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring before it, The Uninhabitable Earth is both a meditation on the devastation we have brought upon ourselves and an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation"
The whole story of climate : what science reveals about the nature of endless change by
Offers an overview of the contributions geology has made to the study of climate change and the nuanced picture it presents of a climate that has gone through constant change over the course of millennia.
Falter by
Thirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out. Bill McKibben's groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic -- was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization can exist, new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics threaten to bleach away the variety of human experience. Falter tells the story of these converging trends and of the ideological fervor that keeps us from bringing them under control. And then, drawing on McKibben's experience in building 350.org, the first truly global citizens movement to combat climate change, it offers some possible ways out of the trap. We're at a bleak moment in human history -- and we'll either confront that bleakness or watch the civilization our forebears built slip away. Falter is a powerful and sobering call to arms, to save not only our planet but also our humanity.
The Clean Energy Age by
It's time for a new approach to environmentalism that focusses on practical solutions rather than problems and speaks to ordinary citizens in simple terms. This clear, non-partisan guidebook offers Top 10 lists that help individuals and organizations save money while taking aim at the source of most of our carbon emissions. Reviewing proven and unproven technologies and government programs, BF Nagy explores opportunities for home owners, governments, corporations, media, and anyone looking to combat climate change.
Energy and Global Climate Change by
Energy and Global Climate Change: Bridging the Sustainable Development Divide focuses attention on two urgent global development challenges faced by the UN and its member states: access to sustainable energy for all, and global climate change. This book presents compelling evidence about an often neglected aspect of the energy-climate change-development nexus faced by millions of poor: problems caused by the use of inefficient and polluting energy sources, and the lack of access to sustainable energy services. Based on a detailed examination of major UN global climate change and sustainable development negotiated outcomes over the course of several decades, this book argues in a powerful and insightful manner that intergovernmental negotiated outcomes aimed at solving the climate change and energy access challenges have been restricted by being placed in different negotiating silos. This "siloization" or compartmentalization has resulted in separate tracks of negotiated outcomes on two inextricably linked global development challenges; and, has thereby hindered prospects for integrated action. This book points out that the existence of these two silos is especially hard to ignore in light of the urgent UN-led quest for an integrated and universal post-2015 development agenda anticipated to be anchored by new sustainable development goals on energy access and climate change. By addressing the heavy reliance on inefficient and polluting energy services which result in indoor air pollution and short lived climate pollutants that tragically impact millions of poor people, this book highlights the unique importance of integrated action on the energy-poverty-climate change nexus in the UN's post-2015 development era.
The Climate Fix by
Why has the world been unable to address global warming? Science policy expert Roger Pielke, Jr., says it's not the fault of those who reject the Kyoto Protocol, but those who support it, and the magical thinking that the agreement represents. In The Climate Fix , Pielke offers a way to repair climate policy, shifting the debate away from meaningless targets and toward a revolution in how the world's economy is powered, while de-fanging the venomous politics surrounding the crisis. The debate on global warming has lost none of its power to polarize and provoke in a haze of partisan vitriol. The Climate Fix will bring something new to the discussions: a commonsense perspective and practical actions better than any offered so far.
Climate of Hope by
The 2016 election left many people who are concerned about the environment fearful that progress on climate change would come screeching to a halt. But not Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope. Bloomberg, an entrepreneur and former mayor of New York City, and Pope, a lifelong environmental leader, approach climate change from different perspectives, yet they arrive at similar conclusions. Without agreeing on every point, they share a belief that cities, businesses, and citizens can lead--and win--the battle against climate change, no matter which way the political winds in Washington may shift. In Climate of Hope, Bloomberg and Pope offer an optimistic look at the challenge of climate change, the solutions they believe hold the greatest promise, and the practical steps that are necessary to achieve them. Writing from their own experiences, and sharing their own stories from government, business, and advocacy, Bloomberg and Pope provide a road map for tackling the most complicated challenge the world has ever faced.
Earth System Governance by
Humans are no longer spectators who need to adapt to their natural environment. Our impact on the earth has caused changes that are outside the range of natural variability and are equivalent to such major geological disruptions as ice ages. Some scientists argue that we have entered a new epoch in planetary history: the Anthropocene. In such an era of planet-wide transformation, we need a new model for planet-wide environmental politics. In this book, Frank Biermann proposes "earth system" governance as just such a new paradigm.Biermann offers both analytical and normative perspectives. He provides detailed analysis of global environmental politics in terms of five dimensions of effective governance: agency, particularly agency beyond that of state actors; architecture of governance, from local to global levels; accountability and legitimacy; equitable allocation of resources; and adaptiveness of governance systems. Biermann goes on to offer a wide range of policy proposals for future environmental governance and a revitalized United Nations, including the establishment of a World Environment Organization and a UN Sustainable Development Council, new mechanisms for strengthened representation of civil society and scientists in global decision making, innovative systems of qualified majority voting in multilateral negotiations, and novel institutions to protect those impacted by global change. Drawing on ten years of research, Biermann formulates earth system governance as an empirical reality and a political necessity.
How Did We Get into This Mess? by
George Monbiot is one of the most vocal, and eloquent, critics of the current consensus. How Did We Get into this Mess?, based on his powerful journalism, assesses the state we are now in: the devastation of the natural world, the crisis of inequality, the corporate takeover of nature, our obsessions with growth and profit and the decline of the political debate over what to do. While his diagnosis of the problems in front of us is clear-sighted and reasonable, he also develops solutions to challenge the politics of fear. How do we stand up to the powerful when they seem to have all the weapons? What can we do to prepare our children for an uncertain future? Controversial, clear but always rigorously argued, How Did We Get into this Mess? makes a persuasive case for change in our everyday lives, our politics and economics, the ways we treat each other and the natural world.
This Changes Everything by
Explains why the environmental crisis should lead to an abandonment of "free market" ideologies and current political systems, arguing that a massive reduction of greenhouse emissions may offer a best chance for correcting problems.
Climate Change and Global Health by
There is increasing understanding, globally, that climate change will have profound and mostly harmful effects on human health. This authoritative book brings together international experts to describe both direct (such as heat waves) and indirect (such as vector-borne disease incidence) impacts of climate change, set in a broad, international, economic, political and environmental context. This unique book also expands on these issues to address a third category of potential longer-term impacts on global health: famine, population dislocation, and conflict. This lively yet scholarly resource explores these issues fully, linking them to health in urban and rural settings in developed and developing countries. The book finishes with a practical discussion of action that health professionals can yet take. Now with added chapter updating key changes affecting climate change and health through 2015, culminating with UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon's comment "What was once unthinkable is now unstoppable." Climate change, now clearly worsening, is triggering a powerful social and technological response. Will this response be sufficient to avert its potentially catastrophic "tertiary" health effects?
Enviromedics by
Many of us have concerns about the effects of climate change on Earth, but we often overlook the essential issue of human health. This book addresses that oversight and enlightens readers about the most important aspect of one of the greatest challenges of our time. The global environment is under massive stress from centuries of human industrialization. The projections regarding climate change for the next century and beyond are grim. The impact this will have on human health is tremendous, and we are only just now discovering what the long-term outcomes may be. By weighing in from a physician's perspective, Jay Lemery and Paul Auerbach clarify the science, dispel the myths, and help readers understand the threats of climate change to human health. No better argument exists for persuading people to care about climate change than a close look at its impacts on our physical and emotional well-being. The need has never been greater for a grounded, informative, and accessible discussion about this topic. In this groundbreaking book, the authors not only sound the alarm but address the health issues likely to arise in the coming years.
Global Climate Change and Human Health by
Learn the foundations of climate science and human health Global Climate Change and Human Health examines the environmental crisis from a public health and clinical health perspective, giving students and clinicians the information they need to prepare for the future of health care. Edited by George Luber, associate director for climate change at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Jay Lemery, associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and section chief of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and including chapters written by luminaries in the field, this landmark book provides a comprehensive introduction to climate change and health. Students will learn about climate changes direct effect on health, including extreme weather events, altered and degraded ecosystems, and threats to human security and welfare. Discussions on mitigation and adaptation strategies, including disease surveillance, communications, and greening health care, as well as a primer on the core concepts of climate change science are presented. Each chapter has a specific section on the clinical correlations of the impact of climate change on health. Informative illustrations depict increasing aeroallergens, shifting vector habitats, emergent risks, and more. Visual teaching materials broken down by chapter (including PowerPoint lecture slides) are available for instructors. This book shows how human health will be -and already has been - affected and how health care practitioners need to start preparing. Understand the science behind climate change and climate variability Learn how the availability of food and clean water will affect public health Consider the diseases that will surge as vector populations swell Discover mitigation strategies targeted toward the health care community Understanding how climate change affects human rights and how international institutions are responding Increased temperatures bring algal blooms that threaten clean water. Degraded air quality brings allergies, asthma, and respiratory diseases. Ground pollutants lower the nutritional value of food crops. It's clear that climate change is very much a public health concern, and Global Climate Change and Human Health helps those preparing to be on the front lines of health care.
Shock Waves by
Ending poverty and stabilizing climate change will be two unprecedented global achievements and two major steps toward sustainable development. But the two objectives cannot be considered in isolation: they need to be jointly tackled through an integrated strategy. This report brings together those two objectives and explores how they can more easily be achieved if considered together. It examines the potential impact of climate change and climate policies on poverty reduction.
Inequality and Climate Change by
Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of the twenty-first century. Anthropogenic activities, such as fossil fuel consumption and other activities focused on enhancing economic growth, have been identified as the main drivers of changes in the environment that defy planetary boundaries. The transgression of planetary boundaries has profound implications for practically all biophysical and human systems and their impact could also be related to the exacerbation of existing problems such as land tenure insecurity, poverty and inequality, marginalization of poorer populations, climate induced migration, and resource wars or conflicts. From a global South perspective, research on the multifaceted nature of climate change is thus necessary and appropriate, including the analysis of socioeconomic, political and cultural aspects. This book is an outcome of the Comparative Research Workshop on �Inequality and Climate Change: Perspectives from the South� of the South-South Collaborative Programme of CLACSO-CODESRIA-IDEAS. It gathers a diversity of case studies from the South with ample biophysical differences and particular social and cultural realities. As such, it is a fresh contribution offering a vantage point from which to examine some of the current perspectives on inequality and climate change.
A Case for Climate Engineering by
Climateengineeringwhichcouldslowthepaceofglobalwarmingbyinjectingreflectiveparticlesintotheupperatmospherehasemergedinrecentyearsasanextremelycontroversialtechnology.Andforgoodreason:itcarriesunknownrisksanditmayunderminecommitmentstoconservingenergy.Somecriticsalsoviewitasanimmoralhumanbreachofthenaturalworld.Thelatterobjection,DavidKeitharguesinAScientist'sCaseforClimateEngineering,isgroundless;wehavebeenusingtechnologytoalterourenvironmentforyears.Butheagreesthattherearelargeissuesatstake.Aleadingscientistlongconcernedaboutclimatechange,Keithoffersnona#65533;veproposalforaneasyfixtowhatisperhapsthemostchallengingquestionofourtime;climateengineeringisnosilverbullet.Buthearguesthatafterdecadesduringwhichverylittleprogresshasbeenmadeinreducingcarbonemissionswemustputthistechnologyonthetableandconsideritresponsibly.Thatdoesn'tmeanwewilldeployit,anditdoesn'tmeanthatwecanabandoneffortstoreducegreenhousegasemissions.Butwemustunderstandfullywhatresearchneedstobedoneandhowthetechnologymightbedesignedandused.Thisbookprovidesaclearandaccessibleoverviewofwhatthecostsandrisksmightbe,andhowclimateengineeringmightfitintoalargerprogramformanagingclimatechange.
Earthmasters by
This book goes to the heart of the unfolding reality of the twenty-first century: international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have all failed, and before the end of the century Earth is projected to be warmer than it has been for 15 million years. The question “can the crisis be avoided?” has been superseded by a more frightening one, “what can be done to prevent the devastation of the living world?” And the disturbing answer, now under wide discussion both within and outside the scientific community, is to seize control of the very climate of the Earth itself. Clive Hamilton begins by exploring the range of technologies now being developed in the field of geoengineering--the intentional, enduring, large-scale manipulation of Earth’s climate system. He lays out the arguments for and against climate engineering, and reveals the extent of vested interests linking researchers, venture capitalists, and corporations. He then examines what it means for human beings to be making plans to control the planet’s atmosphere, probes the uneasiness we feel with the notion of exercising technological mastery over nature, and challenges the ways we think about ourselves and our place in the natural world.
Drawdown by
In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and activists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and methods are described here-some are well known, some you have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in the developing world to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path toward not just slowing the earth's warming, but actually reaching drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being-giving us every reason to seize our planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.
The Future We Choose : surviving the climate crisis by
"In this cautionary but optimistic book, Figueres and Rivett-Carnac--the architects of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement--tackle arguably the most urgent and consequential challenge humankind has ever faced: the world's changing climate and the fate of humanity. In The Future We Choose, the authors outline two possible scenarios for the planet. In one, they describe what life on Earth will be like by 2050 if we fail to meet the Paris targets for carbon dioxide emission reduction. In the other, they describe what it will take to create and live in a carbon neutral, regenerative world. They argue for confronting the climate crisis head on, with determination and optimism. How we all of us address the climate crisis in the next thirty years will determine not only the world we will live in but also the world we will bequeath to our children and theirs. The Future We Choose presents our options and tells us, in no uncertain terms, what governments, corporations, and each of us can and must do to fend off disaster
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need by
"Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can avoid the most dire effects of the climate crisis. Gates says, "We can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change." His interest in climate change is a natural outgrowth of the efforts by his foundation to reduce poverty and disease. Climate change, according to Gates, will have the biggest impact on the people who have done the least to cause it. As a technologist, he has seen firsthand how innovation can change the world. By investing in research, inventing new technologies, and by deploying them quickly at large scale, Gates believes climate change can be addressed in meaningful ways. According to Gates, "to prevent the worst effects of climate change, we have to get to net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. This problem is urgent, and the debate is complex, but I believe we can come together to invent new carbon-zero technologies, deploy the ones we have, and ultimately avoid a climate catastrophe."
Why Are We Waiting? by
The risks of climate change are potentially immense. The benefits of taking action are also clear: we can see that economic development, reduced emissions, and creative adaptation go hand in hand. A committed and strong low-carbon transition could trigger a new wave of economic and technological transformation and investment, a new era of global and sustainable prosperity. Why, then, are we waiting? In this book, Nicholas Stern explains why, notwithstanding the great attractions of a new path, it has been so difficult to tackle climate change effectively. He makes a compelling case for climate action now and sets out the forms that action should take.Stern argues that the risks and costs of climate change are worse than estimated in the landmark "Stern Review "in 2006 -- and far worse than implied by standard economic models. He reminds us that we have a choice. We can rely on past technologies, methods, and institutions -- or we can embrace change, innovation, and international collaboration. The first might bring us some short-term growth but would lead eventually to chaos, conflict, and destruction. The second could bring about better lives for all and growth that is sustainable over the long term, and help win the battle against worldwide poverty. The science warns of the dangers of neglect; the economics and technology show what we can do and the great benefits that will follow; an examination of the ethics points strongly to a moral imperative for action. Why are we waiting?
Degrees That Matter by
Theauthorsexaminehowmembersofcollegeanduniversitycommunitiescantakeactiononclimatechange:strategies,projects,andlessonsinhowtomotivatecomplexorganisationstomakechanges.
Climate Change, Water and Agriculture by
This report analyses the adaptive capacity in agricultural water management, adaptation in agriculture to water variability and extreme events, (floods and droughts), mitigation, (water and energy) and uncertainty about further climate change.
EarthEd (State of the World) by
The Worldwatch Institute, in its flagship publication, analyzes how we can equip students with the skills to navigate the turbulent century ahead. With global environmental changes locked into our future, what we teach must evolve. All education will need to be environmental education, teaching students to be ecoliterate, deep-thinking, and deeply moral leaders, ready to face unprecedented challenges. EarthEd explores traditional areas of environmental education such as nature-based learning and systems thinking, as well as new essential topics including social-emotional learning and the importance of play. This latest edition of State of the World examines how, by rethinking education, people worldwide can better adapt to a rapidly changing planet.
All We Can Save: truth, courage, and solutions for the climate crisis by
"Two powerful phenomena are simultaneously unfolding on Earth: the rise of the climate movement and the rise of women and girls. The People's Climate March and the Women's March. School strikes for climate and the #MeToo movement. Rebellions against extinction and declarations that time's up. More than concurrent, the two trends are deeply connected. From sinking islands to drought-ridden savannas, the global warming crisis places an outsized burden on women, largely because of gender inequalities. In many parts of the world, women hold traditional roles as the primary caregivers in families and communities, and as the main providers of food and fuel, they are more vulnerable when flooding and drought occur; the U.N. estimates 80% of those who have been displaced by climate change are women. Women are on the front line of the climate-change battle, and are uniquely situated to be agents of change--to find ways to mitigate the causes of global warming and adapt to its impacts on the ground. Today, across the world, from boardrooms and policy positions to local communities, from science to activism, women everywhere are using their voices to take leadership and call for action on climate change. This anthology is a collection and celebration of these diverse voices, asking critical questions and providing invaluable insight and solutions. Curated by two climate leaders, this book leads us away from the brink and toward the possibility of a life-giving future
Unstable Ground by
"Unstable Ground looks at the human impact of climate change and its potential to provoke some of the most troubling crimes against humanity -- ethnic conflict, war, and genocide. The author examines the ways in which resources and global migration patterns will be impacted by climate change and create conditions conducive to violent conflict"-- "Looks at the human impact of climate change and its potential to provoke genocide, addressing future conflict over resources and global migration challenges"
Facing the change : personal encounters with global warming by
"Facing the Change: Personal Encounters with Global Warming is a new kind of book about climate change. Instead of experts talking at us, this innovative literary collection shares the voices of fellow citizens struggling to make sense of the concrete changes taking place in our world today. Instead of scientific facts and predictions, this book offers personal essays, poems, and short stories expressing what's going on in people's lives, hearts, and dreams. Instead of leaving readers guilty and disempowered, this book will help us all to begin to work through the full range of emotions--confusion, fear, sorrow, anger, and realistic hope--that we must face in confronting the crisis. Showcasing the voices of a wide range of authors--from prize-winning writers and poets such as Roxana Robinson, Audrey Schulman, and Barbara Crooker, to regular citizens and young people--Facing the Change offers a new opportunity for moving past denial and despair to awareness and action."