Humanity evolved in an Ice Age in which glaciers covered much of the world. But starting about 15,000 years ago, temperatures began to climb. Civilization and all of recorded history occurred in this warm period, the era known as the Holocene-the long summer of the human species. In "The Long Summer," Brian Fagan brings us the first detailed record of climate change during these 15,000 years of warming, and shows how this climate change gave rise to civilization. A thousand-year chill led people in the Near East to take up the cultivation of plant foods; a catastrophic flood drove settlers to inhabit Europe; the drying of the Sahara forced its inhabitants to live along the banks of the Nile; and increased rainfall in East Africa provoked the bubonic plague. "The Long Summer" illuminates for the first time the centuries-long pattern of human adaptation to the demands and challenges of an ever-changing climate-challenges that are still with us today.

One of the earliest sources of humanity's religious impulse was severe weather, which ancient peoples attributed to the wrath of storm gods. Enlightenment thinkers derided such beliefs as superstition and predicted they would pass away as humans became more scientifically and theologically sophisticated. But in America, scientific and theological hubris came face-to-face with the tornado, nature's most violent windstorm. Striking the United States more than any other nation, tornadoes have consistently defied scientists' efforts to unlock their secrets. Meteorologists now acknowledge that even the most powerful computers will likely never be able to predict a tornado's precise path. Similarly, tornadoes have repeatedly brought Americans to the outer limits of theology, drawing them into the vortex of such mysteries as how to reconcile suffering with a loving God and whether there is underlying purpose or randomness in the universe. In this groundbreaking history, Peter Thuesen captures the harrowing drama of tornadoes, as clergy, theologians, meteorologists, and ordinary citizens struggle to make sense of these death-dealing tempests. He argues that, in the tornado, Americans experience something that is at once culturally peculiar (the indigenous storm of the national imagination) and religiously primal (the sense of awe before an unpredictable and mysterious power). He also shows that, in an era of climate change, the weather raises the issue of society's complicity in natural disasters. In the whirlwind, Americans confront the question of their own destiny-how much is self-determined and how much is beyond human understanding or control.

Between 1900 and 1990, there were several periods of grain and other food shortages in Russia and the former Soviet Union, some of which reached disaster proportions resulting in mass famine and death on an unprecedented scale. New stocks of information not previously accessible as well as traditional official and other sources have been used to explore the extent to which policy and vagaries in climate conspired to affect agricultural yields. Were the leaders' (Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev) policies sound in theory but failed in practice because of unpredictable weather? How did the Soviet peasants react to these changes? What impact did Soviet agriculture have on the overall economy of the country? These are all questions that are taken into account.

Between 1900 and 1990, there were several periods of grain and other food shortages in Russia and the former Soviet Union, some of which reached disaster proportions resulting in mass famine and death on an unprecedented scale. New stocks of information not previously accessible as well as traditional official and other sources have been used to explore the extent to which policy and vagaries in climate conspired to affect agricultural yields. Were the leaders' (Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev) policies sound in theory but failed in practice because of unpredictable weather? How did the Soviet peasants react to these changes? What impact did Soviet agriculture have on the overall economy of the country? These are all questions that are taken into account.

Climate change is one of the most challenging issues of our time. As key sites in the production and management of emissions of greenhouse gases, cities will be crucial for the implementation of international agreements and national policies on climate change. This book provides a critical analysis of the role of cities in addressing climate change and the prospects for urban sustainability.
In the post-Rio era, international organizations and transnational networks have promoted the need for local action on global environmental issues. Part I considers the implications of these developments for understanding global environmental governance and urban sustainability. It outlines international and national responses to climate change, and documents the evidence to date on local responses to climate change, examining in detail the international Cities for Climate Protection programme. Part II presents a series of case-studies drawn from this transnational network in the UK, USA and Australia. Each case-study examines the development and implementation of local climate change policy, focusing on the issues of energy conservation, planning and transport. Part III compares the experience of the case-study cities in addressing climate change, and assesses the implications of these findings for urban sustainability and global environmental governance.
"Cities and Climate Change" is the first in-depth analysis of the role of cities in addressing climate change. The book argues that key challenges concerning the resources and powers of local government, as well as conflicts between local goals for economic development and climate change mitigation, have restricted the level of localaction on climate change. These findings have significant implications for the prospects of mitigating climate change and achieving urban sustainability. This book provides a valuable interdisciplinary analysis of these issues, and will appeal to students and researchers interested in sustainability at local and global scales.

Why, despite all we know about the causes and harms of global heating, has so little effective action been taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and what we can do to change that? This book explains the mechanisms and impacts of the climate crisis, traces the history and reasons behind the lack of serious effort to combat it, describes some people's ongoing scepticism and how to shift it, and motivates an urgent program of action. It argues that the pathway to stopping dangerous global heating will require a much larger mobilization of advocacy and activism to impel decision makers to abandon fossil fuels, and transition to renewable energy and electrification embedded in a political and social framework guided by justice principles. It is an excellent resource for students and researchers on the climate crisis, the need for a renewable energy transition, and the current blocks to progress.

The book is a collection of the lectures delivered during the 7th International Summer School on Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ISSAOS) titled "Integrated Ground-Based Observing Systems Applications for Climate, Meteorology, and Civil Protection". Its aim is to contribute to the scientific understanding of basic concepts and applications of integrated ground-based observing systems. The first part describes the most common instrumentations showing their strengths and limitations. Furthermore, strategic plans for the deployment of an observation site are discussed along with an overview of techniques for integrating heterogeneous data. The second part introduces cutting-edge applications, including assimilation in numerical weather prediction, climate benchmarking, air quality monitoring and meteo/hydrological warnings.

For over 50 years Heavy Weather Sailing has been regarded as the ultimate international authority on surviving storms at sea aboard sailing and motor vessels. In this book, former Commodore of the Ocean Cruising Club Martin Thomas brings together a wealth of expert advice from many of the great sailors of the present, including fresh accounts of yachts overtaken by extreme weather, from Ewan Southby-Tailyour, Alex Whitworth and Dag Pike to Larry and Lin Pardey, Matt Sheahan and Andrew Claughton. The expert advice section has been updated in line with current thinking, with major new additions tackling preventing or coping with lightning strikes, navigating in heavy weather with both paper and electronic charts, the choice and use of tenders in severe weather, and special problems faced by the new generation of foiled cruising boats. For the first time the book also covers the unique challenges presented by weather in high latitudes, with more yachts crossing the Drake Passage and attempting the North West Passage. These revisions ensure that Heavy Weather Sailing is as relevant, useful and instructive for today's sailor venturing offshore as it ever was. This is the definitive book for crews of any size contemplating voyages out of sight of land anywhere in the world, whether racing or cruising. It gives a clear message regarding the preparations required, and the tactics to consider when it comes on to blow.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the illegal extraction of metals and minerals from the perspectives of organized crime theory, green criminology, anti-corruption studies, and victimology. It includes contributions that focus on organized crime-related offences, such as drug trafficking and trafficking in persons, extortion, corruption and money laundering and sheds light on the serious environmental harms caused by illegal mining. Based on a wide range of case studies from the Amazon rainforest through the Ukrainian flatlands to the desert-like savanna of Central African Republic and Australia's elevated plateaus, this book offers a unique insight into the illegal mining business and the complex relationship between organized crime, corruption, and ecocide. This is the first book-length publication on illegal extraction, trafficking in mined commodities, and ecocide associated with mining. It will appeal to scholars working on organized crime and green crime, including criminologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and legal scholars. Practitioners and the general public may welcome this comprehensive and timely publication to contemplate on resource-scarcity, security, and crime in a rapidly changing world.

How will future climates be different from today's world-and what consequences will changes in climate have for societies and their development strategies? This book is a primer on the essential science for grasping the workings of climate change and climate prediction. It is accessible for readers with little to no background in science, with an emphasis on the needs of those studying sustainable development. John C. Mutter gives a just-the-facts overview of how the climate system functions and what we know about why changes occur. He recounts the evolution of climatology from the earliest discoveries about Earth's climate to present-day predictive capabilities, and clearly presents the scientific basis of fundamental topics such as climate zones, ocean-atmosphere dynamics, and the long-term cycles from glacial to interglacial periods. Mutter also details the mechanisms of climate change and the ways in which human activity affects global climate. He explains the science behind some known consequences of rising temperatures, such as sea level rise, hurricane behavior, and climate variability. The primer discusses how climate predictions are made and examines the sources of uncertainty in forecasting. Climate Change Science is a straightforward and easy-to-read treatment of the fundamental science needed to comprehend one of today's most important issues.

Flood Survival is a preparedness guide that is as relevant to residents in mountainous regions as it is to residents of more typical flood zones. Floods are one of the most common hazards in the USA; they can develop slowly or come on very quickly in the form of a flash flood. This guide teaches readers to be aware of flood hazards and be prepared no matter where they live or work.
The guide covers preparedness and encourages readers to build an emergency kit as well as a response plan. It then proceeds to advise ways to cope during a flood as well as what steps to take after the flood has receded. Knowing what to do before, during and after an emergency is a critical part of being prepared and may make all the difference when seconds count.

Spawned from powerful thunderstorms, tornadoes can cause fatalities and devastate a neighborhood in seconds. With more than 1,200 tornadoes striking the US each year, they cause billions of dollars worth of damage. Most communities will be impacted by several types of natural hazards during a lifetime. Knowing what to do before, during and after an emergency is a critical part of being prepared and may make all the difference when seconds count.
Waterford Press's Tornado Survival guide will help readers learn how to prepare before -- build an emergency kit and have a plan and know where to receive information. Readers will then learn what to do during a tornado -- where to seek shelter, and finally how to build a tornado kit -- what to pack and where to keep it so it is accessible when needed.

Atmospheric Thermodynamics provides a comprehensive treatment of a subject that can often be intimidating. The text analyses real-life problems and applications of the subject, alongside of guiding the reader through the fundamental basics and covering the first and second laws and the ideal gas law, followed by an emphasis on moist processes in Earth's atmosphere. Water in all its phases is a critical component of weather and the Earth's climate system. With user-friendly chapters that include energy conservation and water and its transformations, the authors write with a willingness to expose assumptions and approximations usually absent in other textbooks. History is woven into the text to provide a context for the time evolution of thermodynamics and its place in atmospheric science and demonstrating how physical reasoning leads to correct explanations of everyday phenomena. Many of the experiments described were done using inexpensive instruments to take advantage of the earth's atmosphere as a freely accessible thermodynamics library. This second edition provides updated treatments of atmospheric measurements and substantially expanded sections that include atmospheric applications of the first and second laws and energy exchange between humans and their atmospheric environment. With 400+ thought provoking problems and 350 references with annotated notes and further reading suggestions, this second edition provides a basic understanding of the fundamentals of this subject while still being a comprehensive reference guide for those working in the field of atmospheric and environmental sciences.

This monograph deals with the main principles of large-scale atmospheric dynamics on the basis of adiabatic motion constants. It can be considered as an introduction to the theory of quasi two-dimensional fluid motion concentrating primarily on nearly horizontal fluid parcel displacements in a stably stratified compressible fluid. A thorough mathematical treatment of the governing equations is coupled with a clear interpretation of the phenomena studied and accompanied by examples of real meteorological data analysis. Topics include a complete set of compressible fluid dynamic equations along with a survey on fluid dynamical conservation laws used in meteorology and atmospheric physics; the derivation of two-dimensional atmospheric models; large-scale flows; isentropic analysis of large-scale atmospheric processes; and the principles of kinetic energy sinks and their relation to the energy balance in the atmosphere.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203216482

This Second Edition of An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation has been extensively revised to address the fundamental study and quantitative measurement of the interactions of solar and terrestrial radiation with molecules, aerosols, and cloud particles in planetary atmospheres. It contains 70% new material, much of it stemming from the investigation of the atmospheric greenhouse effects of external radiative perturbations in climate systems, and the development of methodologies for inferring atmospheric and surface parameters by means of remote sensing. Liou's comprehensive treatment of the fundamentals of atmospheric radiation was developed for students, academics, and researchers in atmospheric sciences, remote sensing, and climate modeling.
Key Features
*Balanced treatment of fundamentals and applications
*Includes over 170 illustrations to complement the concise description of each subject
*Numerous examples and hands-on exercises at the end of each chapter

An engaging, comprehensive, richly illustrated textbook about the atmospheric general circulation, written by leading researchers in the field. The book elucidates the pervasive role of atmospheric dynamics in the Earth System, interprets the structure and evolution of atmospheric motions across a range of space and time scales in terms of fundamental theoretical principles, and includes relevant historical background and tutorials on research methodology. The book includes over 300 exercises and is accompanied by extensive online resources, including solutions manuals, an animations library, and an introduction to online visualization and analysis tools. This textbook is suitable as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate level courses in atmospheric sciences and geosciences curricula and as a reference textbook for researchers.

As the planet warms, winter is shrinking. In the last fifty years, the Northern Hemisphere lost a million square miles of spring snowpack, and high-elevation snowpacks in the western United States have decreased by nearly half since 1982. On average, winter has shrunk by a month in most northern latitudes. In this deeply researched, beautifully written, and adventure-filled book, journalist Porter Fox travels along the edge of the Northern Hemisphere's snow line to track the scope of this drastic change and how it will literally change everything-from rapid sea level rise, to fresh water scarcity for two billion people, to massive greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost, and several climate tipping points that could very well spell the end of our world. This original research is animated by four harrowing and illuminating journeys-each grounded by interviews with idiosyncratic, charismatic experts in their respective fields and Fox's own narrative of growing up on a remote island in northern Maine. Timely, atmospheric, and expertly investigated, The Last Winter showcases a shocking and unexpected casualty of climate change-which may well set off its own unstoppable warming cycle.

This textbook aims to be a one stop shop for those interested in aerosols and their impact on the climate system. It starts with some fundamentals on atmospheric aerosols, atmospheric radiation and cloud physics, then goes into techniques used for in-situ and remote sensing measurements of aerosols, data assimilation, and discusses aerosol-radiation interactions, aerosol-cloud interactions and the multiple impacts of aerosols on the climate system. The book aims to engage those interested in aerosols and their impacts on the climate system: graduate and PhD students, but also post-doctorate fellows who are new to the field or would like to broaden their knowledge. The book includes exercises at the end of most chapters. Atmospheric aerosols are small (microscopic) particles in suspension in the atmosphere, which play multiple roles in the climate system. They interact with the energy budget through scattering and absorption of solar and terrestrial radiation. They also serve as cloud condensation and ice nuclei with impacts on the formation, evolution and properties of clouds. Finally aerosols also interact with some biogeochemical cycles. Anthropogenic emissions of aerosols are responsible for a cooling effect that has masked part of the warming due to the increased greenhouse effect since pre-industrial time. Natural aerosols also respond to climate changes as shown by observations of past climates and modelling of the future climate.

It is now accepted that the world's climate has warmed by about 0.5A DegreesC over the past one hundred years and will continue to warm by as much as 6A DegreesC by the end of the current century. What, however, do such fundamental changes actually mean for life and the economy at the local and regional scales for the industrialized nations? This extensive study represents a state-of-the-art regional assessment of the impacts of climate change in an industrialized European nation. Providing a comprehensive set of tools, techniques and strategies, it explores the potential impacts of climate change upon key landscapes, economic and social sectors.

Synoptic and Dynamic Climatology provides the first comprehensive account of the dynamical behaviour and mechanisms of the global climate system and its components, together with a modern survey of synoptic-scale weather systems in the tropics and extra tropics, and of the methods and applications of synoptic climate classification.

* An introduction to the global climate system and the space-time scales of weather and climate processes, * Climate data and their analysis
* General circulation of the global atmosphere * Nature and causes of global teleconnection patterns
* Synoptic weather systems in the extra tropics and tropics and satellite-based climatologies of synoptic features * Descriptions of applications of synoptic climatology * Summary of current climatic research and its directions.

The work is thoroughly up to date, with extensive bibliographies by chapter. It is illustrated with nearly 300 figures and plates. Its comprehensive reference lists provide an invaluable guide to further study.