Cundill History Prize Finalist Longman-History Today Prize Finalist Winner of the Roland H. Bainton Book Prize "Meticulous environmental-historical detective work." -Times Literary Supplement When Europeans first arrived in North America, they faced a cold new world. The average global temperature had dropped to lows unseen in millennia. The effects of this climactic upheaval were stark and unpredictable: blizzards and deep freezes, droughts and famines, winters in which everything froze, even the Rio Grande. A Cold Welcome tells the story of this crucial period, taking us from Europe's earliest expeditions in unfamiliar landscapes to the perilous first winters in Quebec and Jamestown. As we confront our own uncertain future, it offers a powerful reminder of the unexpected risks of an unpredictable climate. "A remarkable journey through the complex impacts of the Little Ice Age on Colonial North America...This beautifully written, important book leaves us in no doubt that we ignore the chronicle of past climate change at our peril. I found it hard to put down." -Brian Fagan, author of The Little Ice Age "Deeply researched and exciting...His fresh account of the climatic forces shaping the colonization of North America differs significantly from long-standing interpretations of those early calamities." -New York Review of Books

In this book the authors consider the natural environment as an integrated system and describe a cohesive approach to its modelling and prediction. The book emphasises the mathematical representation and numerical simulation of the interactions between the various environmental components and those of the environmental processes, including physical, chemical and biological. Furthermore, it summarises some of the recent progress and new developments in the modelling and prediction of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface, continental hydrosphere, cryosphere, etc. The authors also explore new theoretical frameworks in environmental prediction, such as systems analysis and statistical-dynamic modelling. The applications of remote sensing and geographic information systems in environmental modelling and prediction are discussed. Examples of integrated environmental modelling are given

Tracking initial ocean (de)oxygenation is critical to better constrain the coevolution of life and environment. Development of thallium isotopes has provided evidence to track the global manganese oxide burial which responds to early (de)oxygenation for short-term climate events. Modern oxic seawater thallium isotope values are recorded in organic-rich sediments deposited below an anoxic water column. An expansion of reducing conditions decrease manganese oxide burial and shifts the seawater thallium isotope composition more positive. Recent work documents that thallium isotopes are perturbed prior to carbon isotope excursions, suggesting ocean deoxygenation is a precursor for increased organic carbon burial. This Element provides an introduction to the application of thallium isotopes, case studies, and future directions.

In response to an Executive Order by former California Governor Schwarzenegger, an evaluation of the implications to California of possible climate changes was undertaken using a scenario-based approach. The Scenarios Project investigated projected impacts of climate change on six sectors in the California region. The investigation considered the early, middle and later portions of the twenty-first century, guided by a set of IPCC Fourth Assessment global climate model runs forced by higher and lower greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Each of these climate simulations produce substantial impacts in California that would require adaptations from present practices or status. The most severe impacts could be avoided, however, if emissions can be held near the lower end of global greenhouse gas emissions scenarios.Reprinted from Climatic Change, Vol. 109: Supplement 1 (2011)

Every night across the country, viewers tune in to their evening news to glimpse the next day's weather. They are treated to graphic images of invading air masses, colliding fronts, and growing tropical storms. This book is the story of this tool, the weather map, which in its many forms has made the atmosphere visible, understandable, and at least moderately predictable. No other maps are so spontaneously timely, so widely and frequently consulted, and so central to the daily activities of so many. The singular history of the weather map developed around the twin poles of weather's many facets and the public's varied needs. Mark Monmonier traces the contentious debates among scientists eager to unravel the enigma of storms and global change, explains the strategies for mapping the upper atmosphere and forecasting disaster, and exposes the efforts to detect and control air pollution. He introduces Karl Theodor, a Bavarian politician who devised one of the first weather-tracking networks in the late-18th century, and Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes, who drew the first maps of European weather in 1819 - for the year of 1783. Monmonier also explores the interaction between technology - from the telegraph to the Internet - and weather forecasting.

Volume 2 of a three-volume final report thoroughly describes, synthesizes and analyzes the results of the four-year Integrated Research Project CIRCE - Climate Change and Impact Research: Mediterranean Environment, funded by the EU 6th Framework Programme. Conducted under the auspices of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome, Italy, CIRCE was designed to predict and to quantify the physical impacts of climate change in the Mediterranean, and to assess the most influential consequences for the region's population. This volume incorporates Parts 3 and 4 of the report, reviewing current knowledge of observed climate variability and trends in the Mediterranean, and including descriptions of available temperature and precipitation station and gridded data sets.

Snowshoe Country is an environmental and cultural history of winter in the colonial Northeast, closely examining indigenous and settler knowledge of snow, ice, and life in the cold. Indigenous communities in this region were more knowledgeable about the cold than European newcomers from temperate climates, and English settlers were especially slow to adapt. To keep surviving the winter year after year and decade after decade, English colonists relied on Native assistance, borrowed indigenous winter knowledge, and followed seasonal diplomatic protocols to ensure stable relations with tribal leaders. Thomas M. Wickman explores how fluctuations in winter weather and the halting exchange of winter knowledge both inhibited and facilitated English colonialism from the 1620s to the early 1700s. As their winter survival strategies improved, due to skills and technologies appropriated from Natives, colonial leaders were able to impose a new political ecology in the greater Northeast, projecting year-round authority over indigenous lands.

The 'detective' power of stable isotopes for processes that occurred in the past, and for elucidating mechanisms at the molecular level, has impressed researchers over the past 100 years, since the time when isotopes of elements were first discovered. While most are interested in the normalized abundance ratios of two isotopes of an element, further power was unleashed when researchers investigated the relationship of three or more isotopes of the same element, e.g. 16O, 17O, and 18O for oxygen. This Element focuses on the history of discovery of triple isotope effects, the conceptual framework behind these effects, and major lines of development in the past few years of triple oxygen isotope research.

The sixth edition of a bestseller, Air Quality provides students with a comprehensive overview of air quality, the science that continues to provide a better understanding of atmospheric chemistry and its effects on public health and the environment, and the regulatory and technological management practices employed in achieving air quality goals. Maintaining the practical approach that has made previous editions popular, the chapters have been reorganized, new material has been added, less relevant material has been deleted, and new images have been added, particularly those from Earth satellites.

New in the Sixth Edition

New graphics, images, and an appended list of unit conversions

New problems and questions

Presents all-new information on the state of air quality monitoring

Provides the latest updates on air quality legislation in the United States

Updates the effects of air pollution and CO2 on climate change

Examines the effects of the latest changes in energy production and the related emissions and pollutants

Offers broadened coverage of air pollutant emissions and air quality in a global context

This new edition elucidates the challenges we face in our efforts to protect and enhance the quality of the nation’s air. It also highlights the growing global awareness of air quality issues, climate change, and public health concerns in the developing world. The breadth of coverage, review questions at the end of each chapter, extensive glossary, and list of readings place the tools for understanding into your students’ hands.

Table of Contents

1. Atmosphere

2. Atmospheric Pollution and Pollutants

3. Atmospheric Dispersion, Transport, and Deposition

4. Atmospheric Effects

5. Health Effects

6. Welfare Effect

7. Air Quality and Emissions Assessment

8. Regulation and Public Policy

9. Control of Motor Vehicle Emissions

10. Control of Emissions from Stationary Sources

11. Indoor Air Quality

12. Environmental Noise

When Indonesia's Mount Tambora erupted in 1815, it unleashed the most destructive wave of extreme weather the world has witnessed in thousands of years. The volcano's massive sulfate dust cloud enveloped the Earth, cooling temperatures and disrupting major weather systems for more than three years. Communities worldwide endured famine, disease, and civil unrest on a catastrophic scale. Here, Gillen D'Arcy Wood traces Tambora's global and historical reach: how the volcano's three-year climate change regime initiated the first worldwide cholera pandemic, expanded opium markets in China, and plunged the United States into its first economic depression. Bringing the history of this planetary emergency to life, Tambora sheds light on the fragile interdependence of climate and human societies to offer a cautionary tale about the potential tragic impacts of drastic climate change in our own century.

Grasslands are the most extensive terrestrial biome on Earth and are critically important for forage, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. This book brings together an international team of researchers to review scientific knowledge of the effects of climate change on world grasslands, a process we are only just starting to understand. Part I assesses how climate change will impact on the distribution of grasslands, as well as production, biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem services. Part II considers the consequences for the spread of invasive species, demographic change, trophic-level relationships, soil biota, and evolutionary change within grassland biodiversity. Part III proposes how ecologists can respond to climate change effects, focusing on grazing systems, cultural ecology, range management, and restoration. The concluding chapter sets grasslands in the context of the Anthropocene era and identifies the vital research and conservation needs for grassland ecosystems to remain environmentally sustainable under climate change.

This book provides an essential overview of wind science and engineering, taking readers on a journey through the origins, developments, fundamentals, recent advancements and latest trends in this broad field. Along the way, it addresses a diverse range of topics, including: atmospheric physics; meteorology; micrometeorology; climatology; the aerodynamics of buildings, aircraft, sailing boats, road vehicles and trains; wind energy; atmospheric pollution; soil erosion; snow drift, windbreaks and crops; bioclimatic city-planning and architecture; wind actions and effects on structures; and wind hazards, vulnerability and risk. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of wind and its manifold effects, the book combines scientific, descriptive and narrative chapters. The book is chiefly intended for students and lecturers, for those who want to learn about the genesis and evolution of this topic, and for the multitude of scholars whose work involves the wind.

In recent decades, great progress has been made in our understanding of zonal jets across many subjects - atmospheric science, oceanography, planetary science, geophysical fluid dynamics, plasma physics, magnetohydrodynamics, turbulence theory - but communication between researchers from different fields has been weak or non-existent. Even the terminology in different fields may be so disparate that researchers working on similar problems do not understand each other. This comprehensive, multidisciplinary volume will break cross-disciplinary barriers and aid the advancement of the subject. It presents a state-of-the-art summary of all relevant branches of the physics of zonal jets, from the leading experts. The phenomena and concepts are introduced at a level accessible to beginning graduate students and researchers from different fields. The book also includes a very extensive bibliography.

This book discusses instrumentation used in meteorological surface systems, both on the synoptic scale and the mesoscale, and the instrumentation used in upper air soundings. The text includes material on first- and second-order differential equations as applied to instrument dynamic performance, and required solutions are developed.

Sensor physics are emphasized in order to explain how sensors work and to explore the strengths and weaknesses of each design type. The book is organized according to sensor type and function (temperature, humidity, and wind sensors, for example), though several unifying themes are developed for each sensor. Functional diagrams are used to portray sensors as a set of logical functions, and static sensitivity is derived from a sensor's transfer equation, focusing attention on sensor physics and on ways in which particular designs might be improved. Sensor performance specifications are explored, helping to compare various instruments and to tell users what to expect as a reasonable level of performance. Finally, the text examines the critical area of environmental exposure of instruments. In a well-designed, properly installed, and well-maintained meteorological measurement system, exposure problems are usually the largest source of error, making this chapter one of the most useful sections of the book.

This book include research studies which deal with the attempts to address new solutions for challenges in geotechnical engineering such as characterization of new materials, application of glass fibre, geotextile fabric and permeable concrete, new numerical methods for traditional problems and some other geotechnical issues that are becoming quite relevant in today's world. The book adds to the geotechnical engineering field which still bears lots of big challenges. It contributes to make the civil infrastructures more sustainable using new technologies and materials that have been proposed and applied in various fields. Papers were selected from the 5th GeoChina International Conference 2018 - Civil Infrastructures Confronting Severe Weathers and Climate Changes: From Failure to Sustainability, held on July 23 to 25, 2018 in HangZhou, China.

This book presents new research studies dealing with the attempts made by the scientists and practitioners to address some key engineering issues in tunneling engineering, geotechnical engineering, and municipal sustainability issues that are becoming quite relevant in today's world. With high urbanization rates, advancement in technologies, difficulties in construction of subway tunnel in soft marine clay deposits, and severe ground subsidence due to excessive groundwater withdrawal pose many challenges in their management. Papers were selected from the 5th GeoChina International Conference 2018 - Civil Infrastructures Confronting Severe Weathers and Climate Changes: From Failure to Sustainability, held on July 23 to 25, 2018 in HangZhou, China.

Global climate change is a topic of continuously growing interest. As more international treaties come into force, media coverage has increased and many universities are now starting to conduct courses specifically on climate change laws and policies. This textbook provides a survey of the international law on climate change, explaining how significant international agreements have sought to promote compliance with general norms of international law. Benoit Mayer provides an account of the rules agreed upon through lengthy negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and multiple other forums on mitigation, geoengineering, adaptation, loss and damage, and international support. The International Law on Climate Change is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students studying climate, environmental or international law. It is supported by a suite of online resources, available at www.internationalclimatelaw.com, featuring regularly updated lists of complementary materials, weblinks and regular updates for each chapter.

This textbook employs a technical and quantitative approach to explain subsurface hydrology and hydrogeology, and to offer a comprehensive overview of groundwater-related topics such as flow in porous media, aquifer characterization, contaminant description and transport, risk assessment, and groundwater remediation. It describes the characterization of subsurface flow of pristine and polluted water and provides readers with easily applicable tools for the design of water supply systems, drinking-water source protection, and remediation interventions. Specific applications range from groundwater exploitation as a drinking water supply to the remediation of contaminated aquifers, from the definition and safeguarding of drinking-water sources to the assessment of human health risks in connection with groundwater contamination events. The book represents an ideal learning resource for upper-undergraduate and graduate students of civil engineering, environmental engineering, and geology, as well as practitioners in the fields of water resource management and environmental protection who are interested in groundwater engineering and technical hydrogeology.

This book summarizes the authors' extensive experience and interdisciplinary approach to demonstrate how acquiring and integrating data using a variety of analytical equipment can provide better insights into unconventional shale reservoir rocks and their constituent components. It focuses on a wide range of properties of unconventional shale reservoirs, discussing the use of conventional and new analytical methods for detailed measurements of mechanical properties of both organic and inorganic constituent elements as well as of the geochemical characteristics of organic components and their origins. It also addresses the investigation of porosity, pore size and type from several perspectives to help us to define unconventional shale formation. All of these analyses are treated individually, but brought together to present the rock sample on a macro scale. This book is of interest to researchers and graduate students from various disciplines, such as petroleum, civil, and mechanical engineering, as well as from geoscience, geology, geochemistry and geophysics. The methods and approaches can be further extended to biology and medicine.

Mounting evidence that human activities are substantially modifying the Earth's climate brings a new imperative to the study of the ocean's large-scale circulation. This textbook provides a concise but comprehensive introduction to the theory of large-scale ocean circulation, as it is currently understood and established. Students and instructors will benefit from the carefully chosen chapter-by-chapter exercises. This advanced textbook is invaluable for graduate students and researchers in the fields of oceanic, atmospheric and climate sciences, and other geophysical scientists, as well as physicists and mathematicians with a quantitative interest in the planetary fluid environment.