Given what we know about climate change, should we still be raising and eating cattle? And how do we weigh the cultural and economic value of cattle against their environmental impact? This engaging book brings history, science, economics and popular culture together in a timely discussion about whether current practices can be justified in a period of rapid climate change.

Journalist Gregory Mthembu-Salter first encountered South Africa’s love of cattle during his own lobola negotiations. The book traces his personal journey through kraals, rangelands and feedlots across South Africa to find out more about the national hunger for cattle. He takes a broad sweep – drawing on such diverse sources as politicians involved in land reform, history, braai-side interviews with cattle farmers and abattoir owners, conversations with his mother-in-law, and analysis of cutting-edge science.

Mthembu-Salter suggests that perhaps 'cattle can remain wanted and treasured … more as living assets, kept in modest numbers on land where crops will not thrive, whose beef is eaten rarely – and, when it is, is savoured.'

A revelatory exploration of climate change from the perspective of wild species and natural ecosystems - an homage to the miraculous, vibrant entity that is life on Earth.

The stories we usually tell ourselves about climate change tend to focus on the damage inflicted on human societies by big storms, severe droughts, and rising sea levels. But the most powerful impacts are being and will be felt by the natural world and its myriad species, which are already in the midst of the sixth great extinction. Rising temperatures are fracturing ecosystems that took millions of years to evolve, disrupting the life forms they sustain - and in many cases driving them towards extinction. The natural Eden that humanity inherited is quickly slipping away.

Although we can never really know what a creature thinks or feels, The End of Eden invites the reader to meet wild species on their own terms in a range of ecosystems that span the globe. Combining classic natural history, first-hand reportage, and insights from cutting-edge research, Adam Welz brings us close to creatures like moose in northern Maine, parrots in Puerto Rico, cheetahs in Namibia, and rare fish in Australia as they struggle to survive. The stories are intimate yet expansive and always dramatic.

An exquisitely written and deeply researched exploration of wild species reacting to climate breakdown, The End of Eden offers a radical new kind of environmental journalism that connects humans to nature in a more empathetic way than ever before and galvanizes us to act in defense of the natural world before it's too late.

Carbon City Zero is a collaborative climate action game in which players develop a sustainable city by greening transport, transforming industries, getting citizens on board and showing world leaders how it’s done.

Each player starts with an identical deck, buying additional cards from a shared marketplace to create a more sustainable city. Balancing the need to generate income with reducing carbon, you can follow numerous paths to victory, but collaboration is key. You’ll need to bring together governments, industries and the public. And if you can’t bring carbon levels to zero before it’s too late, everybody loses. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

PLAY AND LEARN: learn about climate action as you play this new board game for all the family

SCREEN-FREE FUN for 2-4 players aged 8 and up

SOMETHING TO TREASURE: this is a quality product made to last, with bespoke illustration and stylish packaging (on FSC stocks)

In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical - and accessible - plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.

Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.

He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions-suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.

As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.

Capitalism’s addiction to fossil fuels is heating our planet at a pace and scale never before experienced.

Extreme weather patterns, rising sea levels and accelerating feedback loops are a commonplace feature of our lives. The number of environmental refugees is increasing and several island states and low-lying countries are becoming vulnerable. Corporate-induced climate change has set us on an ecocidal path of species extinction. Governments and their international platforms such as the Paris Climate Agreement deliver too little, too late. Most states, including South Africa, continue on their carbon-intensive energy paths, with devastating results. Political leaders across the world are failing to provide systemic solutions to the climate crisis. This is the context in which we must ask ourselves: how can people and class agency change this destructive course of history?

The Climate Crisis investigates ecosocialist alternatives that are emerging. It presents the thinking of leading climate justice activists, campaigners and social movements advancing systemic alternatives and developing bottom-up, just transitions to sustain life. Through a combination of theoretical and empirical work, the authors collectively examine the challenges and opportunities inherent in the current moment.

Most importantly, it explores ways to renew historical socialism with democratic, ecosocialist alternatives to meet current challenges in South Africa and the world.

Bringing together ecology, evolutionary moral psychology, and environmental ethics, J. Baird Callicott counters the narrative of blame and despair that prevails in contemporary discussions of climate ethics and offers a fresh, more optimistic approach. Whereas other environmental ethicists limit themselves to what Callicott calls Rational Individualism in discussing the problem of climate change only to conclude that, essentially, there is little hope that anything will be done in the face of its "perfect moral storm" (in Stephen Gardiner's words), Callicott refuses to accept this view. Instead, he encourages us to look to the Earth itself, and consider the crisis on grander spatial and temporal scales, as we have failed to in the past. Callicott supports this theory by exploring and enhancing Aldo Leopold's faint sketch of an Earth ethic in "Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest," a seldom-studied text from the early days of environmental ethics that was written in 1923 but not published until 1979 after the environmental movement gathered strength.

The evidence presented in the recently released Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests strongly that continued failure to make meaningful cuts to greenhouse gas emissions could bring about disastrous results for the human community, especially for future generations. Summing up the findings of AR5, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, has stated that our persistent inaction on climate change presents a grave threat to the very social stability of human systems. The Anthropocene Project attempts to make philosophical sense of this, examining the reasons for the inaction highlighted by the IPCC, and suggests the normative bases for overcoming it. Williston identifies that we are now in the human agethe Anthropocenebut he argues that this is no mere geological marker. It is instead best viewed as the latest permutation of an already existing moral and political project rooted in Enlightenment values. The author shows that it can be fruitful to do climate ethics with this focus because in so many aspects of our culture we already endorse broadly Enlightenment values about progress, equality, and the value of knowledge. But these values must be robustly instantiated in the dispositions of moral agents, and so we require a climate ethics emphasizing the virtues of justice, truthfulness, and rational hope. One of the books most original claims is that our moral failure on this issue is, in large part, the product of motivated irrationality on the part of the world's most prosperous people. We have failed to live up to our commitments to justice and truthfulness because we are, respectively, morally weak and self-deceived. Understanding this provides the basis for the rational hope that we might yet find a way to avoid climate catastrophe.

In the modern era, two types of international migration have consumed our attention: politically induced migration to flee war, genocide, and instability, and migration for economic reasons. Recently, though, another force has generated a new wave of refugees-global warming. Climate change has altered terrains and economies throughout the tropical regions of the world, from sub-Saharan Africa to Central America to South and Southeast Asia. In Climate Change and Migration: Security and Borders in a Warming World, Greg White provides a rich account of the phenomenon. Focusing on climate-induced migration from Africa to Europe, White shows how global warming's impact on international relations has been significant, enhancing the security regimes in not only the advanced economies of the North Atlantic, but in the states that serve as transit points between the most advanced and most desperate nations. Furthermore, he demonstrates that climate change has altered the way the nations involved view their own sovereignty, as tightening or defining borders in both Europe and North Africa leads to an increase of the state's reaches over society. White closes by arguing that a serious and comprehensive program to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change is the only long-term solution. With an in-depth coverage of both environmental and border policy from a global perspective, Climate Change and Migration provides a provocative and much-needed link between two of the most pressing issues in contemporary international politics.

Many of us take it for granted that we ought to cooperate to tackle climate change. But where does this requirement come from, and what does it mean for us as individuals trying to do the right thing? Climate change does very great harm, to our fellow humans and to the non-human world, but no one causes it on their own and it isn't the result of intentionally collective action. In the face of the current failure of institutions to face up to the problem, is there anything we can do as individuals that will leave us able to live with ourselves? This book responds to these challenges. It makes a moral case for collective action on climate change by appealing to moralized collective self-interest, collective ability to aid, and an expanded understanding of collective responsibility for harm. On top of these, it argues that collective action is something we owe to ourselves, as moral agents, because without it we are left facing marring choices. In the absence of collective action, individuals should focus on trying to promote such action (whether through or by bypassing existing institutions), with a supplementary duty to aid victims directly. The argument is not that we should not be cutting our own emissions: this can be a necessary part of bringing about collective action or alleviating harm. However, such 'green' lifestyle choices cannot be straightforwardly defended as duties in their own right, and they should not take priority over trying to bring about collective change.

An essential, urgent book by the environmental journalist Marianne Brown, to publish at a time of accelerated climate crisis. When Marianne Brown arrived in Voe, Shetland, to attend the funeral of her father, she had packed enough clothes to last a week. But this was March 2020, and she would be unable to leave for another six months. Shetland is a place bound together by community, history and folklore. But when a huge windfarm is greenlit to mainly serve the mainland, it creates rifts between neighbours, friends and even families. One side support the benefit to a planet spiralling into climate disaster; the other challenge the impact on an environment with an already struggling wildlife population. As an environmental journalist, Marianne is drawn to investigate this story of sustainable power that is irrevocably tied to her grief. But nothing is ever straightforward, and she soon finds herself embroiled in a story of betrayal, power and politics that mirrors global concerns about how we save the planet.

In this volume, Stephen M. Gardiner and David A. Weisbach present arguments for and against the relevance of ethics to global climate policy. Gardiner argues that climate change is fundamentally an ethical issue, since it is an early instance of a distinctive challenge to ethical action (the perfect moral storm), and ethical concerns (such as with justice, rights, political legitimacy, community and humanity's relationship to nature) are at the heart of many of the decisions that need to be made. Consequently, climate policy that ignores ethics is at risk of "solving " the wrong problem, perhaps even to the extreme of endorsing forms of climate extortion. This is especially true of policy based on narrow forms of economic self-interest. By contrast, Weisbach argues that existing ethical theories are not well suited to addressing climate change. As applied to climate change, existing ethical theories suffer from internal logical problems and suggest infeasible strategies. Rather than following failed theories or waiting indefinitely for new and better ones, Weisbach argues that central motivation for climate policy is straightforward: it is in their common interest for people and nations to agree to policies that dramatically reduce emissions to prevent terrible harms.

This collection gathers a set of seminal papers from the emerging area of ethics and climate change. Topics covered include human rights, international justice, intergenerational ethics, individual responsibility, climate economics, and the ethics of geoengineering. Climate Ethics is intended to serve as a source book for general reference, and for university courses that include a focus on the human dimensions of climate change. It should be of broad interest to all those concerned with global justice, environmental science and policy, and the future of humanity.

Part of the What Everyone Needs to Know (R) series, David Day's book on Antarctica examines the most forbidding and formidably inaccessible continent on Earth. Antarctica was first discovered by European explorers in 1820, and for over a century following this, countries competed for the frozen land's vast marine resources-namely, the skins and oil of seals and whales. Soon the entire territory played host to competing claims by rival nations. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 was meant to end this contention, but countries have found other means of extending control over the land, with scientific bases establishing at least symbolic claims. Exploration and drilling by the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, and others has led to discoveries about the world's climate in centuries past-and in the process intimations of its alarming future. Delving into the history of the continent, Antarctic wildlife, arguments over governance, underwater mountain rangers, and the continent's use in predicting coming global change, Day's work sheds new light on a territory that, despite being the coldest, driest, and windiest continent in the world, will continue to be the object of intense speculation and competition.

The Arctic Tundra and adjacent Boreal Forest or Taiga support the most cold-adapted flora and fauna on Earth. The evolutionary capacity of both plants and animals to adapt to these thermally limiting conditions has always attracted biological investigation and is a central theme of this book. How the polar biota will adapt to a warmer world is creating significant and renewed interest in this habitat. The Arctic has always been subject to climatic fluctuation and the polar biota has successfully adapted to these changes throughout its evolutionary history. Whether or not climatic warming will allow the Boreal Forest to advance onto the treeless Tundra is one of the most tantalizing questions that can be asked today in relation to terrestrial polar biology. Tundra-Taiga Biology provides a circum-polar perspective of adaptation to low temperatures and short growing seasons, together with a history of climatic variation as it has affected the evolution of terrestrial life in the Tundra and the adjacent forested Taiga. It will appeal to researchers new to the field and to the many students, professional ecologists and conservation practitioners requiring a concise but authoritative overview of the biome. Its accessibility also makes it suitable for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in tundra, taiga, and arctic ecology.

This comprehensive Handbook assesses the escalation of global natural disasters as a result of climate change. Examining the complex interplay of human and natural activities, it highlights the growing vulnerability of people and communities in developing countries to floods, landslides, cyclones, heat waves and wildfires. The Handbook opens with a global framework analysis, outlining the implications of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction. International contributors address the roles of stakeholders in mitigating climate hazards, as well as offer detailed analysis of cross-cutting issues, including poverty, health, education and gender. Concluding chapters address the future of climate change mitigation and disaster protection, exploring the growing role of emerging technologies in disaster resilience and sustainable development. Bringing together cutting-edge research from renowned global scholars and professionals, this Handbook offers key insights for researchers and students of environmental studies and development studies, particularly those focusing on natural disasters and climate technologies. The empirical data and case analysis will also benefit practitioners, professionals and policymakers working in climate risk relief.

Climate change will have a bigger impact on humanity than the Internet has had. The last decade's spate of superstorms, wildfires, heat waves, and droughts has accelerated the public discourse on this topic and lent credence to climatologist Lonnie Thomson's 2010 statement that climate change "represents a clear and present danger to civilization." In June 2015, the Pope declared that action on climate change is a moral issue. This book offers the most up-to-date examination of climate change's foundational science, its implications for our future, and the core clean energy solutions. Alongside detailed but highly accessible descriptions of what is causing climate change, this entry in the What Everyone Needs to Know series answers questions about the practical implications of this growing force on our world: * How will climate change impact you and your family in the coming decades? * What are the future implications for owners of coastal property? * Should you plan on retiring in South Florida or the U.S. Southwest or Southern Europe? * What occupations and fields of study will be most in demand in a globally warmed world? * What impact will climate change have on investments and the global economy? As the world struggles to stem climate change and its effects, everyone will become a part of this story of the century. Here is what you need to know.

This thoroughly revised third edition offers comprehensive coverage of the economics of climate change and climate policy, and is a suitable guide for advanced undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students. Topics discussed include the costs and benefits of adaptation and mitigation, discounting, uncertainty, equity, policy instruments, the second best, and international agreements. Key features: In-depth treatment of the economics of climate change Careful explanation of concepts and their application to climate policy Customizable integrated assessment model that illustrates all issues discussed Specific usage guidelines for each level of reader Companion website with data, quizzes, videos, and further reading Discussion of the latest developments in theory and policy Greater attention to policy and market imperfections than in the second edition. This book is an essential text for students in economics, climate change, and environmental policy, an excellent resource for researchers and practitioners, and a key text to support professors in their teaching.

This insightful Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent developments in the academic debate on the numerous and complex linkages between international trade and climate change. Adopting a broad interdisciplinary approach, it brings together perspectives from scholars in economics, political science and legal studies to confront the critical environmental challenges posed by globalization. Initial chapters provide an overview of the key debates related to international trade and climate policy, engaging with empirical data from the US and China to assess the impact of new trade initiatives and policy on greenhouse gas emissions, carbon leakage and the increase of trade in carbon-intensive products. Contributors propose policy options that align international trade with climate change mitigation and address crucial legal and practical implications, including the implementation of Border Carbon Adjustments and international trade disputes. Offering critical and empirically-based perspectives on the future of international trade policy, this timely Handbook is crucial reading for scholars, researchers and graduate students in political science, public policy and climate research. Policymakers will also benefit from its unique and insightful policy recommendations.

From an award-winning science journalist comes Nomad Century, an urgent investigation of environmental migration--the most underreported, seismic consequence of our climate crisis that will force us to change where--and how--we live. "The MOST IMPORTANT BOOK I imagine I'll ever read."--Mary Roach "An IMPORTANT and PROVOCATIVE start to a crucial conversation." --Bill McKibben "We are facing a species emergency. We can survive, but to do so will require a planned and deliberate migration of a kind humanity has never before undertaken. This is the biggest human crisis you've never heard of." Drought-hit regions bleeding those for whom a rural life has become untenable. Coastlines diminishing year on year. Wildfires and hurricanes leaving widening swaths of destruction. The culprit, most of us accept, is climate change, but not enough of us are confronting one of its biggest, and most present, consequences: a total reshaping of the earth's human geography. As Gaia Vince points out early in Nomad Century, global migration has doubled in the past decade, on track to see literal billions displaced in the coming decades. What exactly is happening, Vince asks? And how will this new great migration reshape us all? In this deeply-reported clarion call, Vince draws on a career of environmental reporting and over two years of travel to the front lines of climate migration across the globe, to tell us how the changes already in play will transform our food, our cities, our politics, and much more. Her findings are answers we all need, now more than ever.

Are the often alarming claims about global warming based on science and justified by the facts? Is the human race really facing a major crisis due to emissions from fossil fuels? Would the proposed Climate Treaty solve a real environmental threat or would it create worldwide economic and social harms. Fred Singer is a distinguished astrophysicist who has taken a hard, scientific look at the evidence. In this new book, Dr. Singer explores the inaccuracies in historical climate data, the limitations of attempting to model climate on computers, solar variability and its impact on climate, the effects of clouds, ocean currents, and sea levels on global climate, and factors that could mitigate any human impacts on world climate. Singer's masterful analysis decisively shows that the pessimistic, and often alarming, global warming scenarios depicted in the media have no scientific basis. In fact, he finds that many aspects of any global warming, such as a longer growing season for food and a reduced need to use fossil fuels for heating, would actually have a positive impact on the human race. Further, Singer notes how many proposed 'solutions' to the global warming 'crisis' (like 'carbon' taxes) would have severe consequences for economically disadvantaged groups and nations. According to Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hot Talk, Cold Science dares to point out that 'the Emperor has no clothes.' Is there evidence to suggest discernible human influence on global climate? Of great interest, this book demonstrates that, at best, the evidence is sketchy and incomplete. Hot Talk, Cold Science is essential reading for anyone who wants to be fully informed about the global warming debate.

This thoroughly revised second edition provides an up-to-date account of essential EU climate mitigation law, analysing an area that remains one of the most dynamic fields of EU law. Special attention is paid to the energy sector and to the impact of climate law on broader legal issues, such as energy network regulation and human rights. Written by leading scholars of EU climate law from the University of Groningen, the book addresses the relevant directives and regulations, examining their implementation and impact on current policy and academic debate. Chapters guide the reader through key topics including the EU emissions trading system, renewable energy consumption, and carbon capture and storage. Key features of the second edition include: A clear and accessible introduction to EU climate mitigation law Comprehensive coverage of the climate targets and instruments of the EU Special focus on the relationship between climate law and energy law New classroom questions to stimulate further discussion and debate Educational design based on reviews by climate law students and lecturers. Combining educational design and analytical accuracy, this book will be an indispensable guide for both students and professionals. It is highly recommended for courses on EU climate mitigation law, as well as climate law, energy law, environmental law and EU law.

This significant book addresses the most important legal issues that cities face when attempting to adapt to the changing climate. This includes how to become more resilient against the impacts of climate change such as sea level rise, increases in the intensity and frequency of storms, floods, droughts, and extreme temperatures. A range of expert contributors are brought together to assess the current state of climate change law and policy at the city level, featuring analysis of key legal instruments that can help urban societies adapt to, and cope with, the changing climate. Chapters contain comparative assessments of urban climate change policies in cities across the world, in both developed and developing countries, including Ghana, South Africa, Indonesia, the Netherlands and the US. Additionally, the book analyses legal approaches, relying on planning law and other legal instruments in the hands of city governments, which can aid in combating specific problems such as the urban heat island effect. Providing an up-to-date analysis of climate change adaptation and mitigation law at the level of cities, Urban Climate Resilience will be a key resource for academics and students of environmental law, public international law, urban planning and sustainability. The lessons for future policies and laws to create more climate resilient cities will also be useful for local policymakers, regulators and city government officials working on climate change at the local level.

Displacement caused by climate change is an area of growing concern. With current rises in sea levels and changes to the global climate, it is an issue of fundamental importance to the future of many parts of the world. This book critically examines whether States have obligations to protect people displaced by climate change under international refugee law, international human rights law, and the international law on statelessness. Drawing on field work undertaken in Bangladesh, India, and the Pacific island States of Kiribati and Tuvalu, it evaluates whether the phenomenon of 'climate change-induced displacement' is an empirically sound category for academic inquiry. It does so by examining the reasons why people move (or choose not to move); the extent to which climate change, as opposed to underlying socio-economic factors, provides a trigger for such movement; and whether traditional international responses, such as the conclusion of new treaties and the creation of new institutions, are appropriate solutions in this context. In this way, the book queries whether flight from habitat destruction should be viewed as another facet of traditional international protection or as a new challenge requiring more creative legal and policy responses. law, and the international law on statelessness. Drawing on