This book explains how the U.S. federal system manages environmental health issues, with a unique focus on risk management and human health outcomes. Building on a generic approach for understanding human health risk, this book shows how federalism has evolved in response to environmental health problems, political and ideological variations in Washington D.C, as well as in-state and local governments. It examines laws, rules and regulations, showing how they stretch or fail to adapt to environmental health challenges. Emphasis is placed on human health and safety risk and how decisions have been influenced by environmental health information. The authors review different forms of federalism, and analyse how it has had to adapt to ever evolving environmental health hazards, such as global climate change, nanomaterials, nuclear waste, fresh air and water, as well as examining the impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on worker environmental health. They demonstrate the process for assessing hazard information and the process for federalism risk management, and subsequently arguing that human health and safety should receive greater attention. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars working on environmental health and environmental policy, particularly from a public health, and risk management viewpoint, in addition to practitioners and policymakers involved in environmental management and public policy.

Following in the tradition of its predecessor, Crop Responses to Environment, this fully updated and more comprehensive second edition describes aspects of crop responses to environment that are particularly relevant to the development of improved crop cultivars and management methods on a global scale. It includes an extensive discussion of the difficulties in developing agricultural systems that accommodate increasing human needs for agricultural products during the twenty-first century in a sustainable manner. The book features new sections on adaptation to global climate change including adapting to global warming, elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, and increased flooding and salinity through plant breeding and changes in crop management. Warming effects include stressful effects of heat on pollen development and reduced winter chilling effects on fruit and nut trees. The book examines principles, theories, mathematical models, and experimental observations concerning plant responses to environment that are relevant to the development of improved crop cultivars and management methods. It illustrates the importance of considering emergent plant properties as well as reductionist approaches to understanding plant function and adaptation. Plant physiological and developmental responses to light and temperature, and plant water relations are considered in detail. Dr. Hall also describes climatic zone definitions based on temperature, rainfall, and evaporative demand in relation to plant adaptation and the prediction of crop water use. Irrigation management and crop responses to salinity, flooding and toxic levels of boron and aluminum are considered. Crop responses to pests and diseases as they interact with crop responses to physical and chemical aspects of the environment are examined. The book concludes with analyses illustrating the relevance of crop responses to environment to plant breeding.

Global warming is expected to change fire regimes, likely increasing the severity and extent of wildfires in many ecosystems around the world. What will be the landscape-scale effects of these altered fire regimes? Within what theoretical contexts can we accurately assess these effects? We explore the possible effects of altered fire regimes on landscape patch dynamics, dominant species (tree, shrub, or herbaceous) and succession, sensitive and invasive plant and animal species and communities, and ecosystem function. Ultimately, we must consider the human dimension: what are the policy and management implications of increased fire disturbance, and what are the implications for human communities?

This open access volume draws on a multidimensional model of educational change, the book reviews the field of climate change education and identifies some of the areas in which past efforts have fallen short in supporting effective pedagogical change at scale. It then formulates an approach to engage university students and faculty in partnering with schools and adult education institutions and directly contribute innovative curricula on climate change. The approach is illustrated with several case studies which present curricula developed to support school-based innovation in the Middle East and in Guatemala, and adult education in Haiti and Pakistan, and educators preparation at the university level. The approach followed to develop innovative curriculum follows five steps: 1) What are the specific impacts of climate change in this jurisdiction? How do they impact various human populations? 2) What knowledge, dispositions and behaviors could mitigate the impact of climate change and are there ways in which changes in the behaviors of populations in this jurisdiction could slow down climate change? 3) What are the means of delivery to reach each of the specific populations in this jurisdiction who needs to be educated on climate change? 4) What curriculum can help educate each population? 5) What role can the institution we are collaborating with play in advancing climate change education in that jurisdiction? The various chapters of the book present the conceptual foundation of these programs and illustrate how these programs respond to specific characteristics of local contexts. These programs focus in schools, non-formal settings and educator preparation institutions. The chapters offer examples of general value beyond the specific contexts for which they were designed, as they illustrate how in order to be optimally useful climate change education needs to be firmly grounded in the specifics of a context and responsive to that context.

This book highlights modern strategies and methods to improve oilseed crops in the era of climate change, presenting the latest advances in plant molecular breeding and genomics-driven breeding. Spectacular achievements in the fields of molecular breeding, transgenics and genomics in the last three decades have facilitated revolutionary changes in oilseed- crop-improvement strategies and techniques. Since the genome sequencing of rice, as the first crop plant, in 2002, the genomes of about one dozen oilseed crops have been sequenced and more are to follow. This has made it possible to decipher the exact nucleotide sequence and chromosomal positions of agroeconomic genes. Most importantly, comparative genomics and genotyping-by-sequencing have opened up new vistas for exploring available biodiversity, particularly of wild crop relatives, for identifying useful donor genes.

This book lifts the taboo on maladaptation, a different driver of environmentally induced migration, which shines a light on the negative consequences arising from the solutions to climate change, adaptation and mitigation policies. Through a systematic analysis and critique of existing mitigation and adaptation polices under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and international development community, and supplemented by a small empirical study in Indonesia, this book catalogues how maladaptation is manufactured under existing climate change solutions. It posits that customary communities in general- and women in particular- are disproportionately affected by the dominant market-driven logics that underscore current climate change solutions adopted by the UNFCCC. The injustice of maladaptation is highlighted as multi-faceted and explored using political, economic, social and ecological lenses, and the concept of environmental reintegration is also explored as a possible solution to this issue. Further possibilities are then presented in the Afterword, as a combination of what the new (post-neoliberalism) conjuncture could potentially look like. This volume will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners of climate change, environmental policy, environmental migration and displacement, development studies, I/NGOs and civil society actors and activists more broadly.

If you had a trillion dollars and a year to spend it for the good of the world and the advancement of science, what would you do? It's an unimaginably large sum, yet it's only around one per cent of world GDP, and about the valuation of Google, Microsoft or Amazon. It's a much smaller sum than the world found to bail out its banks in 2008 or deal with Covid-19. But what could you achieve with $1 trillion? You could solve the problem of the pandemic, for one, and eradicate malaria, and maybe cure all disease. You could end global poverty. You could settle on the Moon and explore the solar system. You could build a massive particle collider to probe the nature of reality like never before. You could build quantum computers, develop artificial intelligence, or increase human lifespan. You could even create a new life form. Or how about transitioning the world to clean energy? Or preserving the rainforests, or saving all endangered species? Maybe you could refreeze the melting Arctic, launch a new sustainable agricultural revolution, and reverse climate change? How to Spend a Trillion Dollars is the ultimate thought experiment but it is also a call to arms: these are all things we could do, if we put our minds to it - and our money.

This book examines the multiple scales at which the inequities of climate change are borne out. Shangrila Joshi engages in a multi-scalar analysis of the myriad ways in which various resource commons - predominantly atmosphere and forests - are implicated in climate governance, with a consistent emphasis throughout on the justice implications for disenfranchised communities. The book starts with an analysis of North-South inequities in responsibility, vulnerability, and capability, as evidenced in global climate treaty negotiations from Rio to Paris. It then moves on to examine the ways in which structural inequalities are built into the conceptualization and operationalization of various neoliberal climate solutions such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted in Delhi, Kathmandu, and the Terai region of Nepal, participant observation at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP-15), and textual analysis of official documents, the book articulates a geography of climate justice, considering how ideas of injustice pertaining to colonialism, race, Indigeneity, caste, gender, and global inequality intersect with the politics of scale. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental justice, climate justice, climate policy, political ecology, and South Asian studies.

This edited volume looks at whether it is possible to be more transparent about uncertainty in scientific evidence without undermining public understanding and trust. With contributions from leading experts in the field, this book explores the communication of risk and decision-making in an increasingly post-truth world. Drawing on case studies from climate change to genetic testing, the authors argue for better quality evidence synthesis to cut through the noise and highlight the need for more structured public dialogue. For uncertainty in scientific evidence to be communicated effectively, they conclude that trustworthiness is vital: the data and methods underlying statistics must be transparent, valid, and sound, and the numbers need to demonstrate practical utility and add social value to people's lives. Presenting a conceptual framework to help navigate the reader through the key social and scientific challenges of a post-truth era, this book will be of great relevance to students, scholars, and policy makers with an interest in risk analysis and communication.

Originally published in 1979, Solar Energy provides a tour of the world of solar energy and asks two key questions: is solar energy the key to the future of our energy needs and what are the facts and potential of this source of renewable power. The book examines solar energy from the past to modern plans for designing domestic solar housing, and looks at the sites and the technology applied to harness the Sun's power, such as the energy potential of windmills and the equatorial oceans. Behrman reports on the progress of scientists and manufacturers in making solar energy a viable competitor in the energy market, and studies the projections of a future energy crop for energy plantations.

Following the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the global politics of climate change depends more than ever on national climate policies and the actions of cities, businesses, and other non-state actors, as well as the transnational governance networks that link them. The Comparative Politics of Transnational Climate Governance sheds new light on these critical trends by exploring how domestic political, economic, and social forces systematically shape patterns of non-state actor participation in transnational climate initiatives. The book develops a common conceptual framework and uses a unique data set to explore the interplay between transnational and domestic politics and how these interactions shape the incentives and modalities of participation in transnational governance. The contributing chapters explore the role of cities, non-governmental organizations, companies, carbon markets, and regulations, as well as broader questions of effectiveness and global governance. Bringing together some of the foremost experts in the field of global governance and environmental politics, this book significantly advances our understanding of transnational governance and provides new insights for policymakers seeking to address the problem of climate change. This book was originally published as a special issue of International Interactions.

With a specific focus on the United States and the United Kingdom, Carbon Inequality studies the role of the richest people in contributing to climate change via their luxury consumption and their investments. In an innovative contribution, it attempts to quantify personal responsibility for shareholdings in large fossil fuel companies. This book explores the implications of the richest people's historic responsibility for global warming, the impacts of which affect them less than most others in global society. Kenner analyses how the richest people running large oil and gas companies have successfully used their political influence to lobby the US and UK government. This assessment of their growing political power is particularly pertinent at a time of increasing inequality and growing public awareness of the impact of climate change. The book also highlights the crucial role of the richest in blocking the low-carbon transition in the US and the UK, exploring how this could be countered to ensure fossil fuels are fully replaced by renewable energy. This book will be of great relevance to scholars and policy makers with an interest in inequality, climate change and sustainability transitions.

This book argues that there is no way to make progress in building a sustainable future without extensive participation of non-state actors. The volume explores the contribution of non-state actors to a sustainable transition, starting with citizens and communities of different kinds and ending with cities and city-networks. The authors analyse social, cultural, political and economic drivers and barriers for this transition, from individual behaviour to structural restraints, and investigate interplay between the two. Through a series of wide-ranging case studies from the UK, Australia, Germany, Italy and Denmark, and a number of comparative case studies, the volume provides an empirically and theoretically robust argument that highlights the need to develop, widen and scale up collective action and community-based engagement if the transition to sustainability is to be successful. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, sustainability and environmental policy.

This book reveals how journalists in the Global North and Global South mediate climate change by examining journalism and reporting in Australia and Bangladesh. This dual analysis presents a unique opportunity to examine the impacts of media and communication in two contrasting countries (in terms of economy, income and population size) which both face serious climate change challenges. In reporting on these challenges, journalism as a political, institutional, and cultural practice has a significant role to play. It is influential in building public knowledge and contributes to knowledge production and dialogue, however, the question of who gets to speak and who doesn't, is a significant determinant of journalists' capacity to establish authority and assign cultural meaning to realities. By measuring the visibility from presences and absences, the book explores the extent to which the influences are similar or different in the two countries, contrasting how journalists' communication power conditions public thought on climate change. The investigation of climate communication across the North-South divide is especially urgent given the global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and it is critical we gain a fuller understanding of the dynamics of climate communication in low-emitting, low-income countries as much as in the high emitters, high-income countries. This book contributes to this understanding and highlights the value of a dual analysis in being ably draw out parallels, as well as divergences, which will directly assist in developing cross-national strategies to help address the mounting challenge of climate change. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change and environmental journalism, as well as media and communication studies more broadly.

This volume focuses on the theory and practice of the regenerative development paradigm that is rapidly displacing sustainability as the most fertile ground for climate change adaptation research.

This book brings together key thinkers in this field to develop a meaningful synthesis between the existing practice of regenerative development and the input of scholars in the social sciences. It begins by providing an expert introduction to the history, principles, and practices of regenerative development before going on to present a thorough theoretical examination by known theorists from disciplines including sociology, geography, and ethics. A section on regenerative development practices illustrates the need to significantly advance our understanding of how urbanization, climate change, and inequality interact at every scale of development work. Finally, the book ends with a serious consideration of the ways in which integrated systems thinking in higher education could result in a curriculum for the next generation of regenerative development professionals.

Regenerative Urban Development, Climate Change and the Common Good will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of regenerative development, climate change, urban planning, and public policy.

In the face of growing environmental challenges, including climate change and energy security, countries across the globe are developing new policies and programs to address these challenges, and China is no exception. This book analyses China's two most significant climate-related energy policies, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM; including the later Chinese Certified Emission Reduciton - CCER) and the Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Scheme (ECERS). This work specifically examines the strengths and weaknesses of these policies to highlight the deficiencies and advise how they can be optimised, so China can better achieve its emission reduction goals. It analyses the roles and relationships between relevant actors and identifies how successful their cooperation has been, and what factors have affected it. Importantly, the work draws on a wide range of sources from central ministries to civil society, including interviews with Chinese officials, scholars, energy company managers, environment non-govermental organisation (ENGO) personnel, media reports, and online forum discussions. In doing so, the book not only analyses the thoughts of policymakers, as many works do, but also those implementing the policies and those impacted by the policies. The book concludes by offering detailed and practical solutions to address each specific deficiency in the CDM and ECERS policies, with the aim of providing innovations and alternative approaches to improve current and future policies in China. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and policymakers interested in climate change, energy, and Chinese environmental policy and politics.

This book offers new perspectives on how social and political institutions can respond more effectively to climate change. Theresa Scavenius presents a concept of moral responsibility that does not address the obligations of individual citizens, but instead assesses the moral responsibility of institutionalised actors, such as governments, parliaments, and other governmental agencies. This focus on political responsibility is something that up until now has largely been neglected by moral theory, but Scavenius argues in this book that accountability must be assigned to institutionalised group agents. With this new research, she outlines building blocks for a new agenda of climate studies by offering an innovative approach to climate governance and democratic climate action at a time when many political initiatives have failed and crucially outlines the necessity of approaching moral dilemmas from a fact sensitive political theoretical approach. Written in a clear and engaging style, this volume will be an invaluable reference for researchers interested in moral philosophy, climate change, environmental politics and policy, and institutional theory.

This is the first book on climate change denial and lobbying that combines the ideology of denial and the role of anthropocentrism in the study of interest groups and communication strategy. Climate Change Denial and Public Relations: Strategic Communication and Interest Groups in Climate Inaction is a critical approach to climate change denial from a strategic communication perspective. The book aims to provide an in-depth analysis of how strategic communication by interest groups is contributing to climate change inaction. It does this from a multidisciplinary perspective that expands the usual approach of climate change denialism and introduces a critical reflection on the roots of the problem, including the ethics of the denialist ideology and the rhetoric and role of climate change advocacy. Topics addressed include the power of persuasive narratives and discourses constructed to support climate inaction by lobbies and think tanks, the dominant human supremacist view and the patriarchal roots of denialists and advocates of climate change alike, the knowledge coalitions of the climate think tank networks, the denial strategies related to climate change of the nuclear, oil, and agrifood lobbies, the role of public relations firms, the anthropocentric roots of public relations, taboo topics such as human overpopulation and meat-eating, and the technological myth. This unique volume is recommended reading for students and scholars of communication and public relations.

Miscanthus has been enthusiastically promoted as a second generation biomass crop, and this book provides a comprehensive review of this knowledge. Miscanthus, also known as elephant grass, is a high yielding grass crop that grows over three metres tall, resembles bamboo and produces a crop every year without the need for replanting or fertiliser application . The rapid growth, low mineral content, and high biomass yield of Miscanthus increasingly make it a favourite choice as a biofuel, outperforming switchgrass and other alternatives. There is over 20 years of research evidence to support its promotion as a second generation biomass crop. The author reviews many field measurements of yields as well as the physiology of the crop, and why it is so productive while at the same time requiring low inputs to grow it. It also shows how as a key biofuel crop it can contribute to mitigating climate change and how uptake of the adoption of Miscanthus production can be promoted, particularly in Europe and North America. The book will be key reading for students taking courses in the areas of Environmental Science and Engineering, Climate Change Impacts, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation. It will also be of interest to researchers of second generation biomass crops, and policy developers working in biofuel production and utilization.

The book examines the narratives of climate change which have developed and which are currently evolving in three areas: law, fiction and activism. Narratives of climate change generated by litigants, judges, writers of fiction and activists are having, and will have, a profound effect on the way we respond to the climate change crisis. Acknowledging the prevalence of unreliable narrators, this book explores the reliability and significance of different forms of climate narrative. The author analyses overlapping themes and points of intersection, considering the recurrent motif of the trickster, the prominence of the child, the significance and ongoing viability of the rights discourse, and the increasingly prevalent emergency framing with its multiple implications for law's empire. She asks how law, fiction and activism measure up as textual and performative fora for telling the story of climate change and anticipating a climate-changed future. And, in addition, how can they help foster transformative narratives which empower us to confront the climate change crisis? This highly topical, cross-disciplinary work will be of interest to anyone concerned about the growing climate emergency and makes a valuable contribution to climate law, environmental law, the environmental humanities and ecocriticism.

This innovative volume gathers some of the world's best scholars to analyse the world's collective international efforts to address globalised threats through global security governance. Addressing global and planetary forms of insecurity that include nuclear weapons, conventional arms, gender violence, climate change, disease, bio weapons, cyber-conflict, children in conflict, crimes against humanity, and refugees, this timely book critiques how they are addressed by global institutions and regimes, and advocates important conceptual, institutional, and policy reforms. This is an invaluable resource for students, scholars and policymakers in international health, security and development.

This book introduces the notion of "educational ecology" as a necessary and promising pedagogic principle for the teaching of Anglophone literatures and cultures in a time of climate change. Drawing on scholarship in the environmental humanities and practice-oriented research in education and literature pedagogy, chapters address the challenges of climate change and the demand for sustainability and environmental pedagogy from the specific perspective of literary and cultural studies and education, arguing that these perspectives constitute a crucial element of the transdisciplinary effort of "cultivating sustainability." The notion of an "educational ecology" takes full advantage of the necessarily dialogic and co-constitutive nature of sustainability-related pedagogical philosophy and practice while it retains the subject-specific focus of research and education in the humanities, centring on and excelling in critical thinking, perspective diversity, language and discourse awareness, and the literary and cultural constructions of meaning. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of language, literature and culture pedagogy, as well as transdisciplinary researchers in the environmental humanities.

Climate Change Temporalities explores how various timescales, timespans, intervals, rhythms, cycles, and changes in acceleration are at play in climate change discourses. It argues that nuanced, detailed, and specific understandings and concepts are required to handle the challenges of a climatically changed world, politically and socially as well as scientifically. Rather than reflecting abstractly on theories of temporality, this edited collection explores a variety of timescales and temporalities from narratives, experience, popular culture, and everyday life in addition to science and history - and the entanglements between them. The chapters are clustered into three main sections, exploring a range of genres, such as questionnaires, interviews, magazines, news media, television series, aquariums, and popular science books to critically examine how and where climate change understandings are formed. The book also includes chapters historising notions of climate and temporality by exploring scientific debates and practices. Climate Change Temporalities will be of great interest to students and scholars of humanistic climate change research, environmental humanities, studies of temporality and historicity, cultural studies, cultural history, and popular culture.

This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date assessment of the key terrestrial components of the Arctic system, i.e., its hydrology, permafrost, and ecology, drawing on the latest research results from across the circumpolar regions. The Arctic is an integrated system, the elements of which are closely linked by the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Using an integrated system approach, the book's 30 chapters, written by a diverse team of leading scholars, carefully examine Arctic climate variability/change, large river hydrology, lakes and wetlands, snow cover and ice processes, permafrost characteristics, vegetation/landscape changes, and the future trajectory of Arctic system evolution. The discussions cover the fundamental features of and processes in the Arctic system, with a special focus on critical knowledge gaps, i.e., the interactions and feedbacks between water, permafrost, and ecosystem, such as snow pack and permafrost changes and their impacts on basin hydrology and ecology, river flow, geochemistry, and energy fluxes to the Arctic Ocean, and the structure and function of the Arctic ecosystem in response to past/future changes in climate, hydrology, and permafrost conditions. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, graduate students, environmentalists, managers, and administrators who are concerned with the northern environment and resources.

During his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI was called 'the green pope' because of his ecological commitments in his writings, statements, and practical initiatives. Containing twelve essays by lay, ordained, and religious Catholic theologians and scholars, along with a presentation and a homily by bishops, Environmental Justice and Climate Change: Assessing Pope Benedict XVI's Ecological Vision for the Catholic Church in the United States explores four key areas in connection with Benedict XVI's teachings: human and natural ecology/human life and dignity; solidarity, justice, poverty and the common good; sacramentality of creation; and our Catholic faith in action. The product of mutual collaboration by bishops, scholars and staff, this anthology provides the most thorough treatment of Benedict XVI's contributions to ecological teaching and offers fruitful directions for advancing concern among Catholics in the United States about ongoing threats to the integrity of Earth.