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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Pollution & threats to the environment > Global warming
It is becoming increasingly difficult to deny that human activity is a factor in global climate change. This special volume of REA facilitates readers to better understand the ways in which people around the world have adapted (or failed to adapt) culturally to changing economic conditions caused by climate change. It focuses on specific situations in particular locations, showcasing (and confirming) the strength and value of intensive ethnographic or archaeological "investigation. The authors discuss: 1) How has climate change affected production, distribution, or consumption at the local level? 2) Are environmental conservation and economic development mutually exclusive? 3) What roles can public and private institutions play in successful adaptation? 4) What kinds of parallels can be drawn between current social situations and those in the past with regards to climate change?
This book highlights state-of-the-art research and practices for adaptation to climate change in food production systems (agriculture in particular) as observed in Japan and neighboring Asian countries. The main topics covered include the current scientific understanding of observed and projected climate change impacts on crop production and quality, modeling of autonomous and planned adaptation, and development of early warning and/or support systems for climate-related decision-making. Drawing on concrete real-world examples, the book provides readers with an essential overview of adaptation, from research to system development to practices, taking agriculture in Asia as the example. As such, it offers a valuable asset for all researchers and policymakers whose work involves adaptation planning, climate negotiations, and/or agricultural developments.
This book describes the development of a system dynamics-based model that can capture the future trajectories of housing energy and carbon emissions. It approaches energy and carbon emissions in the housing sector as a complex socio-technical problem involving the analysis of intrinsic interrelationships among dwellings, occupants and the environment. Based on an examination of the UK housing sector but with relevance worldwide, the book demonstrates how the systems dynamics simulation can be used as a learning laboratory regarding future trends in housing energy and carbon emissions. The authors employ a pragmatic research strategy, involving the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data to develop a model. The book enriches readers' understanding of the complexity involved in housing energy and carbon emissions from a systems-thinking perspective. As such, it will be of interest to researchers in the fields of architectural engineering, housing studies and climate change, while also appealing to industry practitioners and policymakers specializing in housing energy.
The book focuses on the management of the aquatic environment. It is aimed at scientists, students, governmental officials and specialists dealing with groundwater and environment. Its main goal is to inform the reader of ideas, knowledge and experience in terms of a sustainable aquatic environment. The main topics are as follows: Water Bodies and Ecosystems; Climate Change and Water Bodies; Water quality and agriculture; Interaction of Surface and ground waters; Karst Hydrogeology; Continuous Media Hydrogeology; Fissured Rocks Hydrogeology; Hydrochemistry; Geothermics and thermal waters; The role of water in construction projects; Hydrology
In this ground-breaking work, Teresa Thorp tackles the causes and effects of climate injustice by methodically mapping out an approach by which to reach a negotiatedconsensus with legal force to protect present and future generations. Using the law and policy of climate change as a vehicle for illustrating how to shape our future,she comprehensively overturns the widely held contemporary view of climate justice as inconstant charitable acts, relative systemic notions and static concepts isolatedfrom the common good and a congruent rule of law. Responding to the adverse impacts of climate change (heat waves, extended drought, severe flooding anddesertification), which represent an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet, requires a new and cohesive way of thinking aboutglobal policy and the law. The mission of guaranteeing and realising human dignity, human security and human rights is multi-fold. Looking through the lens of kaleidoscopic normativity, anextensible language anchored in common juridical elements should facilitate how norms enter the socio-legal frame and interact within it. Users need to be able todisplay and interpret the congruent legal norm in order to obey and apply it. Galvanising this process by constitutionalising first principles and consequential normsis vital for attaining fraternity between nations and among all people. Climate Justice - A Voice for the Future is an essential read for scholars, practitioners and all those genuinely interested in reaching consensus on a post-2015 global climate accord, a unified development agenda and a cohesive pact for disaster-risk reduction.
This volume brings together, in a central text, chapters written by leading scholars working at the intersection of modeling, the natural and social sciences, and public participation. This book presents the current state of knowledge regarding the theory and practice of engaging stakeholders in environmental modeling for decision-making, and includes basic theoretical considerations, an overview of methods and tools available, and case study examples of these principles and methods in practice. Although there has been a significant increase in research and development regarding participatory modeling, a unifying text that provides an overview of the different methodologies available to scholars and a systematic review of case study applications has been largely unavailable. This edited volume seeks to address a gap in the literature and provide a primer that addresses the growing demand to adopt and apply a range of modeling methods that includes the public in environmental assessment and management. The book is divided into two main sections. The first part of the book covers basic considerations for including stakeholders in the modeling process and its intersection with the theory and practice of public participation in environmental decision-making. The second part of the book is devoted to specific applications and products of the various methods available through case study examination. This second part of the book also provides insight from several international experts currently working in the field about their approaches, types of interactions with stakeholders, models produced, and the challenges they perceived based on their practical experiences.
Landslides in cold regions have different mechanisms from those in other areas, and comparatively few research efforts have been made in this field. Recently, because of climate change, some new trends concerning landslide occurrence and motion have appeared, severely impacting economic development and communities. This book collects key case studies from the cold regions all over the world, providing an overview of the general situation.
Public transport in low-income Asian (LIA) cities fails to meet people's mobility needs, generates high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and worsens social exclusion. Following successful Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects in Bogota and Curitiba, LIA countries promoted BRT in their large to medium-sized cities. However, the political and institutional structure distinctive to LIA cities makes their implementation difficult. This book investigates policy tensions by examining the planning and attempted implementation of BRT projects, taking Bandung and Surabaya in Indonesia as case studies. It analyses BRT to understand how power and communication gaps in institutional relationships between different actors at multiple levels of governance create conflict, and concludes that top-down policies and funding mechanisms cause tension in intergovernmental relationships. It also found that BRT solutions generated socio-political tension arising from the socio-economic realities and local political dynamics that shaped city structure, mobility patterns and capacity in resolving conflicts. The superimposed BRT solution generated discursive tension because conflicting discourses were not aligned with local economic, social, and environmental issues. The book highlights the need to take into consideration the vital role of local social and political actors, institutions and planning processes as they respond to and shape policies that are imposed by higher levels.
This book describes the current environmental changes due to global warming in northern Eurasia, especially focusing on eastern Siberia. Spring flooding, ice-jam movements, and monitoring using remote sensing are included. Additionally, current reindeer herding of indigenous peoples in Siberia and related environmental changes such as waterlogging, rising temperatures, and vegetation changes are addressed. As a summary, the book also introduces readers to adaptation strategies at several governmental levels. The book primarily focuses on 1) introducing readers to global warming and human-nature dynamics in Siberia, with special emphasis on humidification of the region in the mid-2000s, and 2) describing social adaptation to the changing terrestrial ecosystem, with an emphasis on water environments. Adaptation strategies based on vulnerability assessments of environmental changes in northern Eurasia are crucial topics for intergovernmental organizations, such as the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Thus, the book offers a valuable resource not only for environmental researchers but also for several stakeholders regarding global environmental change.
Polynyas are relatively ice-free regions when compared to the areas
around them, and have been suggested as being foci for energy
transfer between the atmosphere and ocean, ice "factories," and
critical areas with respect to polar ecosystems and biogeochemical
cycles. This volume presents an integrated, multidisciplinary
review of polynyas in both the Arctic and Antarctic. It emphasizes
the meteorology, ice dynamics, oceanography, biological components,
chemistry, and modeling of these systems, particularly with respect
to their roles in polar processes and distributions. The various
interactions within polynyas, particularly between the physical
forcing and biological responses, is emphasized, as are the
potential changes in polynyas that might occur under a climate
regime that is rapidly changing. The authors of the reviews are
leaders among their respective countries in polynya research, and
all are internationally recognized.
This volume presents twenty updated and new theories of travelers' decisions and behaviors. It describes the advances in theory construction and practical applications of theory in the disciplines of tourism, hospitality, leisure, and entertainment (THLE) research. The chapters all build on the grand models appearing in these four literature streams during 1965-2015. This approach is comprehensive in both coverage and depth with regard to constructing, testing, and applying theories of travelers' decisions and behaviors, which includes original work in updating grand theories and micro (algorithm-conscious and non-conscious based) theories of travelers' decisions and behavior. This volume is the first to fully recognize and construct theories across the THLE discipline. This volume describes the synergies, symbioses, and serendipity occurring in THLE behavior. It tears down researchers' parochial fences of what is and is not tourism, hospitality, leisure, and entertainment. The time has arrived tor tourism to embrace hospitality, hospitality to embrace tourism, and all to embrace leisure and entertainment, and this volume serves as a catalyst to accomplish this embrace.
Failure by the international community to make substantive progress in reducing CO2 emissions, coupled with recent evidence of accelerating climate change, has brought increasing urgency to the search for additional remediation approaches. This book presents a selection of state-of-the-art geoengineering methods for deliberately reducing the effects of anthropogenic climate change, either by actively removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere or by decreasing the amount of sunlight absorbed at the Earth's surface. These methods contrast with more conventional mitigation approaches which focus on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. Geoengineering technologies could become a key tool to be used in conjunction with emissions reduction to limit the magnitude of climate change. Featuring authoritative, peer-reviewed entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, this book presents a wide range of climate change remediation technologies.
This 32-chapter volume represents the core of several oral and poster presentations made at the conference. In addition to Introduction and Conclusion sections, the book is thematically divided into 7 sections, namely, 1) Land Use and Farming Systems, 2) Effects of Climate Change on Crop Yield, 3) Soil Nutrient and Water Management for Carbon Sequestration, 4) Rehabilitation of Degraded Lands through Forestry and Agroforestry, 5) Management of Animal Production for Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 6) Smallholder Adaptation to Climate Change, and 7) Economic, Social and Policy Issues. It addresses these themes in the context of sustainable intensification (SI). It implies increasing agronomic production from the existing land while improving/restoring its quality and decreasing the C or environmental footprint. Simply put, SI means producing more from less.
It is well known that the impacts of climate change are tangible and hence there can be no debate about the need for appropriate adaptation measures, on a priority basis. However, it is equally important to recognize the fact that adaptation measures actually represent a dynamic synthesis of interventions pertaining to multiple systems. These are particularly of water, soil characteristics, genotypic and phenotypic variations and their expressions, age-correlated biochemical changes aligned with planting schedules and favorable weather/climate conditions. Nutrients, occurrence and distribution of associated vegetation including crop mixes also influence productivity. The overarching aspect of farming practice wields significant influence on the outcome and hence it is important to be clear about the particular focus of the investigations being carried out and reported in a suitable manner. It is essential to recognize that scientific research in agriculture in India has always produced valuable results of direct relevance to her people. Importantly, preparedness to tackle disasters due to inclement weather system has prominently featured on the agenda. The recent focus on climate change and impacts has provided the necessary impetus to reorganize the framework of investigation to capture the specifics of such impacts. In this context, the importance of micro climate variations too viz-a-viz the larger scales of impacts cannot be overemphasized. It will be useful to also help characterize natural variations versus artificially induced variations, helping us understand the complexities of individual and synergistic impacts too. Obviously, the limits and limitations of models could determine the spread and depth of the outcomes of investigations. Empirical evidences to reinforce assumptions have to also be documented with utmost care; guided by an understanding of the limits of tolerance, limiting factors, and the precautionary principle especially in the public policy interface. The present volume therefore, showcases these strands with the fond hope that they will stimulate further thinking and enable appropriate action.
This book gathers an in-depth collection of 45 selected papers presented at the Global Conference on Global Warming 2014 in Beijing, China, covering a broad variety of topics from the main principles of thermodynamics and their role in design, analysis, and the improvements in performance of energy systems to the potential impact of global warming on human health and wellbeing. Given energy production's role in contributing to global warming and climate change, this work provides solutions to global warming from the point of view of energy. Incorporating multi-disciplinary expertise and approaches, it provides a platform for the analysis of new developments in the area of global warming and climate change, as well as potential energy solutions including renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, hydrogen production, CO2 capture and environmental impact assessment. The research and analysis presented herein will benefit international scientists, researchers, engineers, policymakers and all others with an interest in global warming and its potential solutions.
A unique feature of this book is its strong practice-oriented nature: it contains a wide range of papers dealing with the social, economic and political aspects of climate change, exemplifying the diversity of approaches to climate change management taking place all over the world, in a way never seen before. In addition, the book describes a number of projects and other initiatives happening in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin American and the Australasian region, providing a profile of the diversity of works taking place today.
The Environmental and climatic issues varies from continent to continent and is unique to Asia. Understanding the issues does need lot of research and study material which students may not be able to gather due to shortage of time and resources. Hence an effort is made by authors gathering there experience and academic input from renowned universities of world. Climate change is real and coping with it is major concern in coming days. Most of the books written and sold in the past need updating and customizing. The general description of climate change and world will not help the professionals and students. It needs to seen area wise as a professional will work in specific geographic area. Hence an effort is made to collect data from Asia which host most populated countries along with ecological hot spots.
This volume deals with the multifaceted and interdependent impacts of climate change on society from the perspective of a broad set of disciplines. The main objective of the book is to assess public and private cost of climate change as far as quantifiable, while taking into account the high degree of uncertainty. It offers new insights for the economic assessment of a broad range of climate change impact chains at a national scale. The framework presented in the book allows consistent evaluation including mutual interdependencies and macroeconomic feedback. This book develops a toolbox that can be used across the many areas of climate impact and applies it to one particular country: Austria.
This book showcases experiences from research, field projects and best practice in climate change adaptation in countries in the Latin American region, focusing on managing vulnerability and fostering resilience. It includes a selection of papers presented at a specialist symposium on climate change adaptation held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in November 2016.Consistent with the need for more cross-sectoral interaction among the various stakeholders working in the field of climate change adaptation in Latin America, the book documents and disseminates the wealth of experiences in the region. It is divided into two main parts: Part 1 addresses the current and future impacts of climate change on fauna, flora and landscapes, while Part 2 is concerned with the socio-economic aspects of climate change adaptation, analyzing some of the main problems prevailing in this vulnerable region and examining ways to address them.
This book offers a methodical explanation of our biomass-driven ecosystem, the undeniable uncertainties posed by the response of vegetation to changes in environmental conditions and the fact that humans everywhere have an interest, even an obligation, to cooperate in a global campaign to combat climate change.
The present study is a slightly revised version of my PhD thesis which was accepted at the Economics Department of Dresden University of Technology in July 2008. It has a long and a short history. For it began, as suggested theme, as a fundamental evaluation of evolutionary economics for ecological economics, asking, especially, for what the two ?elds actually constitutes and, eventually, relates. In several years of unfruitful dwelling, however, neither of these two young, non-mainstream ?elds proved as constituted at a fundamental level as yet. Rather, ecological economics, founded at the end of the 1980s as an attempt to combine social and natural s- ence approaches(in particular economics and ecology) to study especially long-run environmental problems in an encompassing manner, has mainly developed into an interdisciplinary research forum on environmental-economicissues. Particularly uni?edbycertainnormativestances sharedwithinits community, it constitutes, well understood, a new discpline of its own right, distinct from economics, with its own scienti?c standards, questions, methodologies and institutions (Baumgartner ] and Becker 2005). Modern evolutionaryeconomicson the other hand has been a quarter of a century after its inception with Nelson and Winter (1982) still a mainly h- erogeneousendeavor, linked by a (rather amorphous) common interest in economic "evolution" and a critical stance towards neoclassical mainstream economics, with a certain strength in applied studies on industrial dynamics (Heinzel 2004, 2006)."
Emissions of CO2 have come to be regarded as the main factor in climate change in recent years, and how to control them has become a pressing issue. The problem cannot simply be labeled a technological one, however, because it is deeply involved with social and economic issues. Since 2008, the Global Center of Excellence (COE) program titled Energy Science in the Age of Global Warming Toward a CO2 Zero-Emission Energy System has been held at Kyoto University, Japan. The program aims to establish an international education and research platform to foster educators, researchers, and policy makers who can develop technologies and propose policies toward a zero-emission society by the year 2100. Setting out a zero-emission technology roadmap, Global COE promotes socioeconomic studies of energy, the study of new technologies for renewable energies, and research in advanced nuclear energy. A compilation of the lectures and presentations from the first symposium of Global COE held at Kyoto University, this book is intended to provide the impetus for the establishment of low carbon energy science to bring about harmony between mankind and the environment."
This book presents cutting-edge remote sensing research, outlining the advanced use of European Space Agency (ESA) satellite data in the context of climate change. The ESA, through its Support to Science Element (STSE) Programme, funds a network of young post-doc scientists pursuing 2-year cutting-edge research projects in the field of remote sensing. This "Changing Earth Science Network" focuses on the exploitation of Earth Observation (EO) data to address major issues concerning the broader context of climate change in five scientific research domains: the oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere, land and solid earth.
To understand the global warming mechanism, global mapping of
primary production was carried out under the GCMAPS program. The
program was concerned with marine and terrestrial environmental
changes, which affect carbon cycle on the regional and global
scales. On the regional scale, warm phase of ENSO (El Nino /
Southern Oscillation) has been shown to affect economic activities
in many countries. The keyword for understanding mechanism of
global warming is primary productivity . The earth observation
satellites (EOS) like the ADEOS of Japan, and the SeaWiFS, Sea Star
and Terra of the U.S.A. provided much required data for modeling
and verification of primary production estimates on both land and
ocean. |
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