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Is the climate warming? Is the hydrological cycle intensifying? Is
the climate becoming more variable or extreme? Is the chemical
composition of the atmosphere changing? Is the solar irradiance
constant? Answers to these questions are fundamental to
understanding, predicting, and assessing climate on time scales
ranging from weeks to a century. Atmospheric, oceanic, and
environmental scientists have primarily relied on an ad-hoc
collection of disparate environmental observational and data
management systems to address these problems. But these systems
were not designed to measure climate variations and, as a result,
changes and variations of the earth system during the instrumental
climate record is far from unequivocal. This book develops a
framework from which a Global Climate Observing System, currently
being discussed in international forums, can be implemented to
monitor changes and variations of climate. Audience:
Administrators, policy makers, professionals, graduate students,
and others interested in learning how we can ensure a long-term
climate record for application to national economic development and
understanding ecosystem dynamics.
Are extreme weather events becoming more common? How do extreme
weather events impact society? These are critical questions that
must be examined as we confront the possibility that the world will
experience a change in climate over the next century. Much of the
research in climatology over the past decade has focused on
potential changes in long- term averages of temperature,
precipitation and other factors. However, it is becoming
increasingly clear that changes in average values will be
accompanied by changes in extreme events. Furthermore, extreme
weather events will impact society to a greater extent as people
around the world continue to locate in more hazard-prone areas such
as coastal zones. This book represents a major step forwards in
developing a comprehensive set of information about changes in
extreme events by providing a review of the problems in data
availability, quality and analysis that make deriving a clear
picture of world-wide changes in extreme events so difficult.
Audience: The book is intended for policy-makers, professionals,
graduate students and others interested in learning how extreme
weather events have changed, and how they impact society both now
and in the future.
This book is the most comprehensive report to date on the wide
range of impacts of climate change in the United States. It is
written in plain language to better inform members of the public
and policymakers. The report finds that global warming is
unequivocal, primarily human-induced, and its impacts are already
apparent in transportation, agriculture, health, and water and
energy supplies. These impacts are expected to grow with continued
climate change the higher the levels of greenhouse gas emissions,
the greater the impacts. The report illustrates how these impacts
can be kept to a minimum if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
The choices we make now will determine the severity of climate
change impacts in the future. This book will help citizens,
business leaders, and policymakers at all levels to make informed
decisions about responding to climate change and its impacts.
Watch the Video of the Report's Release: For more information on
the United States Global Change Research Program, click here Media
Coverage of Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States: New
York Times/ClimateWire U.S. Study Projects How 'Unequivocal
Warming' Will Change Americans' Lives - click here Washington Post
Report: Climate Change Already Affecting U.S. - click here San
Francisco Chronicle New report stresses immediacy of global warming
- click here The Christian Science Monitor Global warming affecting
every corner of the US, report says - click here Agence France
Press Act now on global warming, US government report urges - click
here Sample image from the book:
Is the climate warming? Is the hydrological cycle intensifying? Is
the climate becoming more variable or extreme? Is the chemical
composition of the atmosphere changing? Is the solar irradiance
constant? Answers to these questions are fundamental to
understanding, predicting, and assessing climate on time scales
ranging from weeks to a century. Atmospheric, oceanic, and
environmental scientists have primarily relied on an ad-hoc
collection of disparate environmental observational and data
management systems to address these problems. But these systems
were not designed to measure climate variations and, as a result,
changes and variations of the earth system during the instrumental
climate record is far from unequivocal. This study develops a
framework from which a Global Climate Observing System (GCOS),
currently being discussed in international forums, can be
implemented to monitor changes and variations of climate.
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