The impacts of climate change are already being observed in a variety of sectors and there is greater clarity that these changes are being caused by human activities, mainly through release of greenhouse gases. In 2005 the UK Government hosted the Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change conference to take an in-depth look at the scientific issues associated with climate change. This volume presents the most recent findings from the leading international scientists that attended the conference. The topics addressed include critical thresholds and key vulnerabilities of the climate system, impacts on human and natural systems, socioeconomic costs and benefits of emissions pathways, and technological options for meeting different stabilisation levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The volume provides invaluable information for researchers in environmental science, climatology, and atmospheric chemistry, policy-makers in governments and environmental organizations, and scientists and engineers in industry.

Numerous experts including ecologists, geneticists, paleontologists and climatologists, investigate the response of terrestrial organisms to changes in their environment. The volume comprises an introductory and a final chapter by the editors as well as another 35 contributions. These are divided into six sections: 1. past environmental changes - the late-Quaternary; 2. spatial responses to past changes; 3. mechanisms enabling spatial responses; 4. evolutionary responses to past changes; 5. mechanisms enabling evolutionary responses; 6. predicted future environmental changes and simulated responses. The overwhelming and unanimous conclusion of all contributors is that forecasted global environmental changes pose a severe threat to the integrity of ecosystems worldwide and to the survival of at least some species.

The volume "Observed Global Climate" comprises a set of climate budget quantities, relevant for atmosphere and ocean (the "climate fluids") as well as for land and ice (the "climate solids"). Examples for budget quantities are temperature, salinity, wind, rain, radiation. They are displayed in standardised form for all climate subsystems. The data are arranged around the budget principle which is basic for the entire climate system. The book demonstrates that budgeting is not only a useful principle but also that "budget-thinking" has practically become state of the art in modern quantitative climatology. Examples include the global water budget (consistency of the components better than 10%) and the global energy budget (consistency better than 5%). The data are based on direct observations but have been subject to data assimilation. They are presented in gridded form and in form of maps and sections. The DVD carries the data, the original articles, figures in original colours, plus additional material like animations of the most important climate parameters and selected non-standard quantities. The gridded fields can be loaded by the user from the DVD into the personal computer.