Sustainable Energy and the Environment: A Clean Technology Approach
by N.D. Kaushika, K.S. Reddy, and Kshitij Kaushik
This book emerges from the recognition that energy, environment and ecosystems are dynamically and inextricably connected. The energy environment system must be addressed in its totality, so that we can devise sustainable solutions that incorporate both economic growth and environmental conservation. No single clean energy source will sustain long-term energy security, and fossil fuels will remain prominent in the mix of energy sources for several decades to come. Energy solutions, therefore, mu...
Understanding Multiple Environmental Stresses
The research of the last decade has demonstrated that ecosystems and human systems are influenced by multiple factors, including climate, land use, and the by-products of resource use. Understanding the net impact of a suite of simultaneously occurring environmental changes is essential for developing effective response strategies. Using case studies on drought and a wide range of atmosphere-ecosystem interactions, a workshop was held in September 2005 to gather different perspectives on multipl...
Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change
Climate change, driven by the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, poses serious, wide-ranging threats to human societies and natural ecosystems around the world. The largest overall source of greenhouse gas emissions is the burning of fossil fuels. The global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the dominant greenhouse gas of concern, is increasing by roughly two parts per million per year, and the United States is currently the second-largest contributor to g...
Advancing the Science of Climate Change
Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for-and in many cases is already affecting-a broad range of human and natural systems. The compelling case for these conclusions is provided in Advancing the Science of Climate Change, part of a congressionally requested suite of studies known as America's Climate Choices. While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never closed, the book shows that hypotheses ab...
Climate Variability Impacts on Land Use and Livelihoods in Drylands
This edited volume is devoted to the examination of the implications of the inevitable changes wrought by global change on the welfare and livelihoods of tens of millions of people who live in dryland regions. Global change is more than just climate change and the ramifications of changing trade patterns (geopolitical and economic aspects), the shift to the market economy, demographic factors (population growth, urbanization and re-settlement), receive attention here. Land use change specialists...
Water Scarcity, Climate Change and Conflict in the Middle East
by Sandra Rucksthuhl and Christopher Ward
The countries that make up the MENA region display wide diversity. One of the poorest countries in the world sits alongside two of the wealthiest, whilst the region's natural resources range from immeasurable oil and gas reserves to some of the scantiest natural endowments anywhere in the world. Yet through this diversity runs a common thread: water scarcity. Now, through the impact of human development and climate change, the water resource itself is changing,bringing new risks and increasing...
International Conference on Clean Water, Air & Soil (CleanWAS 2015)
This book provides interdisciplinary insights on climate, air pollution, waste management, the water cycle and environmental conservation. It reports on novel techniques designed to clean the environment. The title contains a selection of papers presented at the "International Conference on Clean Water, Air & Soil (CleanWAS 2015)" which took place on 28 -30 August in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. CleanWAS 2015 focused on all aspects of the biosphere including natural, physical, chemical and biological...
Did you know that over 300,000 tonnes of clothing are sent to landfill in the UK alone every year? And that the industry's carbon emissions are bigger than the world's flight and shipping footprints combined? But, it's OK...YOU CAN MAKE A CHANGEIn this book, you'll find 101 simple tips and tricks you as an individual can do in your everyday life to shop better and help save the planet. Governments, retailers and organisations around the world are finally starting to take action, but while w...
Quaternary Deserts and Climatic Change
These proceedings record the results of climate change in many areas which are hyper-arid deserts today but which, almost cyclically, at intervals of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, have had a much more humid climate.
Peter Fabian and Martin Dameris provide a concise yet comprehensive overview of established scientific knowledge about ozone in the atmosphere. They present both ozone changes and trends in the stratosphere, as well as the effects of overabundance in the troposphere including the phenomenon of photosmog. Aspects such as photochemistry, atmospheric dynamics and global ozone distribution as well as various techniques for ozone measurement are treated. The authors outline the various causes for oz...
Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond
Climate change is affecting Indiana's environment, threatening the way Hoosiers live and do business, and introducing new stresses to the state's economy, health, and infrastructure. And while scientists predict more days of extreme weather, increased public health risks, and reduced agricultural production in the coming years, Hoosiers still have a substantial say in determining their future environment. Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond confirms that Indiana can rise to mee...
The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change, Revised Edition
by Yoram Bauman and Grady Klein
When The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change was first published in 2014, it offered something entirely new: a fun, illustrated guide to a planetary crisis. If that sounds like an oxymoron, you’ve never seen the carbon cycle demonstrated through yoga poses or a polar bear explaining evolution to her cubs. That creativity comes from the minds of Yoram Bauman, the world’s first and only “stand-up economist,” and award-winning illustrator Grady Klein. After seeing their book used in classrooms...
Modern science is under the greatest and most successful attack in recent history. An industry of denial, abetted by news media and "info-tainment" broadcasters more interested in selling controversy than presenting facts, has duped half the American public into rejecting the facts of climate science-an overwhelming body of rigorously vetted scientific evidence showing that human-caused, carbon-based emissions are linked to warming the Earth. The industry of climate science denial is succeeding:...
Timothy Morton argues that ecological awareness in the present Anthropocene era takes the form of a strange loop or Möbius strip, twisted to have only one side. Deckard travels this oedipal path in Blade Runner (1982) when he learns that he might be the enemy he has been ordered to pursue. Ecological awareness takes this shape because ecological phenomena have a loop form that is also fundamental to the structure of how things are. The logistics of agricultural society resulted in global warmin...
The year is 2393, and the world is almost unrecognizable. Clear warnings of climate catastrophe went ignored for decades, leading to soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, widespread drought and-finally-the disaster now known as the Great Collapse of 2093, when the disintegration of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet led to mass migration and a complete reshuffling of the global order. Writing from the Second People's Republic of China on the 300th anniversary of the Great Collapse, a senior schola...
Coping with the Climate Crisis
Reducing carbon emissions is the most complex political and economic problem humanity has ever confronted. Coping with the Climate Crisis brings together leading experts from academia and policy circles to explore issues related to the implementation of the COP21 Paris Agreement and the challenges of accelerating the transition toward sustainable development. The book synthesizes the key insights that emerge from the latest research in climate-change economics in an accessible and useful guide...
Climate change impacts and adaptation for transport networks and nodes
This report presents the analyses of several climate variables relevant to transport networks and nodes within the ECE region. Regional maps have been produced in Geographical Information System (GIS) format, showing the main transportation networks, which have been overlain by the spatial distribution of the climate change projections, thereby presenting an initial perspective of areas of potential risk which could warrant more in-depth assessment. The Group of Experts has also reviewed and pre...
This second edition of Climate Change is an accessible and comprehensive guide to the science behind global warming. Exquisitely illustrated, the text is geared toward students at a variety of levels. Edmond A. Mathez and Jason E. Smerdon provide a broad, informative introduction to the science that underlies our understanding of the climate system and the effects of human activity on the warming of our planet. Mathez and Smerdon describe the roles that the atmosphere and ocean play in our clim...