Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions
Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions
Will Steffen, Australian National University, Canberra
Diana Liverman, University of Arizona and University of Oxford
Providing an up-to-date synthesis of all knowledge relevant to the climate change issue, this book ranges from the basic science documenting the need for policy action to the technologies, economic instruments and political strategies that can be employed in response to climate change. Ethical and cultural issues constraining the societal response to climate change are also discussed. This book provides a handbook for those who want to understand and contribute to meeting this challenge. It covers a very wide range of disciplines - core biophysical sciences involved with climate change (geosciences, atmospheric sciences, ocean sciences, ecology/biology) as well as economics, political science, health sciences, institutions and governance, sociology, ethics and philosophy, and engineering. As such it will be invaluable for a wide range of researchers and professionals wanting a cutting-edge synthesis of climate change issues, and for advanced student courses on climate change.
- One-stop resource for an authoritative and up-to-date overview of human-caused climate change, its current and projected impacts on society and the public-policy options for mitigation and adaptation
- Chapters contain 'expert boxes' on key issues that complement the book, providing the reader with unique insight into the types of research questions being asked today and how they are being addressed
- In total, over 80 scientists have been involved in writing the book, providing a summary of understanding from a large number of scientists and scholars from across the broad range of disciplines relevant to climate change
Product details
March 2014Paperback
9781107641235
540 pages
244 × 170 × 28 mm
0.85kg
109 b/w illus. 54 colour illus. 9 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of acronyms and abbreviations
- Part I. Climatic Trends:
- 1. Identifying, monitoring and predicting change in the climate system
- 2. The oceans and the climate system
- 3. Sea level rise and ice sheet dynamics
- 4. Carbon cycle trends and vulnerabilities
- Part II. Defining 'Dangerous Climate Change':
- 5. The impact of climate change on human societies
- 6. Impacts of climate change on the biotic fabric of the planet
- 7. Tipping elements: jokers in the pack
- 8. Linking science and action: targets, timetables and emission budgets
- Part III. Equity Issues:
- 9. The equity challenge and climate policy: responsibilities, vulnerabilities and inequality in the response to climate change
- 10. A long-term perspective on climate change: values and ethics
- Part IV. Mitigation and Adaptation Approaches:
- 11. Low-carbon energy technologies as mitigation approaches
- 12. Economic approaches and instruments
- 13. Geopolitics and governance
- 14. Adapting to the unavoidable
- Part V. Meeting the Challenge:
- 15. Integrating adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development
- 16. Mobilising the population
- 17. The human-Earth relationship: past, present and future
- Index.
