Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions

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. "readable yet comprehensive view of the climate change issue..graphics are generally of high quality..Highly Recommended." - CHOICE "This impressive work could well serve as the core text for a university course in contemporary climate issues, and should be featured by any library seeking to inform its patrons on the future of their world. It certainly provides a uniquely illuminating Baedeker for anyone seeking to explore the complexities of the climate change issue and the possibilities for navigating our planet and its passengers through them. One might even wistfully hope that it might find its way into the reading lists of the current aspirants to the White House, a depressing number of whom deny the very existence of the problems it addresses." - John S. Perry, Bulletin for the AMS, April 2012List 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.