Book Description

Now in its second edition. This text has been extensively revised and rewritten to reflect the growth in environmental research during the last decade. Human-induced environmental change is occurring at such a rapid rate that, inevitably, the fundamental processes involved in biogeochemical cycling are being altered.
Global Environmental Change considers alterations to the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and other elements as a result of industrial/technological development and agriculture, which have significantly altered the natural environment. The book adopts a temporal and spatial approach to environmental change, beginning with the natural environmental change of the Quaternery period and continuing with the culturally-induced change since the inception of agriculture 10,000 years ago.

Book Description

This book highlights one of the most important aspects of global change - the interaction of land use and the climate system. In separate chapters the book treats modelling of land-use patterns, the effects on climate, the effect of land use on the global carbon cycle, hydrological aspects of land use, aspects of climate change on food availability in West Africa, and the spatial requirements of bioenergy plantations. The current collection of chapters provides a unique, integrated treatment of land use in the context of global change.

Book Description

Climatic change, now more than ever in this age of global warming, is seen as fundamental to the study of the environment. This text examines the importance of climate as one of the major forcing functions in the global environmental change process. It emphasizes both human-induced climatic change and natural climatic change, providing a comprehensive historical context and important projections for the future. It offers a thorough, up-to-date, critical overview of the physical science behind global warming concerns.

Book Description
This book offers a general, interdisciplinary discussion of global environmental change oriented toward the non-specialist in science.The unifying theme of the book is consideration of aspects of both natural and human-induced global environmental change. The two part organization according to this distinction allows for easy reading on specific topics.This book is useful for anyone interested in learning more about Earth's systems. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the first textbook to consider all aspects of the cryosphere system in the context of global environmental change driven by human activity and climate.

• Considers all six aspects of the cryosphere – ice sheets, glacier ice, permafrost, river and lake ice, sea ice and snow – in the context of global environmental change driven by human activity and climate.
  
• Describes a new concept of cryosphere transience and landscape transition which links climate, hydrology, ecology and geomorphology.
  
• Looks at the evidence, process, and patterns of cryosphere change, on local and global scales.
  
• Provides a wealth of data to inform the current global environmental change debate.

Book Description
This exciting new reader in environmental history provides a framework for understanding the relations between ecosystems and world systems over time. Alf Hornborg has brought together a group of the foremost writers from the social, historical and geographical sciences to provide an overview of the ecological dimension of global, economic processes, with a long-term, historical perspective. Readers are challenged to integrate studies of the Earth system with studies of the World system, and to reconceptualize human-environmental relations and the challenges of global sustainability. Immanuel Wallerstein, renowned Yale sociologist and originator of the world-system concept, closes the volume with his reflections on the intellectual, moral, and political implications of global environmental change. ... Read more

Book Description
This book surveys current conceptual, theoretical, and methodological approaches to global climate change and international relations. Although it focuses on the role of states, it also examines the role of nonstate actors and international organizations whenever state-centric explanations are insufficient.

The book begins with a discussion of environmental constraints on human activities, the environmental consequences of human activities, and the history of global climate change cooperation. It then moves to an analysis of the global climate regime from various conceptual and theoretical perspectives. These include realism and neorealism, historical materialism, neoliberal institutionalism and regime theory, and epistemic community and cognitive approaches. Stressing the role of nonstate actors, the book looks at the importance of the domestic-international relationship in negotiations on climate change. It then looks at game-theoretical and simulation approaches to the politics of global climate change. It emphasizes questions of equity and the legal difficulties of implementing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. It concludes with a discussion of global climate change and other aspects of international relations, including other global environmental accords and world trade. The book also contains Internet references to major relevant documents. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Interesting Book for Regime Theory
Luterbacher and Sprinz offer the reader insights and overviews on the problems of global environmental cooperation, its history, regime creation, international relations, and the domestic and global politics associated with the Greenhouse Effect and climate change. The 300-page plus book provides an expert overview of the means to create the much needed international regimes to create and change global environmental policies. This book would be of interest to those internested in understanding the actors involved in international law, regime theory politics, and the creation of environmental treaties. This book is for the reader with some advance knowledge of the subject matter. ... Read more

Book Description
In recent years, global environmental change has become perceptible in many regions of the world and affects the very foundations of tourism and travel. The first part of the book is devoted to an in-depth study of the effects of global environmental change for tourism in different environments, including polar regions, mountains, lakes/streams, forests, costal zones, deserts, and urban environments. The second part looks at some specific global aspects of environmental change affecting tourism, such as the spread of diseases in changing climates, the availability of water resources, and extreme weather events. It can be assumed that these developments will have concomitant detrimental consequences for the tourist industry as well as for tourists themselves. The third section will thus look at stakeholder perceptions of global environmental change. In particular, the perceptions of tourists, tourist industry and policy makers will be highlighted. Finally, a fourth section will look at adaptation. Contributions will seek to discuss the options of restructuring the tourist industry in a changing world. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Global Environmental Change, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
In this paper, the interplay between the biodiversity and climate change regimes is examined in the context of a case study. An understanding of how the regimes interact is crucial to their successful operation, since it provides insight into how policy options might be drawn up to create synergy rather than conflict among the respective regimes' objectives. Despite the increasing importance of the study of regime interplay, due to its potential influence on regime effectiveness, there is limited understanding of why regimes interact and how their interplay may affect their successful operation, since few empirical studies have been conducted in this area. By analysing the causes of the regime interplay and the potential effects thereof, this paper draws policy implications regarding how the interacting regimes might be better co-ordinated to create synergy. ... Read more

Book Description
This book marks a watershed in the social sciences. The qualitative, critical perspective of sociology and allied disciplines challenges the technocentric `managerialism' which dominates environmental policy, its discourse and its impact.
The authors explore the relationship between social theory and sustainability in an attempt to transend technical rhetoric and embrace a broader understanding of `nature'. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Journal, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2007. The length of the article is 2515 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Climatic perturbation and urbanization in Senegal.(urbanization and global environmental change: 21st century challenges)
Author: Cheikh Gueye
Publication: The Geographical Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 173Issue: 1Page: 88(5)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
Volume Five of the Encyclopedia is devoted to the social, political, economic, and spiritual - and thereby human dimensions of global environmental change.

It highlights the profound shifts in human thinking and awareness that are required to "wrap our minds" around the advent of globalization, and our increasing ability to affect natural systems, sometimes to our own benefit.

Because of the complex weave of interaction between humanity and the environment, this volume contains many essays and articles that are more in the realm of probes than fixed descriptions of their topics. Powerful words and powerful ideas, metaphors, myths, beliefs, images and arte-facts - these are all "vehicles" for the creation and shaping of meaning among human beings.

Topics covered include the great political and economic theories, the most influential views of nature from Plato to Rachel Carson, and the historic and literary seedbeds for the rise of environmental thought and practice in our time. Of particular importance are the introductory essays from leading figures in the field, and special efforts have been made throughout to give space to alternative voices and ideas.

Dialogue and diversity are essential to human development, and a reader will be stimulated by this volume towards his or her own thoughtful response to the increasing responsibility for the future of the Earth that has come upon us in our time. ... Read more

Book Description
On decadal time scales, climate change may result not only from man-made causes, but also from natural processes. This book brings together theoretical conceptions of the physical mechanisms of climate change with observational evidence of these changes. The following key topics are included: Observed Climatic Variability, Predictability of the Atmosphere and Oceans from Days to Decades, and Mechanisms for Decadal to Centennial Climate Variability. Further, there are specialised contributions on the role of the oceanic circulation in climate change. The authors are renowned for their pedagogical skills, and the book is primarily designed for beginners in the field, who have a background in physical science. In addition, it is an invaluable source of information for scientists seeking an overview on climate dynamics. ... Read more

Book Description
This book shows how to make global environmental problems more tangible, so that they become an integral part of everyday awareness. At its core is a simple assumption: that the best way to learn to perceive the biosphere is to pay close attention to our immediate surroundings. Through local natural history observations, imagination and memory, and spiritual contemplation, we develop a place-based environmental view that can be expanded to encompass the biosphere.

Interweaving global change science, personal narrative, and commentary on a wide range of scientific and literary works, the book explores both the ecological and existential aspects of urgent issues such as the loss of biodiversity and global climate change. Written in a warm, engaging style, Bringing the Biosphere Home considers the perceptual connections between the local and global, how the ecological news of the community is of interest to the world, and how the global movement of people, species, and weather systems affects the local community. It shows how global environmental change can become the province of numerous educational initiatives -- from the classroom to the Internet, from community forums to international conferences, from the backyard to the biosphere. It explains important scientific concepts in clear, nontechnical language and provides dozens of ideas for learning how to practice biospheric perception. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Perceiving Global Environmental Change
"Bringing the Biosphere Home" is a well-researched and scholarly book about the author's search for meaning, and communicating his extensive experience and personal observations of "Bioapherical Perception." Author Mitchell Thomashow delicately weaves the basic elements of a complex tapestry of his ecological perceptions around our involuntary immersion in the sea of electronic smog and information overload. His sensitive and often lyrical excursions into the nuances of the natural world are both poignant and insightful. His intellectual exercises such as "Taking delight in the ordinary," considering "the interstate and the internet as the psychodelics of biospheric perception," or the fact that humanity is "on the verge of the sixth megaextinction" are each unique and intellectually stimulating metaphors, which together form a driving force for a general "Awakening of Ecological Awareness" in the Global Social Mindset.
Anyone seriously interested in expanding their ecological perspective, or in broadening their biospherical information base, would be well advised to read this insightful book. Elliott Maynard, Ph.D., President, Arcos Cielos Research Center, Sedona, Arizona. ... Read more

Book Description
Global Environmental Change and Agriculture offers a comprehensive perspective on the consequences and possible policy solutions for climatic change as we move into the twenty-first century.It assesses the impact of potential future global climate change on agriculture and the need to sustain agricultural growth for economic development. The book begins by examining the role of international research institutions in overcoming environmental constraints on sustainable agricultural growth and economic development.The authors then discuss how agricultural research systems may be restructured to respond to global environmental problems such as climate change and loss of genetic diversity.The discussion then extends to consider environmental accounting and indexing, to illustrate how environmental quality can be included formally in measures of national income, social welfare and sustainability.The third part of the book focuses on the effects of and policy responses to climate change.Chapters examine the effect of climate change on production, trade, land use patterns and livelihoods.They consider impacts on the distribution of income between developed and developing countries and between different social classes within the developing world, where agriculture remains a major economic activity.The authors take an economy-wide perspective to draw lessons for agricultural, trade, land use and tax policy. This book will be of special interest to agricultural, development and environmental economists as well as policy analysts in government and at international agencies confronting practical problems of environmental and economic assessment. ... Read more

Book Description
Soils will play a central role in mediating the impact of climate change on natural and managed ecosystems.
The book addresses the various responses of soil processes and properties to environmental change and highlights their contribution to the proper understanding of ecosystem behaviour.
Topics include: Soil hydrology; landscape evolution; salinisation; desertification; soil nitrogen dynamics; soil carbon; soil microbiology; soil erosion; crop modelling. ... Read more

Book Description
Timescapes of Modernity focuses on time to facilitate a deeper understanding of the interactions between environmental, economic, political and socio-cultural concerns. Thinking of the environment as a timescape allows us to see the hazards of the industrial way of life in a new light. Barbara Adam argues that environmental hazards are inescapably tied to the successes of the industrial way of life, global markets and economic growth, large-scale production of food, the speed of transport and communication, the 24 hour society, and even democratic politics. Using examples including the aftermaths of Chernobyl and the treatment of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopath (BSE), Adam dislodges taken-for-granted assumptions about environmental change and provides innovative new strategies to deal with some of the most severe environmental hazards of our time. ... Read more

Book Description
Reviewed here is the current state of knowledge concerning the relationship between global change and biodiversity of temperate ecosystems. The aim is to improve the ability to conserve biodiversity under conditions of global change. The book focuses on: - The threats posed by global change to biodiversity in temperate ecosystems; - Levels and spatial patterns of diversity in temperate ecosystems; - The impact of global change on genetic diversity; - The effects of disturbance (natural and anthropogenic) on temperate ecosystems; - Existing research priorities and programmes. ... Read more