Environmental Change in Iceland: Past and Present

Environmental Change in Iceland: Past and Present
Author: J. Maizels
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401131503

3 new biota and extinction of others, and extensive soil erosion reaching almost catastrophic proportions have led to desertification of many upland areas and abandonment by local populations. The role of climatic change as opposed to deforestation and sheep grazing in creating these new environments has proved a further issue of great controversy. While our understanding of historic environmental changes remains inadequate, our knowledge of processes that are modifying the present-day landscape is also sparse and selective. Little is known of active periglacial processes, slope instabilities, and rates of soil erosion by slope wash and aeolian transport. Coastal processes of erosion and beach formation have been studied only locally. Most of our information on recent or active processes comprises records of glacier fluctuations, volcanic eruptions and jOkulhlaup events, but sti11little is known of the mechanisms and processes of landscape change effected by these events. This volume of papers, based on a conference sponsored by the Quaternary Research Association and the Geologists Association and held at the University of Aberdeen in April 1989, addresses many of these crucial uncertainties regarding environmental changes in Iceland from the Lateglacial onwards. The papers make a major contribution to dispelling many earlier uncertainties and clarifying areas of controversy. Many of the papers challenge traditional and poorly supported ideas, replacing them with hypotheses based on new data and new insights derived from the expansion of wider scientific expertise and theory. The volume focuses on three major areas of research in particular.

Encyclopedia of Environmental Change

Encyclopedia of Environmental Change
Author: John A Matthews
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 3225
Release: 2013-12-13
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1473928192

Accessibly written by a team of international authors, the Encyclopedia of Environmental Change provides a gateway to the complex facts, concepts, techniques, methodology and philosophy of environmental change. This three-volume set illustrates and examines topics within this dynamic and rapidly changing interdisciplinary field. The encyclopedia includes all of the following aspects of environmental change: Diverse evidence of environmental change, including climate change and changes on land and in the oceans Underlying natural and anthropogenic causes and mechanisms Wide-ranging local, regional and global impacts from the polar regions to the tropics Responses of geo-ecosystems and human-environmental systems in the face of past, present and future environmental change Approaches, methodologies and techniques used for reconstructing, dating, monitoring, modelling, projecting and predicting change Social, economic and political dimensions of environmental issues, environmental conservation and management and environmental policy Over 4,000 entries explore the following key themes and more: Conservation Demographic change Environmental management Environmental policy Environmental security Food security Glaciation Green Revolution Human impact on environment Industrialization Landuse change Military impacts on environment Mining and mining impacts Nuclear energy Pollution Renewable resources Solar energy Sustainability Tourism Trade Water resources Water security Wildlife conservation The comprehensive coverage of terminology includes layers of entries ranging from one-line definitions to short essays, making this an invaluable companion for any student of physical geography, environmental geography or environmental sciences.

Glaciers and Environmental Change

Glaciers and Environmental Change
Author: Atle Nesje
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2016-04-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1317836065

This authoritative new text provides a thorough, updated account of glaciers and ice sheets as monitors and indicators of environmental change. It examines the record of environmental change within glaciers and ice sheets, and that of past environments left by retreating glaciers. These themes are examined within the context of environmental change in general and global climate change in particular. Methods of using palaeoenvironmental records are assessed and the implications for future environmental change are discussed. Evidence from glacier ice left in the landscape or within the geological record, provides one of the most important sources of information on environmental change. 'Glaciers and Environmental Change' is a comprehensive account of glaciers andice sheets as monitors and indictaors of environmental change. Based on the latest research, this book consolidates a diverse range of data and explains their applications. it also assesses methods of using palaeoenvironmental records. This authoritative new text examines not only the records of environmental change within glaciers but also that of past environments left by retreating glaciers. These themes are examined within the context of contemporary debates in environmental change and the volume also seeks to draw conclusions concernign past, present and future climatic change in relation to glaciers.

On Time and Water

On Time and Water
Author: Andri Snær Magnason
Publisher: Icelandic Literature
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-10-25
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9781948830539

The book that will make you understand what our future holds for us, if we don't act immediately.

Glacier Science and Environmental Change

Glacier Science and Environmental Change
Author: Peter G. Knight
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0470750235

Glacier Science and Environmental Change is an authoritative and comprehensive reference work on contemporary issues in glaciology. It explores the interface between glacier science and environmental change, in the past, present, and future. Written by the world’s foremost authorities in the subject and researchers at the scientific frontier where conventional wisdom of approach comes face to face with unsolved problems, this book provides: state-of-the-art reviews of the key topics in glaciology and related disciplines in environmental change cutting-edge case studies of the latest research an interdisciplinary synthesis of the issues that draw together the research efforts of glaciologists and scientists from other areas such as geologists, hydrologists, and climatologists color-plate section (with selected extra figures provided in color at www.blackwellpublishing.com/knight). The topics in this book have been carefully chosen to reflect current priorities in research, the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, and the developing relationship between glaciology and studies of environmental change. Glacier Science and Environmental Change is essential reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduate research students, and professional researchers in glaciology, geology, geography, geophysics, climatology, and related disciplines.

History and Climate

History and Climate
Author: Phil D. Jones
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1475733658

Most studies of the impacts of climate change consider impacts in the future from anthropogenic climate change. Very few consider what the impacts of past climate change have been. History and Climate: Memories of the Future? contains 13 interdisciplinary chapters which consider impacts of change in different regions of the world, over the last millennium. Initial chapters assess evidence for the changes, while later chapters consider the impacts on agriculture, fisheries, health, and society. The book will be of interest to anyone working in the field of climate change and history.

Climate

Climate
Author: Igor Linkov
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 591
Release: 2011-08-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400717725

Rising sea levels and altered weather patterns are expected to significantly alter coastal and inland environments for humans, infrastructure and ecosystems. Potential land-use changes and population increases, coupled with uncertain predictions for sea level rise and storm frequency/intensity represent a significant planning challenge. While efforts to mitigate climate change continue, plans must be made to adapt to the risks that climate change poses to humans, infrastructure, and ecosystems alike. This book addresses integrated environmental assessment and management as part of the nexus of climate change adaptation. Risk analysis has emerged as a useful approach to guide assessment, communication and management of security risks. However, with respect to climate change, an integrated, multi-criteria, multi-hazard, risk-informed decision framework is desirable for evaluating adaptation strategies. The papers in Part 1 summarize societal and political needs for climate change adaptation. Part 2 includes papers summarizing the state of the art in climate change adaptation. Three further parts cover: the process of change in coastal regions, in inland regions, and, finally, the potential challenges to homeland security for national governments. Each of these parts reviews achievements, identifies gaps in current knowledge, and suggests research priorities.

A World Without Ice

A World Without Ice
Author: Henry Pollack Ph.D.
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2010-11-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1101524855

A co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize offers a clear-eyed explanation of the planet’s imperiled ice. Much has been written about global warming, but the crucial relationship between people and ice has received little focus—until now. As one of the world’s leading experts on climate change, Henry Pollack provides an accessible, comprehensive survey of ice as a force of nature, and the potential consequences as we face the possibility of a world without ice. A World Without Ice traces the effect of mountain glaciers on supplies of drinking water and agricultural irrigation, as well as the current results of melting permafrost and shrinking Arctic sea ice—a situation that has degraded the habitat of numerous animals and sparked an international race for seabed oil and minerals. Catastrophic possibilities loom, including rising sea levels and subsequent flooding of lowlying regions worldwide, and the ultimate displacement of millions of coastal residents. A World Without Ice answers our most urgent questions about this pending crisis, laying out the necessary steps for managing the unavoidable and avoiding the unmanageable.

The Glaciers of Iceland

The Glaciers of Iceland
Author: Helgi Björnsson
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 617
Release: 2016-10-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9462392072

This book is the first comprehensive overview and evaluation of the origins, history and current size and condition of all of Iceland's major glaciers (including Vatnajökull, the largest in Europe) at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is not only illustrated with many beautiful photographs and graphs of recent statistics and scientific data, but is also a collection of historical writings and drawings from annals, sagas, folk tales, diaries, reports, stories and poems, as it presents a unique approach to the study of glaciers on an island in the North Atlantic. Balancing and comparing the world of man with the world of nature, the perceptions of art and culture with the systematic and pragmatic analyses of science, The Glaciers of Iceland present a wide spectrum of readers with a new and stimulating view of the origins, development and possible future of these massive natural phenomena, as well as the study and role of glaciology, within specific time lines and geographical locations. Icelandic glaciers the author argues could prove essential for understanding the current unsettling progress of global warming. The glaciers of Iceland, therefore, aims at presenting to a wide readership an original, historical, cultural and scientific overview of these geophysical features in Iceland while also suggesting increasingly important lessons and models for man's future interaction with the world's glaciers as a whole.

Surviving Sudden Environmental Change

Surviving Sudden Environmental Change
Author: Jago Cooper
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1457117266

Archaeologists have long encountered evidence of natural disasters through excavation and stratigraphy. In Surviving Sudden Environmental Change, case studies examine how eight different past human communities—ranging from Arctic to equatorial regions, from tropical rainforests to desert interiors, and from deep prehistory to living memory—faced, and coped with, such dangers. Many disasters originate from a force of nature, such as an earthquake, cyclone, tsunami, volcanic eruption, drought, or flood. But that is only half of the story; decisions of people and their particular cultural lifeways are the rest. Sociocultural factors are essential in understanding risk, impact, resilience, reactions, and recoveries from massive sudden environmental changes. By using deep-time perspectives provided by interdisciplinary approaches, this book provides a rich temporal background to the human experience of environmental hazards and disasters. In addition, each chapter is followed by an abstract summarizing the important implications for today’s management practices and providing recommendations for policy makers. Publication supported in part by the National Science Foundation.