Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States

Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States
Author: U.S. Global Change Research Program
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2009-08-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0521144078

Summarizes the science of climate change and impacts on the United States, for the public and policymakers.

Climate Change

Climate Change
Author: A. Barrie Pittock
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2013-11-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317972449

It is widely accepted in the scientific community that climate change is a reality, and that changes are happening with increasing rapidity. In this second edition, leading climate researcher Barrie Pittock revisits the effects that global warming is having on our planet, in light of ever-evolving scientific research. Presenting all sides of the arguments about the science and possible remedies, Pittock examines the latest analyses of climate change, such as new and alarming observations regarding Arctic sea ice, the recently published IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, and the policies of the new Australian Government and how they affect the implementation of climate change initiatives. New material focuses on massive investments in large-scale renewables, such as the kind being taken up in California, as well as many smaller-scale activities in individual homes and businesses which are being driven by both regulatory and market mechanisms. The book includes extensive endnotes with links to ongoing and updated information, as well as some new illustrations. While the message is clear that climate change is here (and in some areas, might already be having disastrous effects), there is still hope for the future, and the ideas presented here will inspire people to take action. Climate Change: The Science, Impacts and Solutions is an important reference for students in environmental or social sciences, policy makers, and people who are genuinely concerned about the future of our environment.

Climate Change Science and Policy

Climate Change Science and Policy
Author: Stephen H. Schneider
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009-12-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781597265676

This is the most comprehensive and current reference resource on climate change available today. It features 49 individual chapters by some of the world’ s leading climate scientists. Its five sections address climate change in five dimensions: ecological impacts; policy analysis; international considerations; United States considerations; and mitigation options to reduce carbon emissions. In many ways, this volume supersedes the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Many important developments too recent to be treated by the 2007 IPCC documents are covered here. This book considers not only the IPCC report, but also results of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Bali in December 2007, as well as even more recent research data. Overall, Climate Change Science and Policy paints a direr picture of the effects of climate change than do the IPCC reports. It reveals that climate change has progressed faster than the IPCC reports anticipated and that the outlook for the future is bleaker than the IPCC reported. In his prologue, John P. Holdren writes that the widely-used term “ global warming” is a misnomer. He suggests that a more accurate label would be “ global climatic disruption.” This volume, he states, will equip readers with all they need to know to rebut the misrepresentations being propagated by “ climate-change skeptics.” No one, he writes, will be a skeptic after reading this book.

The Climate Solutions Consensus

The Climate Solutions Consensus
Author: National Council for Science and the Environment
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2012-06-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1610911288

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (with former Vice President Al Gore) for its reporting on the human causes of climate change. In 2008, the National Council for Science and the Environment reported that the acceleration of climate change is already faster than the IPCC projected only a year earlier. How we deal with the rapid environmental changes, and the human forces that are driving these changes, will be among the defining issues of our generation. Climate Solutions Consensus presents an agenda for America. It is the first major consensus statement by the nation’s leading scientists, and it provides specific recommendations for federal policies, for state and local governments, for businesses, and for colleges and universities that are preparing future generations who will be dealing with a radically changed climate. The book draws upon the recommendations developed by more than 1200 scientists, educators and decision makers who participated in the National Council for Science and the Environment’s 8th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment. After presenting a lucid narrative of the science behind climate change and its solutions, Climate Solutions Consensus presents 35 practical, results-oriented approaches for minimizing climate change and its impacts. It clearly spells out options for technological, societal, and policy actions. And it deals head-on with controversial topics, including nuclear energy, ocean fertilization and atmospheric geo-engineering. One of the book’s key conclusions is that climate solutions are about much more than energy sources. They involve re-examining everything people do with an eye toward minimizing climate impacts. This includes our eating habits, consumption patterns, transportation, building and housing, forestry, land use, education, and more. According to these scientists, the time to act is now. With clarity and urgency, they tell us exactly what needs to be done to start reversing the driving factors behind climate change, minimizing their consequences, and adapting to what is beyond our power to stop.

Climate Change 2007 - Mitigation of Climate Change

Climate Change 2007 - Mitigation of Climate Change
Author: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2007-11-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1139468642

The Climate Change 2007 volumes of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provide the most comprehensive and balanced assessment of climate change available. This IPCC Working Group III volume provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art and worldwide overview of scientific knowledge related to the mitigation of climate change. It includes a detailed assessment of costs and potentials of mitigation technologies and practices, implementation barriers, and policy options for the sectors: energy supply, transport, buildings, industry, agriculture, forestry and waste management. It links sustainable development policies with climate change practices. This volume will again be the standard reference for all those concerned with climate change, including students and researchers, analysts and decision-makers in governments and the private sector.

Climate Change

Climate Change
Author: Jane A. Leggett
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: Climatic changes
ISBN:

In 2007, the fourth major assessment of technical information on climate change by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was published in November. The year also saw continued release of new scientific findings on various aspects of climate change. The IPCC "Fourth Assessment Report" (AR4) critically reviewed the research on science, impacts, and mitigation strategies, and underscored large areas of agreement on climate issues (as well as some important uncertainties and disagreements). The IPCC concluded that the Earth's climate unequivocally has warmed over the past century, and that while natural factors, including changes in solar irradiance and volcanoes, have played roles in the observed changes, "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations."1 Additional research published in 2007 showed continuously rising concentrations of greenhouse gases and temperatures, record loss of Arctic sea ice in the summer, transit by sailboat through the legendary Northwest Passage through the Arctic, and other markers of climate change. Additional research indicated several ecological risks -- including mortality of the eastern Pacific gray whale and lower survival rates among young polar bears -- linked to climate change. Concerns about climate change are based both on observed changes to date and projections of what is likely to occur in the future. The IPCC concluded that greenhouse gas emissions and concentrations in the atmosphere could be expected to grow through the 21st Century in the absence of concerted climate change mitigation policies. For a wide range of plausible GHG scenarios to 2100, the IPCC projected "best guess" increases in global average temperatures from 1.8oC to 4.0oC (3.2oF to 7.2oF). Its range of all scenarios to 2100, incorporating a fuller range of uncertainties, was 1.1oC to 6.4oC (2.0oF to 11.5oF). Associated with the projections are impacts that may be beneficial in some locations and for some sectors with small changes in globally averaged climate, but that would be adverse for others, particularly in regions that are already warm and dry, and may become more so. Adverse effects are expected to multiply with accumulating climate change. Sea levels could rise between 7 and 23 inches by 2100, not including the effects of possible accelerated melting of the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets. The risks of abrupt and irreversible changes in the climate system -- some potentially catastrophic -- continue to grow as the atmosphere moves further from its state over the past several thousand years. This report summarizes highlights of new scientific research and assessments released in 2007 related to global warming