Weather & Climate

Ecosystem Services Come to Town by Gary Grant The need to find new approaches to the development of cities is becoming increasingly urgent in this age of continuing population growth, demographic transition, climate change, fossil fuel peak and biodiversity losses. Restoring ecosystem services and promoting biodiversity is essential to sustainable development - even in the built environment. "Ecosystem Services come to Town: greening cities by working with nature "demonstrates how to make urban environments greener. It starts by explaining how, by mimicking nature and deliberately creating habitats to provide ecosystem services, cities can become more efficient and more pleasant to live in. The history of cities and city planning is covered with the impacts of industrial urban development described, as well as the contemporary concerns of biodiversity loss, peak oil and climate change. The later sections offer solutions to the challenges of sustainable urban development by describing and explaining a whole range of approaches and interventions, beginning at the regional scale with strategic green infrastructure, looking at districts and precincts, with trees, parks and rain gardens and ending with single buildings, including with green roofs and living walls. Technical enough to be valuable to practitioners but still readable and inspirational, this guide demonstrates to town planners, urban designers, architects, engineers, landscape architects how to make cities more liveable.

Earthmasters by Clive Hamilton This book goes to the heart of the unfolding reality of the twenty-first century: international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have all failed, and before the end of the century Earth is projected to be warmer than it has been for 15 million years. The question “can the crisis be avoided?” has been superseded by a more frightening one, “what can be done to prevent the devastation of the living world?” And the disturbing answer, now under wide discussion both within and outside the scientific community, is to seize control of the very climate of the Earth itself.   Clive Hamilton begins by exploring the range of technologies now being developed in the field of geoengineering--the intentional, enduring, large-scale manipulation of Earth’s climate system. He lays out the arguments for and against climate engineering, and reveals the extent of vested interests linking researchers, venture capitalists, and corporations. He then examines what it means for human beings to be making plans to control the planet’s atmosphere, probes the uneasiness we feel with the notion of exercising technological mastery over nature, and challenges the ways we think about ourselves and our place in the natural world.

Climate Management Issues by Julie K. Gines Despite all the controversy and hype that climate change has generated, there now exists an overwhelming body of scientific evidence that the problem is real and that its effects are already being felt on a global scale. Part of what makes this a volatile and controversial issue is that it is not just confined to the realms of the scientific community, nor does it have just one simple, predefined solution--it has multifaceted dimensions involving economic, sociological, political, psychological, and personal issues, making this a topic that affects every person on earth now and in the future. Connecting the dots, Climate Management Issues: Economics, Sociology, and Politics is the first book to propose a truly comprehensive solution to effectively deal with climate change in both the short and long term. It reaches across diverse sectors of society to link issues in climate change management and offer new insights into the complex interrelationships. As the author emphasizes, climate change extends far beyond the physical sciences to affect lifestyles, cultural values, political systems, economics, and health. An overview of the physical science of climate change gives readers a firm understanding of the concepts they need for policy and decision making, sociological applications, and community leadership. The book then focuses on multifaceted aspects such as international cooperation, journalistic balance, human psychology, international policy, national security, socioeconomic impacts, agricultural conservation, healthcare, the economics of mitigation, climate modeling, and error amplification. This timely volume puts on center stage those crucial ideas that are usually overlooked, misunderstood, or lost in media sensationalism. Enlightening and empowering readers, it looks at the decisions that must be made to mitigate climate change problems before irreversible damage is done.

Earth's Weather, Water, and Atmosphere by Margaret Boorstein (Editor); Richard Renneboog (Editor); Salem Press Editors this subset is a brilliant exploration of the fluids on the surface of the earth and the gases that surround us. the interaction among these is fantastically complex and intriguing. the work explores the evolution of these interactions during the earth's history, theories regarding the future of the atmosphere and oceans and specific causes and effects that are at work.

Experimenting on a Small Planet by William W. Hay This book is a thorough introduction to climate science and global change. The author is a geologist who has spent much of his life investigating the climate of Earth from a time when it was warm and dinosaurs roamed the land, to today's changing climate.Bill Hay takes you on a journey to understand how the climate system works. He explores how humans are unintentionally conducting a grand uncontrolled experiment which is leading to unanticipated changes. We follow the twisting path of seemingly unrelated discoveries in physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and even mathematics to learn how they led to our present knowledge of how our planet works. He explains why the weather is becoming increasingly chaotic as our planet warms at a rate far faster than at any time in its geologic past. He speculates on possible future outcomes, and suggests that nature itself may make some unexpected course corrections. Although the book is written for the layman with little knowledge of science or mathematics, it includes information from many diverse fields to provide even those actively working in the field of climatology with a broader view of this developing drama.Experimenting on a Small Planet is a must read for anyone having more than a casual interest in global warming and climate change - one of the most important and challenging issues of our time.