Climate Change Impacts on Freshwater Ecosystems

Glaciers are considered a key and an iconic indicator of climate change. The World Glacier Monitoring Service has noted that global alpine balance has been negative for 35 consecutive years. This highlights the dire future that alpine glaciers face. The goal of this volume is to tell the story, glacier by glacier, of response to climate change from 1984-2015. Of the 165 glaciers examined in 10 different alpine regions, 162 have retreated significantly. It is evident that the changes are significant, not happening at a «glacial» pace, and are profoundly affecting alpine regions. There is a consistent result that reverberates from mountain range to mountain range, which emphasizes that although regional glacier and climate feedbacks differ, global changes are driving the response. This book considers ten different glaciated regions around the individual glaciers, and offers a different tune to the same chorus of glacier volume loss in the face of climate change.

This book is designed for first- and second-year university students (and their instructors) in earth science, environmental science, and physical geography degree programmes worldwide. The summaries at the end of each section constitute essential reading for policy makers and planners. It provides a simple but masterly account, with a minimum of equations, of how the Earth’s climate system works, of the physical processes that have given rise to the long sequence of glacial and interglacial periods of the Quaternary, and that will continue to cause the climate to evolve. Its straightforward and elegant description, with an abundance of well chosen illustrations, focuses on different time scales, and includes the most recent research in climate science by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It shows how it is human behaviour that will determine whether or not the present century is a turning point to a new climate, unprecedented on Earth in the last several million years.

The quantitative assessment of the impact of climate change on water availability and water resources management requires knowledge of climate, hydro(geo)logical and water resources models, and particularly the relationships between each of them. This book brings together world experts on each of these aspects, distilling each complex topic into concise and easy to understand chapters, in which both the uses and limitations of modelling are explored. The book concludes with a set of case studies using real-life examples to illustrate the steps required and the problems that can be faced in assessing the potential impacts of climate change on water resource systems. For students, scientists, engineers and decision-makers alike, this book provides an invaluable and critical look at the information that is provided by climate models, and the ways it is used in modelling water systems. A key focus is the exploration of how uncertainties may accrue at each stage of an impacts assessment, and the reliability of the resulting information. The book is a practical guide to understanding the opportunities and pitfalls in the quantitative assessment of climate change impacts and adaptation in the water resource sector.

Energy and Global Climate Change: Bridging the Sustainable Development Divide focuses attention on two urgent global development challenges faced by the UN and its member states: access to sustainable energy for all, and global climate change. This book presents compelling evidence about an often neglected aspect of the energy-climate change-development nexus faced by millions of poor: problems caused by the use of inefficient and polluting energy sources, and the lack of access to sustainable energy services. Based on a detailed examination of major UN global climate change and sustainable development negotiated outcomes over the course of several decades, this book argues in a powerful and insightful manner that intergovernmental negotiated outcomes aimed at solving the climate change and energy access challenges have been restricted by being placed in different negotiating silos. This “siloization” or compartmentalization has resulted in separate tracks of negotiated outcomes on two inextricably linked global development challenges; and, has thereby hindered prospects for integrated action. This book points out that the existence of these two silos is especially hard to ignore in light of the urgent UN-led quest for an integrated and universal post-2015 development agenda anticipated to be anchored by new sustainable development goals on energy access and climate change. By addressing the heavy reliance on inefficient and polluting energy services which result in indoor air pollution and short lived climate pollutants that tragically impact millions of poor people, this book highlights the unique importance of integrated action on the energy-poverty-climate change nexus in the UN’s post-2015 development era.

This timely anthology brings together for the first time the most important ancient, medieval, Enlightenment, and modern scholarship for a complete anthropological evaluation of the relationship between culture and climate change. Brings together for the first time the most important classical works and contemporary scholarship for a complete historical anthropological evaluation of the relationship between culture and climate change Covers the historic and prehistoric records of human impact from and response to prior periods of climate change, including the impact and response to climate change at the local level Discusses the impact on global debates about climate change from North-South post-colonial histories and the social dimensions of the science of climate change. Includes coverage of topics such as environmental determinism, climatic events as social catalysts, climatic disasters and societal collapse, and ethno-meteorology An ideal text for courses in climate change, human/cultural ecology, environmental anthropology and archaeology, disaster studies, environmental sciences, science and technology studies, history of science, and conservation and development studies

Climate change poses one of the greatest challenges for human society in the twenty-first century, yet there is a major disconnect between our actions to deal with it and the gravity of the threat it implies. In a world where the fate of countries is increasingly intertwined, how should we think about, and accordingly, how should we manage, the types of risk posed by anthropogenic climate change? The problem is multi-faceted, and involves not only technical and policy specific approaches, but also questions of social justice and sustainability. In this volume the editors have assembled a unique range of contributors who together examine the intersection between the science, politics, economics and ethics of climate change. The book includes perspectives from some of the world's foremost commentators in their fields, ranging from leading scientists to political theorists, to high profile policymakers and practitioners. They offer a critical new approach to thinking about climate change, and help express a common desire for a more equitable society and a more sustainable way of life.

Learn the foundations of climate science and human health Global Climate Change and Human Health examines the environmental crisis from a public health and clinical health perspective, giving students and clinicians the information they need to prepare for the future of health care. Edited by George Luber, associate director for climate change at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Jay Lemery, associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and section chief of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and including chapters written by luminaries in the field, this landmark book provides a comprehensive introduction to climate change and health. Students will learn about climate changes direct effect on health, including extreme weather events, altered and degraded ecosystems, and threats to human security and welfare. Discussions on mitigation and adaptation strategies, including disease surveillance, communications, and greening health care, as well as a primer on the core concepts of climate change science are presented. Each chapter has a specific section on the clinical correlations of the impact of climate change on health. Informative illustrations depict increasing aeroallergens, shifting vector habitats, emergent risks, and more. Visual teaching materials broken down by chapter (including PowerPoint lecture slides) are available for instructors. This book shows how human health will be —and already has been – affected and how health care practitioners need to start preparing. Understand the science behind climate change and climate variability Learn how the availability of food and clean water will affect public health Consider the diseases that will surge as vector populations swell Discover mitigation strategies targeted toward the health care community Understanding how climate change affects human rights and how international institutions are responding Increased temperatures bring algal blooms that threaten clean water. Degraded air quality brings allergies, asthma, and respiratory diseases. Ground pollutants lower the nutritional value of food crops. It's clear that climate change is very much a public health concern, and Global Climate Change and Human Health helps those preparing to be on the front lines of health care.

Invertebrates perform such vital roles in global ecosystems—and so strongly influence human wellbeing—that biologist E.O. Wilson was prompted to describe them as “little things that run the world.” As they are such powerful shapers of the world around us, their response to global climate change is also pivotal in meeting myriad challenges looming on the horizon—everything from food security and biodiversity to human disease control. This book presents a comprehensive overview of the latest scientific knowledge and contemporary theory relating to global climate change and terrestrial invertebrates. Featuring contributions from top international experts, this book explores how changes to invertebrate populations will affect human decision making processes across a number of crucial issues, including agriculture, disease control, conservation planning, and resource allocation. Topics covered include methodologies and approaches to predict invertebrate responses, outcomes for disease vectors and ecosystem service providers, underlying mechanisms for community level responses to global climate change, evolutionary consequences and likely effects on interactions among organisms, and many more. Timely and thought-provoking, Global Climate Change and Terrestrial Invertebrates offers illuminating insights into the profound influence the simplest of organisms may have on the very future of our fragile world.

Urban Ecology and Global Climate Change Urban Ecology and Global Climate Change contains the latest practical and theoretical concepts of the emerging issues in urban ecological studies. The authors highlight some of the major challenges currently impeding ecological restoration goals in urbanized regions across the globe. It is sobering that the majority of sustainable development projects are being defeated by the increasing pace of two particular phenomena – namely climate change and urbanization. This book includes coverage of the major threats to biodiversity conservation and the most significant contributors to the deterioration of urban ecosystems. In addition, various case studies that reflect the anthropogenic interventions on ecological restoration are included. The book looks at evolving growth and urbanization concepts, monitoring of urbanization trends, land-use land cover (LULC) changes in urban and non-urban cities based on the use of open access data, urbanization affecting rural ecology, soil carbon emissions, urban development, human well-being and case studies of sustainable smart cities. Urban Ecology and Global Climate Change will find an appreciative audience amongst students of urban ecology and environmental policy, as well as policymakers, scientists and industrialists. The book provides an excellent introduction to the principles of smart city planning and urban sustainability with a view to maintaining ecological and conservation status of urban environments.

The definitive guide to how institutional investors should approach the risks and opportunities associated with climate change Environmental Alpha provides institutional investors with the comprehensive framework they need to assess the risks and investment opportunities tied to climate change. Climate change will present institutional investors with some of the most important risks and opportunities they will face for generations to come. Climate change has the potential to affect many sectors in radically different degrees over time, and institutional investors need to have a thorough understanding of the multi-dimensional risks and opportunities that could influence nearly every investment in their portfolios. This volume is composed of contributions by leading experts in environmental investment, moving beyond the theoretical or academic nature of much of the current discussion on the topic to provide you with real-world insights into an emerging market. Examines the climate change-related drivers of returns (science, economics, policy, and technology) that make environmental alpha possible Explores fiduciary duty and climate change Contains in-depth explanations of each of the major categories of environmental investing and examines related environmental alpha opportunities Discusses practical implementation issues Presents real-world case studies and examples Climate change will be one of the most important investment themes of the next twenty years; the related environmental investment opportunities will provide institutional investors with some of the greatest «alpha» opportunities for years to come. This book will put you in a better position to assess and access these opportunities.