Search results for ""Author Stephen H. Schneider""

'How important is a degree of temperature change? A degree or two temperature change is not a trivial number in global terms and it usually takes nature hundreds of thousands of years to bring it about on her own. We may be doing that in decades ... Humans are putting pollutants into the atmosphere at such a rate that we could be changing the climate on a sustained basis some ten to a hundred times faster than nature has since the height of the last ice age.' Stephen H. Schneider. This essential book examines the causes of world-wide climatic change - the 'greenhouse effect' - that may raise world temperatures by five degrees Celsius in less than a century. Author Stephen H. Schneider describes the likely consequences - from agricultural changes and rises in sea level to public health issues and social upheaval - and addresses the most important and urgent question that anyone concerned with the fate of our planet must confront: 'What can or should be done about the greenhouse effect?' Global Warming offers a prophetic look at a year in the greenhouse century, one of slowly increasing global temperatures (a century that may have already begun). The immediate scenarios are grave: population pressures combined with devastating floods and hurricanes drive millions of 'environmental refugees from South East Asia to find homes in Australia; California smothers under heat, smog, water shortages, and raging forest fires; and New York experiences summer heat waves so intense that hospital emergency rooms are jammed with victims. The outlook for Britain could be equally serious: the UN predicts that global warming may cause severe winter storms, the flooding of coastal defences, and even malaria in Southern England. Dr Schneider provides and authoritative and entertaining look at the science, personalities and politics behind the problem of global warming. He explains in clear, non-technical language what is scientifically well known, what is speculative, and where the major uncertainties lie. He presents an overview of sixty million years of global climate history, explaining the mechanisms that regulate climate, demonstrates how a few degrees variation can precipitate dramatic evens such as the Ice Age, and discusses how predictions are made by computer modelling to anticipate climatic changes into the next century. Global Warming provides a revealing inside look at the problems scientists encounter in dealing with other scientists, politicians and the media. Although statesmen have called for a giant international effort to tackle the issue, few concrete measures have been taken so far. Global Warming outlines the ways individuals, governments and businesses can work together to slow down the damage our impact has inflicted on the planet, and help make global development more environmentally sustainable.

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Questions surrounding the issue of climate change are evolving from "is it happening?" to what can be done about it?". The primary obstacles to addressing it at this point are not scientific but political and economic; nonetheless a quick resolution is unlikely. Ignorance and confusion surrounding the issue - including lack of understanding of climate science, its implications for the environment and society, and the range of policy options available - contributes to the political morass over dealing with climate change in which we find ourselves. This text addresses that situation by bringing together a wide range of writings that examine the many dimensions of the topics most important in understanding climate change and policies to consider it. The chapters consider: climate science in historical perspective; analysis of uncertainties in climate science and policy; the economics of climate policy; north-south and intergenerational equity issues; the role of business and industry in climate solutions; and policy mechanisms including joint implementation, emissions trading, and the so-called clean development mechanism.

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