Climate Change in the 21st Century

Stewart J. Cohen, Melissa W. Waddell

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780773533264, 9780773533264
• eBook ISBN: 9780773581302

Public and media interest in the climate change issue has increased exponentially in recent years. Climate change, or "global warming," is a complex problem with far-reaching social and economic impacts. Climate Change in the 21st Century brings together all the major aspects of global warming to give a state of the art description of our collective understanding of this phenomenon and what can be done to counteract it on both the local and global scale. Stewart Cohen and Melissa Waddell explain and clarify the different ways of approaching the study of climate change and the fundamental ideas behind them. From a history of climate change research to current attempts to mitigate its impact such as the Kyoto Protocol and carbon trading, they explore key ideas from many fields of study, outlining the environmental and human dimensions of global warming. Climate Change in the 21st Century goes beyond climate modeling to investigate interdisciplinary attempts to measure and forecast the complex impacts of future climate change on communities, how we assess their vulnerability, and how we plan to adapt our society. The book explores the impact of climate change on different ecosystems as well as what the social and economic understanding of this phenomenon can tell us; it also links discussions of climate change with the global discourse of sustainable development. Climate Change in the 21st Century provides a comprehensive, understandable, but academically informed introduction to the world's biggest challenge for both students and concerned citizens.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Tables and Figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Websites
• Abbreviations
• 1 The Many Dimensions of Climate Change in the Twenty-first Century
• 2 The History of Climate Change Research from the 1820s
• 3 The Atmospheric Science Aspects of Climate Change
• 4 Impact and Adaptation Assessment Frameworks
• 5 Ecosystem Processes and Climate Change
• 6 The Economic Aspects of Climate Change
• 7 The Social Aspects of Climate Change Impacts
• 8 Mitigation Responses to Climate Change: Overview of the Process
• 9 Mitigation Responses to Climate Change: Trading and Investment Mechanisms
• 10 Integrated Assessments of Climate Change
• 11 Context: Climate Change and Other Global Environmental Problems
• 12 Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index