Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000000272355 | QC981.C45 1985 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
Searching... | 30000000990394 | QC981.C45 1985 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
A far-reaching collection of essays that assess recent climate shifts, and the possibilities of human-induced climate alterations such as a long-term global warming derived from the enrichment of the atmospheric content of the `greenhouse' gases. International experts cover climatic variability and change, identifying climate sensitivity, the biophysical impacts of agriculture, fisheries, pastoralism, water resources, and energy resources, and social and economic impacts and adjustments.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
This is a remarkable book. A multidisciplinary, international team of 32 contributors establishes in 22 chapters a new approach to an old theme: How do climatic anomalies affect human society? The topic is presented under four headings: Overviews, Biophysical Impacts, Social and Economic Impacts and Adjustments, and Integral Assessments. The Overviews by Kates, Hare, Riebsame, Maunder, and Ausubel are very good introductions to a subject propelled into focus by the food and energy crises of the 1970s. These led to the establishment of World Meteorological Organization's World Climate Program, whose impact phase is under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Program. Specific chapters on agriculture, fisheries, pastoralism, and water and energy resources are competently written. The socioeconomic topics are less thoroughly explored but the authors bring out the role that institutional inadequacies play in handling the vagaries of climate. The reviews on past assessments should serve as guidance for future models and analyses. All chapters have adequate to excellent bibliographies. Geographers, ecologists, climatologists, sociologists, and economists and students in these disciplines should find this book in their college libraries.-H.E. Landsberg, University of Maryland at College Park
