Climate change : biological and human aspects /
In recent years climate change has become recognised as the foremost environmental problem of the twenty-first century. Not only will climate change potentially affect the multibillion dollar energy strategies of countries worldwide, but it also could seriously affect many species, including our own...
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Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic eBook |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Cambridge :
Cambridge University Press,
2007.
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | CONNECT |
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Acknowledgements
- 1. An introduction to climate change
- 1.1. Weather or climate
- 1.2. The greenhouse effect
- 1.3. The carbon cycle
- 1.4. Natural changes in the carbon cycle
- 1.5. Pacemaker of the glacial-interglacial cycles
- 1.6. Non-greenhouse influences on climate
- 1.7. The water cycle, climate change and biology
- 1.8. From theory to reality
- 1.9. References
- 2. Principal indicators of past climates
- 2.1. Terrestrial biotic climatic proxies
- 2.1.1. Tree-ring analysis (dendrochronology)
- 2.1.2. Isotopic dendrochronology
- 2.1.3. Leaf shape (morphology)
- 2.1.4. Leaf physiology
- 2.1.5. Pollen and spore analysis
- 2.1.6. Species as climate proxies
- 2.2. Marine biotic climatic proxies
- 2.2.1. ¹⁸O isotope analysis of forams and corals
- 2.2.2. Alkenone analysis
- 2.3. Non-biotic indicators
- 2.3.1. Isotopic analysis of water
- 2.3.2. Boreholes
- 2.3.3. Carbon dioxide and methane records as palaeoclimatic forcing agents
- 2.3.4. Dust as an indicator of dry-wet hemispheric climates
- 2.4. Other indicators
- 2.5. Interpreting indicators
- 2.6. Conclusions
- 2.7. References
- 8.3. Energy policy and carbon
- 8.3.1. Case history : USA
- 8.3.2. Case history : UK
- 8.3.3. Case history : China and India
- 8.4. Possible future energy options
- 8.4.1. Managing fossil-carbon emissions, the scale of the problem
- 8.4.2. Fossil futures
- 8.4.3. Nuclear futures
- 8.4.4. Renewable futures
- 8.4.5. Low-energy futures
- 8.4.6. Possible future energy options and greenhouse gases
- 8.5. Future human and biological change
- 8.5.1. The ease and difficulty of adapting to future impacts
- 8.5.2. Future climate change and human health
- 8.5.3. Future climate and human-ecology implications for wildlife
- 8.5.4. Reducing future anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions
- 8.5.5. A final conclusion
- 8.6. References
- Appendix 1 : Glossary and abbreviations
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
- Appendix 2 : Bio-geological chronology
- Appendix 3 : Calculations of energy demand/supply and orders of magnitude
- Calculations of energy demand/supply
- Orders of magnitude
- Sources
- Appendix 4 : The IPCC 2007 report.
- 8. Sustainability and policy
- 8.1. Key developments of sustainability policy
- 8.1.1. UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972)
- 8.1.2. The Club of Rome's Limits to Growth (1972)
- 8.1.3. World Climate Conference (1979)
- 8.1.4. The World Conservation Strategy (1980 )
- 8.1.5. The Brandt Report, Common Crisis North-South (1980)
- 8.1.6. The Brundtland, World Commission on Environment and Development Report (1987)
- 8.1.7. United Nations' Conference on the Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro (1992)
- 8.1.8. The Kyoto Protocol (1997)
- 8.1.9. Johannesburg Summit, UNCED+10 (2002)
- 8.1.10. Post 2002
- 8.2. Energy sustainability and carbon (global)
- 8.2.1. Prospects for savings from changes in land use
- 8.2.2. Prospects for savings from improvements in energy efficiency
- 8.2.3. Prospects for fossil-carbon savings from renewable energy
- 8.2.4. Prospects for carbon-capture technology
- 8.2.5. Prospects for nuclear options
- 8.2.6. Overall prospects for fossil-carbon savings to 2025
- 7. The human ecology of climate change
- 7.1. Population (past, present and future) and its environmental impact
- 7.1.1. Population and environmental impact
- 7.1.2. Past and present population
- 7.1.3. Future population
- 7.1.4. Food
- 7.1.5. Impact on other species
- 7.2. Energy supply
- 7.2.1. Energy supply, the historical context
- 7.2.2. Future energy supply
- 7.3. Human health and climate change
- 7.3.1. Health and weather extremes
- 7.3.2. Climate change and disease
- 7.3.3. Flooding and health
- 7.3.4. Droughts
- 7.4. Climate change and food security
- 7.4.1. Past and present food security
- 7.4.2. Future food security and climate change
- 7.5. The biology of reducing anthropogenic climate change
- 7.5.1. Terrestrial photosynthesis and soil carbon
- 7.5.2. Manipulating marine photosynthesis
- 7.5.3. Biofuels
- 7.6. Summary and conclusions
- 7.7. References
- 6. Current warming and likely future impacts
- 6.1. Current biological symptoms of warming
- 6.1.1. Current boreal dendrochronological response
- 6.1.2. Current tropical-rainforest response
- 6.1.3. Some biological dimensions of the climatic-change fingerprint
- 6.1.4. Phenology
- 6.1.5. Biological communities and species shift
- 6.2. Case study : climate and natural systems in the USA
- 6.3. Case study : climate and natural systems in the UK
- 6.4. Biological response to greenhouse trends beyond the twenty-first century
- 6.5. Possible surprise responses to greenhouse trends in the twenty-first century and beyond
- 6.5.1. Extreme weather events
- 6.5.2. Greenhouse gases
- 6.5.3. Sea-level rise
- 6.5.4. Methane hydrates (methane clathrates)
- 6.5.5. Volcanoes
- 6.5.6. Oceanic and atmospheric circulation
- 6.5.7. Ocean acidity
- 6.5.8. The probability of surprises
- 6.6. References
- 5. Present climate and biological change
- 5.1. Recent climate change
- 5.1.1. The latter half of the Little Ice Age
- 5.1.2. Twentieth-century climate
- 5.1.3. Twenty-first-century climate
- 5.1.4. The Holocene interglacial beyond the twenty-first century
- 5.1.5. Holocene summary
- 5.2. Human change arising from the Holocene climate
- 5.2.1. Climatic impacts on early human civilisations
- 5.2.2. The Little Ice Age's human impact
- 5.2.3. Increasing twentieth-century human climatic insulation
- 5.3. Climate and business as usual in the twenty-first century
- 5.3.1. IPCC business as usual
- 5.3.2. Uncertainties and the IPCC's conclusions
- 5.4. Current human influences on the carbon cycle
- 5.4.1. Carbon dioxide
- 5.4.2. Methane
- 5.4.3. Halocarbons
- 5.4.4. Nitrous oxide
- 5.5. References
- 4. The Oligocene to the Quaternary : climate and biology
- 4.1. The Oligocene (33.9-23.03 mya)
- 4.2. The end Miocene (9-5.3 mya)
- 4.3. The Pliocene (5.3-1.8 mya)
- 4.4. The current ice age
- 4.5. The last glacial
- 4.5.1. Overview of temperature, carbon dioxide and timing
- 4.5.2. Ice and sea level
- 4.5.3. Temperature changes within the glacial
- 4.5.4. Biological and environmental impacts of the last glacial
- 4.6. Interglacials and the present climate
- 4.6.1. Previous interglacials
- 4.6.2. The Allerød, Bølling and Younger Dryas (14 600-11 600 years ago)
- 4.6.3. The Holocene (11 500 years ago, the Industrial Revolution)
- 4.6.4. Biological response to the last glacial, LGM and Holocene transition
- 4.7. Summary
- 4.8. References
- 3. Past climate change
- 3.1. Early biology and climate of the Hadean and Archeaen eons (4.6-2.5 billion years ago, bya)
- 3.1.1. The pre-biotic Earth (4.6-3.8 bya)
- 3.1.2. The early biotic Earth (3.8-2.3 bya)
- 3.2. Major bio-climatic events of the Proterozoic eon (2.5-0.542 bya)
- 3.2.1. Earth in the anaerobic-aerobic transition (2.6-1.7 bya)
- 3.2.2. The aerobic Earth (from 1.7 bya)
- 3.3. Major bio-climatic events of the pre-Quaternary Phanerozoic (540-2 mya)
- 3.3.1. Late-Ordovician extinction (455-435 mya)
- 3.3.2. Late-Devonian extinction (365-363.5 mya)
- 3.3.3. Vascular plants and the atmospheric depletion of carbon dioxide (350-275 mya)
- 3.3.4. Permo-Carboniferous glaciation (330-250 mya)
- 3.3.5. End-Permian extinction (251 mya)
- 3.3.6. End-Triassic extinction (205 mya)
- 3.3.7. Toarcian (early (late lower) Jurassic) extinction (183 mya)
- 3.3.8. Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction (65.5 mya)
- 3.3.9. Eocene climatic maximum (55-54.8 mya)
- 3.3.10. Eocene-Oligocene extinction (approximately 35 mya ; or 33.9 mya?)
- 3.3.11. Late Miocene expansion of C₄ grasses (14-9 mya)
- 3.4. Summary
- 3.5. References