Author: Linda D. Mortsch
Publisher: Canadian Government Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
Presents proceedings of a symposium held to assess the risks of climate change and variability in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin and identify sustainable adaptation responses through the integration of various stakeholder perspectives. The proceedings included keynote presentations, poster papers, panel sessions, and working groups. Topics covered include Canadian and US research activities and scientific advances made in the areas of climate change, impacts and adaptation assessment, and climate prediction; impacts and risks of climate change and variability, and adaptation to those impacts and risks, from the point of view of such stakeholders as watershed managers, electric utilities, water suppliers, farmers, and governments; and future directions in water use and management, human health, land use and management, and ecosystem health.
Author: Sally M. Kane
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401730105
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277
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Book Description
Changes in climate and climate variability have an effect on people's behaviour around the world, and public institutions have an important part to play in influencing our ability to respond to and plan for climate risk. We may be able to reduce climate risk by seeking to mitigate the threat on the one hand, and by adapting to a changed climate on the other. Another theme of the book is the integrated role of adaptation and mitigation in framing issues and performing analyses. Adaptation costs fall most heavily on the poor and special attention needs to be paid to adaptation by the poorest populations. An integrating framework is also presented to provide the context for an expansive typology of terms to apply to adaptation. The 12 papers collected here use methods from a variety of disciplines and focus on different time frames for decision making, from short term to the very long term. Readership: Technically trained readers familiar with the policy issues surrounding climate change and interested in learning the scientific underpinnings of issues related to societal adaptation.
Author: Linda D. Mortsch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Climatic changes
Languages : en
Pages : 190
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Book Description
There still is much uncertainty about the timing, the rate and the magnitude of climate change in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin (GLSLB); yet concern for potential impacts remains. The GLSLB contains 20 percent of the world's fresh water and is home to over 42.5 million people. It is a region rich in human and natural resources, with diverse economic activities and complex infrastructures. Significant economic restructuring and environmental changes are underway. Governments, industries and other Basin interests will have the added complication of managing the multiple activities within the Basin under the exacerbating conditions of potential climate change. This challenge must be addressed: first through research, and then by applying the research to all levels of management within the Basin.
Author:
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 426
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Book Description
Author: Christopher R. Bryant
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319313924
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
This book deals with one of the major challenges facing human society and its governments, climate change and variability. The principal objective of the book is to explore how agricultural production through the actions primarily of farmers, including peasant farmers, adapt to these changing circumstances, what the limitations of adaptation are, how the process of adaptation varies between different territories (e.g. developed countries versus developing countries), and what are or can be the most effective roles for actors other than the farmers, including different levels of government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as professional associations of farmers and community organizations. The principal argument is threefold: 1) while there are significant differences between territories and countries in terms of the capacity of farmers (and the other actors) to engage in capacity building to be able to adapt effectively to climate change and variability, 2) the critical roles are those played out by the farmers themselves, but that 3) other actors can play an important role in accompanying farmers in their adaptation process, providing relevant and strategic information, counseling them and facilitating networking and meetings when appropriate. This effectively means that without engaging in the local adaptation processes governments can really only play effective roles by working with other actors at the local and regional levels. When it occurs, it can be very effective, but when it does not, farmers are left to their own devices (and even then, many are able to use their own creativity and local knowledge to survive and continue to develop). Essentially therefore, the secondary argument that is followed throughout the book is that adaptation is essentially a social process that requires an understanding of social processes and dynamics in each farming community and territory. It involves an understanding, for instance, of information diffusion processes in the different farming communities and territories, which provides a set of tools to promote and facilitate the adoption process in the context of adaptation to climate change and variability.
Author: M.B. Beck
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080531067
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 490
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Book Description
Policy-makers and the public, it has famously been said, are more interested in the possibility of non-linear dislocations and surprises in the behaviour of the environment than in smooth extrapolations of current trends. The International Task Force in Forecasting Environmental Change (1993-1998) dedicated its work to developing procedures of model building capable of addressing our palpable concerns for substantial change in the future. This volume discusses the immense challenges that such structural change presents - that the behaviour of the environment may become radically different from that observed in the past - and investigates the potentially profound implications for model development.Drawing upon case histories from the Great Lakes, acidic atmospheric deposition and, among others, the urban ozone problem, this discourse responds to a new agenda of questions. For example: "What system of 'radar' might we design to detect threats to the environment lying just beyond the 'horizon'?" and "Are the seeds of structural change identifiable within the record of the recent past?"Meticulously researched by leading environmental modellers, this milestone volume engages vigorously with its subject and offers an animated account of how models can begin to take into consideration the significant threats and uncertainties posed by structural change.
Author: Jamie Vernon Smith
Publisher: [Downsview, Ont.] : Environment Canada, Ontario Region
ISBN: 9780662259220
Category : Climatic changes
Languages : en
Pages : 150
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Book Description
This report summarizes the most recent literature describing the impacts of current climate and the potential effects of anticipated climate change on the environment and on those social and economic sectors in Ontario most likely to undergo significant changes. After the introduction, chapter 2 describes the physical and socio-economic resources of Ontario. Chapter 3 details current climatic conditions in the province, including variability and recent trends. Chapter 4 reviews the impacts of the current climate on the following sectors: water resources, human and ecosystem health, the built environment, and industries such as energy, transportation, tourism and recreation, agriculture, forestry, construction, and finance. This chapter also examines the relationship between climate and regional air issues. Chapter 5 surveys future climate scenarios and assesses the impacts and opportunities arising from these scenarios for the same sectors addressed in chapter 4. Chapter 6 reviews the research and application of adaptive measures in five areas: water resources, human and ecosystem health, the built environment, industry, and regional air issues. The chapter also reviews Ontario's adaptation capacity with respect to these sectors. The final chapter summarizes knowledge gaps and research priorities for Ontario in the areas of climate variability and change, impacts and adaptation.
Author: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Working Group II.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521634557
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 532
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Book Description
Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Author: David L. Peterson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 131783707X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360
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Book Description
The Far North, a land of extreme weather and intense beauty, is the only region of North America whose ecosystems have remained reasonably intact. Humans are newcomers there and nature predominates. As is widely known, recent changes in the Earth's atmosphere have the potential to create rapid climatic shifts in our life-time and well into the future. These changes, a product of southern industrial society, will have the greatest impact on ecosystems at northern latitudes, which until now have remained largely undisturbed. In this fragile balance, as terrestrial and aquatic habitats change, animal and human populations will be irrevocably altered.
Author: Rodney R. White
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9780849313790
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
Our cities are plagued by problems of congestion, waste, and pollution that deplete natural resources, damage the environment, and reduce the quality of life for their citizens. The irony is, as this fascinating new study shows, it doesn’t have to be like this. Building the Ecological City describes the problems we face and puts forward solutions to the question – how can we build cities that provide an acceptable standard of living for their inhabitants without depleting the ecosystems and bio-geochemical cycles on which they depend? The book suggests and examines the concept of urban metabolism which characterizes the city as a set of interlinked systems of physical flows linking air, land, and water. A series of chapters looks at the production and management of waste, energy use and air emissions, water supply and management, urban land use, and air quality issues. Within the broader context of climate change, the book then considers a range of practical strategies for restoring the health of urban ecosystems from the remediation of ‘brownfield’ land to improving air quality and making better use of water resources. A major contribution to better urban management and planning for both citizens and the environment, Building the Ecological City is an invaluable sourcebook for urban and national planners, architects, and environmental agencies.
