The Science and Impact of Climate Change

ISBN-13: 9789811308086 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 146 str.

Asheem Srivastav

Spis treści

Chapter 1 – Earth in Reverse Gear

The Observed Changes

     Chronic droughts

     Receding glaciers

     Acidification of oceans

     Habitats destroyed and species driven out of the planet

 

Chapter 2- A Glimpse of Natural Climatic History

     The ongoing climate change

     Solar Irradiance and Earth’s Climate 

     Radiative Forcing

     The terra incognita of Climate Change

 

Chapter 3- Understanding the warming process 

     The Green House Gases and their Effect

     The Carbon Factor

          Properties of Carbon dioxide

          Carbon in the Terrestrial System

          The Soil Carbon

          Man Made Carbon Sources

               Energy Intensive Cement Production Industry

               Sources of carbon dioxide emission in cement manufacturing

          Carbon dioxide in the Ocean

               Biological Calcification

      The Janus faced-Nitrogen

          Processes responsible for nitrogen flow through the biosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere

          Major anthropogenic sources of inorganic nitrogen in aquatic ecosystems

 

 Chapter 4- Nature’s Reaction to Anthropogenic Activities

     Increased Vulnerability to Natural/Man Made Disasters

     Population and Extreme Weather Nexus

     Human species is under serious threat

          Water distresses

          Risk to Marine Ecosystem and Corals

          Changing temperatures and forests

          Rising Seas

     Droughts and Fire

 

Chapter 5-Reducing Carbon Growth

     Can we postpone ‘Energy Apocalypse’?

     The Future

          The Solar Energy

          The Wind Energy

          The Hydro/Geothermal Energy

          Energy for Batteries (Lithium: the new gasoline)

          The Biomass Energy

          The Biogas Energy

           The Hydrogen Energy

          Energy from Waste

     On Way out

          Coal

          The Hydrocarbons

     The Debate on Nuclear Energy

          Environmental Effects of Nuclear Power Plants and Explosion

     Innovations

     Paradigm shift is inevitable

     Bottlenecks to sustainability

     Back to Basics

O autorze

Asheem Kumar Srivastav is an Indian Forest Service Officer in the rank of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests. His career has combined positions in government and international organisations including the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Traffic International, and the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. He was instrumental in the preparation of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management project for the Government of India. He also has provided strategic, managerial, and technical inputs in a range of ecosystems of Asian countries including Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. A forester by training, he holds double masters in natural resource management and in zoology from the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy and Delhi University, respectively. He has also been trained in natural resource management and forestry at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Wolverhampton, UK, as well as the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 

Blurb

This volume provides a holistic and concise overview of the complex science of climate change involving the interplay of multiple factors. It also acts as a primer and a one-source reference to all the aspects of climate change, allowing researchers to understand the complexity of this science and to see the larger picture, thereby aiming towards holistic solutions.

Beginning in the second half of the twentieth century, the impacts of climate change have been the worst nightmare to hit humanity so fiercely, causing loss of human life and irreparable destruction to natural and man-made infrastructure in many parts of the world. The difference between climate change now and in the past is that of sudden and disproportionate disruption of the natural energy dynamics by the changing consumption patterns of billions of human beings who, in their quest for economic superiority, have polluted the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The picture that emerges from the exhaustive analysis of international data drawn from the most reliable sources indicates that we have possibly gained access to the gateway of extinction and it is time that we take corrective steps immediately.

The book’s chapters not only provide an overview of climate change science but also include detailed discussion on current research. This unique analytical text is suitable for conservation environmentalists, researchers, and academicians working in the field, along with policy makers, research and training institutes, and nongovernment organizations.