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.

Auteur
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.

Contenu

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