The Changing Global Environment

Global environmental change is a subject of major scientific and political importance, and of rising media attention. But what do processes such as desertification, acidification and global warming involve? There is a need for a clear, well-integrated account by the scientists themselves of how these processes are altering the earth's natural environments. In "The Changing Global Environment" leading physical geographers provide distilled and up-to-date summaries of research in their own field - themes such as rainforest destruction and remote sensing by satellites. This is not a collection of unconnected research papers, but an integrated text. Taken as a whole, the book is distinguished by its concerns for environmental variations across space and through time, for human-environment interactions and for an awareness that the world is made up of real places and regions. It should be of interest to students in departments of geography, geoscience and environmental studies taking courses in global environmental change, advanced physical geography, climatic change and human ecology.

The global environmental future is a matter of major scientific and public importance. Problems such as deforestation, pollution, the loss of natural habitats, and greenhouse-gas induced global warming have grave and often uncertain implications. But what do these processes involve? What is causing them and what will or might be their consequences? Global warming would, for example, have far-reaching effects on sea levels, rainfall, glacier dynamics, and the distribution of plants and animals, as well as on a wide range of human activities.

The Changing Global Environment provides a clear, well-integrated account by leading scientists of the nature of change in the earth's natural environment in the past, present and future. Taken as a whole, it is distinguished by its concern to understand and to link environmental variations at local, regional and planetary scales, by its clear analyses of human-environment interactions, by its historical perspective, and by an awareness of the social and political causes and consequences of environmental change. The subject is as complex as it is crucial: the authors have aimed not to simplify but to clarify uncertainties, issues and processes.

The book is divided into six parts. The first introduces the subject. The second describes patterns of global climatic change in the distant and recent past and models of the climatic future. The third examines the effects of climatic change or arctic and marine environments. Part four is concerned with the hydrological system. Part five focuses on tropical environments, humid, arid and savanna. Part six provides four detailed case studies of change in contrasting environments - desert, estuarine, river and mountain.

Written to be accessible to both specialist and non-specialist readers, this book also provides a powerful and stimulating framework for the teaching of environmental issues in higher education.