Global Change

This book describes “global change” pedagogically, offering a comprehensive perspective of its multidimensional nature, and detailing the necessary actions in the main areas to prevent catastrophic scenarios.

Currently, there is an unprecedented interest on climate and environmental dynamics. Never before, societies have been so aware and concerned about the impact that human activities have on the natural environment. At the same time, we already see the first consequences caused by the scarcity of natural resources that have driven the progress and economic development of an important part of humanity over the last centuries. The concept of “global change” is an instrument to interpret the profound planetary transformations taking place, as well as those necessary in the short and medium term to guarantee the well-being of our society in an unprecedented scenario.

Marc Oliva is a professor at the Department of Geography of the Universitat de Barcelona, leads a research group on Antarctic, Arctic, and Alpine environments (ANTALP). He has carried out almost twenty expeditions to Antarctica and the High Arctic and dozens to high mountain areas. This has provided him with a high understanding of the interaction between climatic variability and present and past geomorphological processes in cold regions of the Earth, as well as their response to global change.

Jordi Martín-Díaz is a lecturer at the Department of Geography of the Universitat de Barcelona and a member of the ANTALP research group. He is a human geographer, and his research deals with the management of the ecological crisis, with particular reference to the evolution of prevailing discourses and environmental awareness over the last decades.

Carles Barriocanal is a lecturer at the Department of Geography of the Universitat de Barcelona. He is a member of GRAM (Mediterranean Environments Research Group). His research is focused on biodiversity conservation in Mediterranean and Neotropical Environments, management of protected areas and the effects of global change in living organisms.

Juan Ignacio López-Moreno is a researcher at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, Spanish Research Council (CSIC). He is a physical geographer and his research deals on how global change impacts on the hydrology of mountains and cold regions. His main study areas are the Pyrenees (North Spain) but he also works regularly in the Andes (Chile, Peru, Colombia), North America (USA and Canada) and Arctic zones. He is an associate editor of Regional Environmental Change (Springer).

Josep Bonsoms is a geographer, researcher and professor at the Department of Geography of the Universitat de Barcelona (Spain). His research is focused on the analysis of climate variability and change trends and their relation with polar and mid-latitude zones hydrological processes.