Sudden and Disruptive Climate Change

Michael C. MacCracken is Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs with the Climate Institute in Washington DC, and is past President of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS). Frances Moore spent five months with the Climate Institute after graduating from Harvard; she now is a researcher with the Earth Policy Institute. John C. Topping, Jr is founder and President of the Climate Institute.

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• Foreword by Ambassador John Ashton * Introduction * Part I: The Potential for Rapid Changes to the Weather and Climate * Introduction to Part I * Ten Reasons Why Climate Change May be More Severe than Projected * Potential Increased Hurricane Activity in a Greenhouse Warmed World * Potential Effects of Weather Extremes and Climate Change on Human Health * Part II: The Potential for Rapid Melting of Ice and Amplification of Sea Level Rise * Introduction to Part II * Changes in Polar Sea Ice Coverage * Changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet and Implications for Global Sea Level Rise * Why Predicting West Antarctic Ice Sheet Behavior is So Hard: What We Know, What We Don t Know and How We Will Find Out * Part III: The Potential for Dramatic Changes in Coastal Regions * Introduction to Part III * The Potential for Significant Impacts on Chesapeake Bay from Global Warming * The Northern Gulf of Mexico Coast: Human Development Patterns, Declining Ecosystems and Escalating Vulnerability to Storms and Sea Level Rise * Threats and Responses Associated with Rapid Climate Change in Metropolitan New York * Increasing the Resilience of Our Coasts: Coastal Collision Course of Rising Sea Level, Storms, Coastal Erosion and Development * Preparing and Protecting American Families from the Onslaught of Catastrophe * Part IV: The End of Evolution? The Potential for Rapid Changes in Ecosystems * Introduction to Part IV * Where Will Ecosystems Go? * Increasing Vulnerability of Alaska‘s Boreal Forest as a Result of Climate Warming and the Changing Fire Regime * Polar Bears in a Warming Arctic * Part V: The Potential for Accelerating Action to Limit Climate Change * Introduction to Part V * International Action to Buffer Against the Rapid Onset of Climate Change * A Moral and Profitable Path to Climate Stabilization * Moving Toward Climate Stabilization: Icelands Example * Climate Impacts in the Developing World: A Case Study of the Small Island States * Stimulating a Clean Energy Revolution