Challenges of a Changing Earth

Praise for Will Steffen's, Challenges of a Changing Earth American Meteorological Society "This book presents a state-of-the-science overview of global change and its consequences for human societies. It highlights four areas of critical importance: food, water resources, air quality, and the carbon cycle. From both science and policy prespectives; discusses the new scientific approaches needed to study the Earth system in the future; and summarizes recent advances in understanding in global change science."

• I Opening.- 1 Opening Address.- 2 Challenges of a Changing Earth.- II Achievements and Challenges: Part IIa Food, Land, Water, and Oceans.- 3 Toward Integrated Land-Change Science: Advances in 1.5 Decades of Sustained International Research on Land-Use and Land-Cover Change.- 4 Climate Variability and Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics: Implications for Sustainability.- 5 Food in the 21st Century: Global Climate of Disparities.- 6 Equity Dimensions of Dam-Based Water Resources Development: Winners and Losers.- IIb Out of Breath: Air Quality in the 21st Century.- 7 Atmospheric Chemistry in the “Anthropocene”.- 8 Fires, Haze and Acid Rain: The Social and Political Framework of Air Pollution in ASEAN and Asia.- IIc Managing Planetary Metabolism? The Global Carbon Cycle.- 9 Carbon and the Science-Policy Nexus: The Kyoto Challenge.- 10 Industry Response to the CO2 Challenge.- IId Summary: Global Change and the Challenge for the Future.- 11 Global Change and the Challenge for the Future.- III Advances in Understanding: Part IIIa Global Biogeochemistry: Understanding the Metabolic System of the Planet.- 12 Ocean Biogeochemistry: A Sea of Change.- 13 The Past, Present and Future of Carbon on Land.- 14 Can New Institutions Solve Atmospheric Problems? Confronting Acid Rain, Ozone Depletion and Climate Change.- IIIb Land-Ocean Interactions: Regional-Global Linkages.- 15 Emissions from the Oceans to the Atmosphere, Deposition from the Atmosphere to the Oceans and the Interactions Between Them.- 16 The Impact of Dams on Fisheries: Case of the Three Gorges Dam.- 17 Global Change in the Coastal Zone: The Case of Southeast Asia.- IIIc The Climate System: Prediction, Change and Variability.- 18 Climate Change Fore and Aft: Where on Earth Are We Going?.- 19 Climate Change — Past, Present andFuture: A Personal Perspective.- 20 The Changing Cryosphere: Impacts of Global Warming in the High Latitudes.- 21 The Coupled Climate System: Variability and Predictability.- IIId Hot Spots of Land-Use Change and the Climate System: A Regional or Global Concern.- 22 Hot Spots of Land-Use Change and the Climate System: A Regional or Global Concern?.- 23 Africa: Greening of the Sahara.- 24 The Role of Large-Scale Vegetation and Land Use in the Water Cycle and Climate in Monsoon Asia.- 25 Can Human-Induced Land-Cover Change Modify the Monsoon System?.- 26 The Amazon Basin and Land-Cover Change: A Future in the Balance?.- IV Looking to the Future: Part IVa Simulating and Observing the Earth System.- 27 Virtual Realities of the Past, Present and Future.- 28 Coping with Earth System Complexity and Irregularity.- 29 Simulating and Observing the Earth System: Summary.- IVb Does the Earth System Need Biodiversity?.- 30 Marine Biodiversity: Why We Need It in Earth System Science.- 31 Does Biodiversity Matter to Terrestrial Ecosystem Processes and Services?.- 32 Biodiversity Loss and the Maintenance of Our Life-Support System.- IVc Can Technology Spare the Planet?.- 33 Maglevs and the Vision of St. Hubert - Or the Great Restoration of Nature: Why and How.- 34 Industrial Transformation: Exploring System Change in Production and Consumption.- 35 Will Technology Spare the Planet?.- IVd Towards Global Sustainability.- 36 Challenges and Road Blocks for Local and Global Sustainability.- 37 Research Systems for a Transition Toward Sustainability.- 38 Summary: Towards Global Sustainability.- IVe Closing Session.- 39 Closing Address.- 40 The Amsterdam Declaration on Global Change.