The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
1. Highlights the achievements of climate change research in the Arctic region 2. Includes case studies from scientists in the Arctic and their significant achievements through the Indian research base Himadri 3. Provides a thorough review of Paleoclimate change studies, the impact of climate change on biotic components and the impact of climate change on abiotic components 4. Provides specific details on the study of ozone depletion phenomenon over Arctic region 5. Covers a wide range of research contributions 6. Details sea-ice variability in the context of global warming over the Arctic region. 7.Connects seisimogenesis with the climate change in the Arctic region.
The world’s polar regions are attracting more interest than ever before. Once regarded as barren, inhospitable places where only explorers go, the north and south polar regions have been transformed into high profile tourism destinations, increasingly visited by cruise ships as well as becoming accessible with direct flights. Tourism is seen as one of the few economic opportunities in these regions but at the same time the polar regions are being opened up to tourism development they are being affected by a number of new factors that are interconnected to travel and tourism. Climate change, landscape and species loss, increasing interest in energy resources and minerals, social changes in indigenous societies, and a new polar geopolitics all bring into question the sustainability of polar regions and the place of tourism within them. This timely volume provides a contemporary account of tourism and its impacts in polar regions. It explores the development and prospects of polar tourism, as well as tourism’s impacts and associated change at high latitudes from environmental, economic, social and political perspectives. It draws on cutting edge research from both the Arctic and Antarctic to provide a comparative review and illustrate the real life issues arising from tourism’s role in these regions. Integrating theory and practice the book fully evaluates varying perspectives on polar tourism and proposes actions that could be taken by local and global management to achieve a sustainable future for polar regions and development of tourism. This complete and current account of polar tourism issues is written by an international team of leading researchers in this area and will have global appeal to higher level students, researchers, academics in Tourism, Environmental Studies, Arctic/Polar Studies and conservation enthusiasts alike.
In Climate Change and the New Polar Aesthetics, Lisa E. Bloom considers the ways artists, filmmakers, and activists engaged with the Arctic and Antarctic to represent our current environmental crises and reconstruct public understandings of them. Bloom engages feminist, Black, Indigenous, and non-Western perspectives to address the exigencies of the experience of the Anthropocene and its attendant ecosystem failures, rising sea levels, and climate-led migrations. As opposed to mainstream media depictions of climate change that feature apocalyptic spectacles of distant melting ice and desperate polar bears, artists such as Katja Aglert, Subhankar Banerjee, Joyce Campbell, Judit Hersko, Roni Horn, Isaac Julien, Zacharias Kunuk, Connie Samaras, and activist art collectives take a more complex poetic and political approach. In their films and visual and conceptual art, these artists link climate change to its social roots in colonialism and capitalism while challenging the suppression of information about environmental destruction and critiquing Western art institutions for their complicity. Bloom’s examination and contextualization of new polar aesthetics makes environmental degradation more legible while demonstrating that our own political agency is central to imagining and constructing a better world.
Understanding Present and Past Arctic Environments: An Integrated Approach from Climate Change Perspectives provides a fully comprehensive overview of the past, present and future outlook for this incredibly diverse and important region. Through a series of contributed chapters, the book explores changes to this environment that are attributed to the effects of climate change. The book explores the current effects climate change has had on Arctic environments and ecosystems, our current understanding of the effects climate change is having, the effects climate change is having on the atmospheric and ocean processes in this region. The Arctic region is predicted to experience the earliest and most pronounced global warming response to human-induced climatic change, thus a better understanding is vital. Presents a thorough understanding of the Arctic, it's past, present and future Provides an integrated assessment of the Arctic climate system, recognizing that a true understanding of its functions lies in appreciating the interactions and linkages among its various components Brings together many of the world's leading Arctic researchers to describe this diverse environment and its ecology
Climate Change: Evidence and Causes is a jointly produced publication of The US National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. Written by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists and reviewed by climate scientists and others, the publication is intended as a brief, readable reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative information on the some of the questions that continue to be asked. Climate Change makes clear what is well-established and where understanding is still developing. It echoes and builds upon the long history of climate-related work from both national academies, as well as on the newest climate-change assessment from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It touches on current areas of active debate and ongoing research, such as the link between ocean heat content and the rate of warming.
Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for-and in many cases is already affecting-a broad range of human and natural systems. The compelling case for these conclusions is provided in Advancing the Science of Climate Change, part of a congressionally requested suite of studies known as America's Climate Choices. While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never closed, the book shows that hypotheses about climate change are supported by multiple lines of evidence and have stood firm in the face of serious debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations. As decision makers respond to these risks, the nation's scientific enterprise can contribute through research that improves understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change and also is useful to decision makers at the local, regional, national, and international levels. The book identifies decisions being made in 12 sectors, ranging from agriculture to transportation, to identify decisions being made in response to climate change. Advancing the Science of Climate Change calls for a single federal entity or program to coordinate a national, multidisciplinary research effort aimed at improving both understanding and responses to climate change. Seven cross-cutting research themes are identified to support this scientific enterprise. In addition, leaders of federal climate research should redouble efforts to deploy a comprehensive climate observing system, improve climate models and other analytical tools, invest in human capital, and improve linkages between research and decisions by forming partnerships with action-oriented programs.
Ice in the Arctic is disappearing—and opportunity is calling. As climate change transforms the top of the world, warmer conditions are exposing a treasure trove of energy resources previously trapped in ice. The Arctic's oil, natural gas, minerals, and even wind and hydroelectric power are becoming more accessible than ever before. With untold riches hanging in the balance, the race is on to control the Arctic and its energy potential. Oil companies vie for drilling rights that go to the highest bidder. Nations around the globe—whether they're on the Arctic's doorstep or half a world away—hope to claim territory for themselves. And the indigenous peoples who have called this region home for thousands of years are determined to be on the ground floor of its development. But the Arctic's new possibilities come with grave risks. The pursuit of oil and natural gas threatens to further damage the Arctic's fragile ecosystems and accelerate global warming worldwide. International disputes over who owns which pieces of the Arctic could bring countries to the brink of war. The fate of the entire planet may hinge on how far people are willing to go to tap and control the Far North's energy resources. From oil rigs to military bases, the Arctic has never before hosted so many warring interests, and the stakes have never been so high. Join Stephanie Sammartino McPherson on a journey to the Far North to explore the energy controversies that will decide the future of the Arctic—and of the earth.
This book examines Arctic defense policy and military security from the perspective of all eight Arctic states. In light of climate change and melting ice in the Arctic Ocean, Canada, Russia, Denmark (Greenland), Norway and the United States, as well as Iceland, Sweden and Finland, are grappling with an emerging Arctic security paradigm. This volume brings together the world's most seasoned Arctic political-military experts from Europe and North America to analyze how Arctic nations are adapting their security postures to accommodate increased shipping, expanding naval presence, and energy and mineral development in the polar region. The book analyzes the ascent of Russia as the first 'Arctic superpower', the growing importance of polar security for NATO and the Nordic states, and the increasing role of Canada and the United States in the region.