Climate Change and Society

by Bradley, Raymond S.; Law, Norman

• ISBN13: 9780748758234
• ISBN10: 0748758232
• Edition: Illus.
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Nelson Thornes

Summary

Students are helped to progress from GCSE and Standard Grade within each title, through regular questions and enquiry activities. The topic books are ideal for individual usage as the content is detailed and concise. Valuable study for students with exam practice, as well as practice with the decision-making/enquiry approaches in the context of real places. Question banks focus on the development of core skills and will help students construct quality extended essays. Interest and motivation will be increased by the variety of approaches adopted by the various authors, all of whom are experienced educationalists.

Table of Contents

Setting the scene	4	(7)
Changing climates	4	(3)
About this book	7	(4)
Global climate	11	(13)
Building a picture of climate	11	(1)
The global climate system	12	(5)
Feedbacks in the system	17	(1)
The Earth's energy balance	18	(6)
Evidence of climatic change	24	(12)
Introduction	24	(1)
Climatic change during the Quaternary period	25	(3)
Evidence from the oceans and lakes	28	(2)
Evidence-rich ice cores	30	(4)
Some other sources	34	(2)
Natural causes of climatic change	36	(14)
Important forcing factors on geological time-scales	36	(4)
The Milankovich hypothesis	40	(4)
Other possible causes	44	(1)
Internal variations	45	(3)
Summing up	48	(2)
Human influences on climate	50	(11)
The rising tide of pollution	50	(1)
The record of atmospheric carbon dioxide	51	(2)
The record of global temperature	53	(3)
Climate in the near future	56	(1)
Sea-level changes	57	(1)
Chlorofluorocarbons and the ozone hole	58	(3)
Environmental effects of climatic change	61	(16)
Unusual and extreme weather events	61	(4)
Melting ice and sea-level change	65	(3)
Forest fires and changes in wildlife distribution	68	(3)
Flooding and desertification	71	(6)
Impacts on people and human responses	77	(12)
Responding to sea-level rise	77	(4)
Changes in the tundra and northern forests	81	(2)
Coping with changing water resources	83	(1)
Responses in agriculture and other activities	84	(3)
Some other consequences	87	(2)
Planning for change	89	(15)
The planning context	89	(1)
Doing nothing	90	(2)
Doing something	92	(4)
Acting comprehensively	96	(6)
Conclusion	102	(2)
Further reading and resources	104