Incorporating historical, sociological, and philosophical approaches, Changing the Atmosphere presents detailed empirical studies of climate science and its uptake into public policy.

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.

An essential primer on atmospheric processes and their important role in the climate system The atmosphere is critical to climate change. It can amplify shifts in the climate system, and also mitigate them. This primer offers a short, reader-friendly introduction to these atmospheric processes and how they work, written by a leading expert on the subject. Giving readers an overview of key atmospheric processes, David Randall looks at how our climate system receives energy from the sun and sheds it by emitting infrared radiation back into space. The atmosphere regulates these radiative energy flows and transports energy through weather systems such as thunderstorms, monsoons, hurricanes, and winter storms. Randall explains how these processes work, and also how precipitation, cloud formation, and other phase changes of water strongly influence weather and climate. He discusses how atmospheric feedbacks affect climate change, how the large-scale atmospheric circulation works, how predicting the weather and the climate are fundamentally different challenges, and much more. This is the ideal introduction for students and nonspecialists. No prior experience in atmospheric science is needed, only basic college physics. Authoritative and concise, Atmosphere, Clouds, and Climate features a glossary of terms, suggestions for further reading, and easy-to-follow explanations of a few key equations. This accessible primer is the essential introduction to atmospheric processes and the vital role they play in our climate system.

Authored by world-class scientists and scholars, The Handbook of Natural Resources, Second Edition, is an excellent reference for understanding the consequences of changing natural resources to the degradation of ecological integrity and the sustainability of life. Based on the content of the bestselling and CHOICE-awarded Encyclopedia of Natural Resources, this new edition demonstrates the major challenges that the society is facing for the sustainability of all well-being on the planet Earth. The experience, evidence, methods, and models used in studying natural resources are presented in six stand-alone volumes, arranged along the main systems of land, water, and air. It reviews state-of-the-art knowledge, highlights advances made in different areas, and provides guidance for the appropriate use of remote sensing and geospatial data with field-based measurements in the study of natural resources. Volume 6, Atmosphere and Climate, covers atmospheric pollution and the complexity of atmospheric systems and their interactions with human activity. As an excellent reference for fundamental information on air systems, the handbook includes coverage of acid rain and nitrogen deposition, air pollutants, elevated carbon dioxide, atmospheric circulation patterns, and climate change effects on polar regions and climatology. New in this edition are discussions on aerosols monitoring and mapping, greenhouse gases, the Greenland ice sheet, and mountainous regions. This book presents the key processes, methods, and models used in studying the impact of air pollution on ecosystems worldwide. Written in an easy-to-reference manner, The Handbook of Natural Resources, Second Edition, as individual volumes or as a complete set, is an essential reading for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the science and management of natural resources. Public and private libraries, educational and research institutions, scientists, scholars, and resource managers will benefit enormously from this set. Individual volumes and chapters can also be used in a wide variety of both graduate and undergraduate courses in environmental science and natural science at different levels and disciplines, such as biology, geography, earth system science, and ecology.

The author of the #1 bestseller, The Weather Makers, pens “a brilliant examination of where we are with climate change and where we might be able to go” (The National Observer, Vancouver). Almost two decades ago, Tim Flannery’s #1 international bestseller, The Weather Makers, was one of the first books to break the topic of climate change out into the general conversation. Today, Earth’s climate system is fast approaching a crisis. Political leadership has not kept up, and public engagement with the issue of climate change has declined. Opinion is divided between technological optimists and pessimists who feel that catastrophe is inevitable. Around the world people are now living with the consequences of an altered climate—with intensified and more frequent storms, wildfires, droughts, and floods. For some it’s already a question of survival. Drawing on the latest science, Flannery gives a snapshot of the trouble we are in and more crucially, proposes a new way forward, including rapidly progressing clean technologies and a “third way” of soft geo-engineering. Tim Flannery, with his inimitable style, makes this urgent issue compelling and accessible. This is a must-read for anyone interested in our global future. “What Flannery provides—a convincing defense for the position that a path to averting catastrophic climate change still exists—is invaluable.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

Discusses the causes of acid rain, ozone depletion, and global warming, assesses their current impact on the environment, and suggests long-range solutions

Thoroughly restructured and updated with new findings and new features The Second Edition of this internationally acclaimed text presents the latest developments in atmospheric science. It continues to be the premier text for both a rigorous and a complete treatment of the chemistry of the atmosphere, covering such pivotal topics as: * Chemistry of the stratosphere and troposphere * Formation, growth, dynamics, and properties of aerosols * Meteorology of air pollution * Transport, diffusion, and removal of species in the atmosphere * Formation and chemistry of clouds * Interaction of atmospheric chemistry and climate * Radiative and climatic effects of gases and particles * Formulation of mathematical chemical/transport models of the atmosphere All chapters develop results based on fundamental principles, enabling the reader to build a solid understanding of the science underlying atmospheric processes. Among the new material are three new chapters: Atmospheric Radiation and Photochemistry, General Circulation of the Atmosphere, and Global Cycles. In addition, the chapters Stratospheric Chemistry, Tropospheric Chemistry, and Organic Atmospheric Aerosols have been rewritten to reflect the latest findings. Readers familiar with the First Edition will discover a text with new structures and new features that greatly aid learning. Many examples are set off in the text to help readers work through the application of concepts. Advanced material has been moved to appendices. Finally, many new problems, coded by degree of difficulty, have been added. A solutions manual is available. Thoroughly updated and restructured, the Second Edition of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics is an ideal textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a reference for researchers in environmental engineering, meteorology, chemistry, and the atmospheric sciences. Click here to Download the Solutions Manual for Academic Adopters: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-292291.html

Murry Salby's new book provides an integrated treatment of the processes controlling the Earth-atmosphere system, developed from first principles through a balance of theory and applications. This book builds on Salby's previous book, Fundamentals of Atmospheric Physics. The scope has been expanded into climate, with the presentation streamlined for undergraduates in science, mathematics and engineering. Advanced material, suitable for graduate students and as a resource for researchers, has been retained but distinguished from the basic development. The book provides a conceptual yet quantitative understanding of the controlling influences, integrated through theory and major applications. It leads readers through a methodical development of the diverse physical processes that shape weather, global energetics and climate. End-of-chapter problems of varying difficulty develop student knowledge and its quantitative application, supported by answers and detailed solutions online for instructors.

'The authors take us into less-known corridors of climate Realpolitik and energy power play. We are provided with the essential vocabulary to understand what is at stake and how the challenge should be tackled' Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan Global warming and the resulting climate change present one of the greatest potential threats humanity has had to face. Every country contributes to them and they affect every person. Correspondingly, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, negotiated at the Earth Summit and since, is potentially one of the most significant international agreements ever reached and its successful implementation is vital if the threat is to be averted. This book provides a guide to the Convention and explains in very clear terms what is involved: the background which makes it so necessary; the tortuous process involved in negotiating it; what it says; and most importantly, how it must be interpreted and implemented, making clear the scale of the changes involved and the dangers of evading them. Sten Nilsson is leader of the forest resources project at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. David Pitt is a consultant to the Bellerive Foundation and Alp Action. They are the authors of Mountain World in Danger, published by Earthscan in 1991. Originally published in 1994

Humanity has long been fascinated by the planet Mars. Was its climate ever conducive to life? What is the atmosphere like today and why did it change so dramatically over time? Eleven spacecraft have successfully flown to Mars since the Viking mission of the 1970s and early 1980s. These orbiters, landers and rovers have generated vast amounts of data that now span a Martian decade (roughly eighteen years). This new volume brings together the many new ideas about the atmosphere and climate system that have emerged, including the complex interplay of the volatile and dust cycles, the atmosphere-surface interactions that connect them over time, and the diversity of the planet's environment and its complex history. Including tutorials and explanations of complicated ideas, students, researchers and non-specialists alike are able to use this resource to gain a thorough and up-to-date understanding of this most Earth-like of planetary neighbours.