The book considers desertification as a cause-effect of environmental degradation that causes global environmental changes and the current climate crisis. Desertification affects sustainability and is one of the most severe socio-environmental problems on a global, regional, and local scale and in magnitude. It is a complex and interdisciplinary phenomenon with socioeconomic, historical, and ecological aspects. The book dealt with themes such as "Anthropocene and limits of balance on Earth; Global Environmental Changes, Climate Crisis; Desertification: concepts, myths, and reality; Causes and impacts in the world," considering international technical-scientific assumptions guided by historical, practical, and conceptual issues. Currently, desertification (land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid regions, resulting from various factors, such as climate variations and human activities) occurs in different continents and associates with land use and environmental and climate changes. This is a question of interest to the political management of the territory. The compendium goes beyond the conceptual approach and brings case studies with depth and a holistic view. Watersheds, for example, were treated as synthesis cells of environmental assessments and territorial units to develop public policies to manage natural resources and mitigate soil salinization and geochemical contamination. Besides the correlation between desertification and climate as a natural design, its harmful consequences for the planet are correlated with the most affected areas associated with poverty, environmental conflicts, and land tenure. The book considers several studies and a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data, pointing out about 3.6 billion hectares affected and more than 2.6 billion people affected worldwide. Desertification areas demand priority attention and greater scientific clarification not contaminated by other interests, surpassing the boundaries of sectorial and empirical explanation and not dissociated from natural x human processes. The book proposes to be holistic with an assessment of the totality!

The book considers desertification as a cause-effect of environmental degradation that causes global environmental changes and the current climate crisis. Desertification affects sustainability and is one of the most severe socio-environmental problems on a global, regional, and local scale and in magnitude. It is a complex and interdisciplinary phenomenon with socioeconomic, historical, and ecological aspects. The book dealt with themes such as “Anthropocene and limits of balance on Earth; Global Environmental Changes, Climate Crisis; Desertification: concepts, myths, and reality; Causes and impacts in the world,” considering international technical-scientific assumptions guided by historical, practical, and conceptual issues. Currently, desertification (land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid regions, resulting from various factors, such as climate variations and human activities) occurs in different continents and associates with land use and environmental and climate changes. This is a question of interest to the political management of the territory. The compendium goes beyond the conceptual approach and brings case studies with depth and a holistic view. Watersheds, for example, were treated as synthesis cells of environmental assessments and territorial units to develop public policies to manage natural resources and mitigate soil salinization and geochemical contamination. Besides the correlation between desertification and climate as a natural design, its harmful consequences for the planet are correlated with the most affected areas associated with poverty, environmental conflicts, and land tenure. The book considers several studies and a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data, pointing out about 3.6 billion hectares affected and more than 2.6 billion people affected worldwide. Desertification areas demand priority attention and greater scientific clarification not contaminated by other interests, surpassing the boundaries of sectorial and empirical explanation and not dissociated from natural x human processes. The book proposes to be holistic with an assessment of the totality!

Desertification offers a comprehensive overview of the subject and clearly emphasizes the link between local and global desertification processes and how past and current policy has affected arid environments and their populations. This text adequately applies the research undertaken during the last 15 years on the topic. Desertification has become increasingly politicized and there is a need to present and explain the facts from a global perspective. This book tackles the issues surrounding desertification in a number of ways from differing scales (local to global), processes (physical to human), the relationship of desertification to current global development and management responses at different scales. Desertification has been mainstreamed and integrated into other areas of concern and has consequently been ignored as a cross cutting issue. The book redresses this balance. Making use of much original data and information that has been undertaken by many scientists andpractitioners during the last decade in different parts of the world, Desertification, Land Degradation and Sustainability is organised according to the principles of adaptive management and hierarchy theory and clearly explains desertification within a framework of evolving and interacting physical and socio-economic systems. In addition to research data the book also draws from the National Action Plans of different countries, the IPCC Fourth Assessment on Climate Change and the Millennium assessments. Clearly structured throughout, the content of the book is organised at different scales; local, regional and global. It also specifically explains processes linking top-down and bottom- up interactions and has a strong human component. The historical, cultural and physical context is also stressed. Clearly organised into the following distinct sections: a) Concepts and processes b) Data c) Impacts d) Responses e) Case studies. This text is essential for anyone studying desertification as part of an earth and environmental science degree.

The year 2007 could perhaps accurately be described as the year when climate change finally received the attention that this challenge deserves globally. Much of the information and knowledge that was created in this field during the year was the result of the findings of the Fourth - sessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which were disseminated on a large scale and reported extensively by the media. This was the result not only of a heightened interest on the part of the public on various aspects of climate change, but also because the IPCC itself proactively attempted to spread the findings of its AR4 to the public at large. The interest generated on the scientific realities of climate change was further enhanced by the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC and former Vice President of the US, Al Gore. By taking this decision in favour of a leader who has done a great deal to create awareness on c- mate change, and a body that assesses all scientific aspects of climate change and disseminates the result of its findings, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has clearly drawn the link between climate change and peace in the world.

Coping with Global Environmental Change, Disasters and Security - Threats, Challenges, Vulnerabilities and Risks reviews conceptual debates and case studies focusing on disasters and security threats, challenges, vulnerabilities and risks in Europe, the Mediterranean and other regions. It discusses social science concepts of vulnerability and risks, global, regional and national security challenges, global warming, floods, desertification and drought as environmental security challenges, water and food security challenges and vulnerabilities, vulnerability mapping of environmental security challenges and risks, contributions of remote sensing to the recognition of security risks, mainstreaming early warning of conflicts and hazards and provides conceptual and policy conclusions.

Essays discuss environmental issues, interest groups, security and trade considerations, and future approaches to environmental policy

It now seems incontrovertible (as Alessandra Giannini has demonstrated) that the series of Sahelian droughts that began in the early 1970s were driven by changes in sea surface temperatures and that they were not caused by local land use mismanagement in the Sahel itself. Combined with the apparent re-greening of the Sahel, these findings effectively close a long-standing policy and scientific debate (in which the lead authors of this book participated) on the causes and extent of desertification in the Sahel. The opportunity now presents itself to treat this debate as a historical object lesson in the relationship between science, the formation of public opinion, and international policy-making in the context of climate change. In short, what might the ‘great Sahelian desertification boondoggle’ have to tell us about current attempts to come to grips with climate change?

From climate change to land degradation to fossil fuel shortages, we are faced with an impending calamity that threatens to bankrupt the planetary ecosystem and with it much of the manmade world. This book offers a plan that truly goes the distance: a highly detailed, planetary-wide blueprint that lays out a new course for our technological and industrial engines. It calls for sweeping adjustments in the way every person thinks and lives.--Inside front cover.

Environments around the globe are undergoing human-induced change. Human population growth, rapid urbanization, expanding global economy, and the diffusion of western consumer lifestyles are placing increasing pressure on natural and social systems. Global institutions, nation-states, and local communities are seeking to identify and employ sustainable solutions to these environmental and socio-economic challenges. Sustainability has emerged as a policy discourse that seeks to balance the desire and need for economic growth with the protection of the environment, and the promotion of social and environmental justice. This book contributes to the study and search for sustainable responses to global environmental change. The authors of this volume explore environmental change in different places around the world and the diverse responses to such changes. The chapters demonstrate the need for place-specific sustainable development; the authors suggest the need to see sustainable responses to environmental change as a negotiated outcome between various social actors living and working in diverse spatial, environmental and socio-economic contexts. Environmental Change and Sustainability is a timely international examination of the relationship between environmental change and sustainability. As an InTech open source volume, current and cutting edge research methodologies and research results are quickly published for the academic policy-making communities. Dimensions of environmental change and sustainability explored in this volume include: Natural science approaches to study of environmental change Importance of perception in human understanding of environmental change Role of external events and institutions in shaping sustainable responses to environmental change Importance of bottom-up sustainable development as key to reducing environmental risk and community vulnerability The need for place-based sustainable development that combines local conditions with global processes Creation of a sustainable development model that synthesizes local, traditional knowledge of the environment and environmental management with the techniques and understandings generated by modern environmental science

From the time when humans first learned to harness fire, cultivate crops, and domesticate livestock, they have altered their environment as a means of survival. In the modern era, however, natural resources have been devoured and defiled in the wake of a consumerism that goes beyond mere subsistence. In this volume, an international group of environmental historians documents the significant ways in which humans have impacted their surroundings throughout history. John McNeill introduces the collection with an overarching account of the history of human environmental impact. Other contributors explore the use and abuse of the earth's land in the development of agriculture, commercial forestry, and in the battle against desertification in arid and semi-arid regions. Cities, which first appeared some 5,500 years ago, have posed their own unique environmental challenges, including dilemmas of solid waste disposal, sewerage, disease, pollution, and sustainable food and water supplies. The rise of nation-states brought environmental legislation, which often meant "selling off" natural resources through eminent domain. Perhaps the most damaging environmental event in history resulted from a "perfect storm" of effects: cheap fossil fuels (especially petroleum) and the rapid rise of personal incomes during the 1950s brought an exponential increase in energy consumption and unforseen levels of greenhouse gasses to the earth's atmosphere. By the 1970s, the deterioration of air, land, and water due to industrialization, population growth, and consumerism led to the birth of the environmental and ecological movements. Overall, the volume points to the ability and responsibility of humans to reverse the course of detrimental trends and to achieve environmental sustainability for existing and future populations.