Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure

Front Cover

The interactions between environmental change and human societies have a long, complex history spanning many millennia, but these have changed fundamentally in the last century. Human activities are now so pervasive and profound that they are altering the Earth in ways which threaten the very life support system upon which humans depend. This book describes what is known about the Earth System and the impact of changes caused by humans. It considers the consequences of these changes with respect to the stability of the Earth System and the well-being of humankind; as well as exploring future paths towards Earth System science in support of global sustainability.

From inside the book

Contents

Contents
1
Research Division Office of Earth Science
6
NASA Headquarters Washington DC USA Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
18
New Insights into the Role of Biology in Earth System Functioning
24
Department of Geography Richey Jeffrey
41
New Insights into the Connectivity of the Earth System over Space and Time
51
Dalhousie University Canada Scholes R
54
New Insights into Nonlinearities Surprises and Thresholds
64
How Humans are Changing the Earth System
81
Mitra A
110
Climate Environmental Physics Physics Institute Fu Congbin
162
5
194
National Physical Laboratory University of Bern Switzerland
197
New Delhi India
278
Appendix
305
Index
311

3
66
UK Meteorological Office Center for Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies CTM
73

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