This volume is based on plenary presentations from Challenges of a Changing Earth, a Global Change Open Science Conference held in Amsterdam, The Neth- lands, in July 2001. The meeting brought together about 1400 scientists from 105 co- tries around the world to describe, discuss and debate the latest scientific - derstanding of natural and human-driven changes to our planet. It examined the effects of these changes on our societies and our lives, and explored what the future might hold. The presentations drew upon global change science from an exceptionally wide range of disciplines and approaches. Issues of societal importance the food system, air quality, the carbon cycle, and water resources were highlighted from both policy and science perspectives. Many of the talks presented the exciting scientific advances of the past decade of international research on global change. Several challenged the scientific community in the future. What are the visionary and creative new approaches needed for studying a complex planetary system in which human activities are in- mately interwoven with natural processes? This volume aims to capture the timeliness and excitement of the science p- sented in Amsterdam. The plenary speakers were given a daunting task: to reproduce their presentations in a way that delivers their scientific messages accurately and in sufficient detail but at the same time reaches a very broad audience well beyond their own disciplines. Furthermore, they were required to do this in just a few pages.

Collection of papers from leading scientists from the international global environmental change programmes Spans the range of disciplines involved in global change research (climate sciences, biogeochemistry, ecology, social sciences) Captures the mix of disciplinary and more integrative research that will typify future Earth System science

Inhalt
I Opening.- 1 Opening Address.- 2 Challenges of a Changing Earth.- II Achievements and Challenges: Part IIa Food, Land, Water, and Oceans.- 3 Toward Integrated Land-Change Science: Advances in 1.5 Decades of Sustained International Research on Land-Use and Land-Cover Change.- 4 Climate Variability and Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics: Implications for Sustainability.- 5 Food in the 21st Century: Global Climate of Disparities.- 6 Equity Dimensions of Dam-Based Water Resources Development: Winners and Losers.- IIb Out of Breath: Air Quality in the 21st Century.- 7 Atmospheric Chemistry in the Anthropocene.- 8 Fires, Haze and Acid Rain: The Social and Political Framework of Air Pollution in ASEAN and Asia.- IIc Managing Planetary Metabolism? The Global Carbon Cycle.- 9 Carbon and the Science-Policy Nexus: The Kyoto Challenge.- 10 Industry Response to the CO2 Challenge.- IId Summary: Global Change and the Challenge for the Future.- 11 Global Change and the Challenge for the Future.- III Advances in Understanding: Part IIIa Global Biogeochemistry: Understanding the Metabolic System of the Planet.- 12 Ocean Biogeochemistry: A Sea of Change.- 13 The Past, Present and Future of Carbon on Land.- 14 Can New Institutions Solve Atmospheric Problems? Confronting Acid Rain, Ozone Depletion and Climate Change.- IIIb Land-Ocean Interactions: Regional-Global Linkages.- 15 Emissions from the Oceans to the Atmosphere, Deposition from the Atmosphere to the Oceans and the Interactions Between Them.- 16 The Impact of Dams on Fisheries: Case of the Three Gorges Dam.- 17 Global Change in the Coastal Zone: The Case of Southeast Asia.- IIIc The Climate System: Prediction, Change and Variability.- 18 Climate Change Fore and Aft: Where on Earth Are We Going?.- 19 Climate Change Past, Present andFuture: A Personal Perspective.- 20 The Changing Cryosphere: Impacts of Global Warming in the High Latitudes.- 21 The Coupled Climate System: Variability and Predictability.- IIId Hot Spots of Land-Use Change and the Climate System: A Regional or Global Concern.- 22 Hot Spots of Land-Use Change and the Climate System: A Regional or Global Concern?.- 23 Africa: Greening of the Sahara.- 24 The Role of Large-Scale Vegetation and Land Use in the Water Cycle and Climate in Monsoon Asia.- 25 Can Human-Induced Land-Cover Change Modify the Monsoon System?.- 26 The Amazon Basin and Land-Cover Change: A Future in the Balance?.- IV Looking to the Future: Part IVa Simulating and Observing the Earth System.- 27 Virtual Realities of the Past, Present and Future.- 28 Coping with Earth System Complexity and Irregularity.- 29 Simulating and Observing the Earth System: Summary.- IVb Does the Earth System Need Biodiversity?.- 30 Marine Biodiversity: Why We Need It in Earth System Science.- 31 Does Biodiversity Matter to Terrestrial Ecosystem Processes and Services?.- 32 Biodiversity Loss and the Maintenance of Our Life-Support System.- IVc Can Technology Spare the Planet?.- 33 Maglevs and the Vision of St. Hubert - Or the Great Restoration of Nature: Why and How.- 34 Industrial Transformation: Exploring System Change in Production and Consumption.- 35 Will Technology Spare the Planet?.- IVd Towards Global Sustainability.- 36 Challenges and Road Blocks for Local and Global Sustainability.- 37 Research Systems for a Transition Toward Sustainability.- 38 Summary: Towards Global Sustainability.- IVe Closing Session.- 39 Closing Address.- 40 The Amsterdam Declaration on Global Change.