The book addresses one of the most pervasive scientific issues of our time: Global Environmental Change - its causes and consequences.

Klappentext

Every year NATO subsidizes the organisation of many scientifically outstanding summer schools and international symposia. The results are now published in a new thematical series, namely Global Environmental Change. This is the first volume in the new series and as its title suggests, Global Environmental Change addresses one of the most pervasive scientific issues of our time. Global change is increasingly dominating the agenda of world leaders, who as a result are becoming more concerned with the potential economic, social, and political consequences of global environmental change. The contents of this text are derived from a special NATO Workshop which sought to explain the main themes and state of the science which describe the Earth as a system and identify the natural and anthropogenic factors which affect its dynamics.

Inhalt
1: Introduction.- NATO: The Special Programme on the Science of Global Environmental Change.- Purpose and Goals of the Workshop.- 2: Opening Addresses.- Global Change in the 1990's: Imperatives for Action.- International Activity Related to global Environmental Change.- 3: Global Environmental Change: The State of the Science.- The Climate System and Hydrological Cycle.- Research Priorities for the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change.- Ecosystems and Global Environmental Change.- Biogeochemical Processes and Dynamics.- Observed Climate Variations and Change: A Study of the Data.- 4: Modeling and Data Needs.- Earth System and Astronomical Climate Modeling.- Planning for the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS).- 5: Scientific Goals of International Research Programmes.- The IGBP A Research Challenge for the Next Decades.- World Climate Research Programme.- The World Ocean Circulation Experiment.- TOGA: Objectives, Status and Plans.- GEWEX: The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment.- The International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project (IGAC).- The Joint Global Ocean Flux Study: Goals andObjectives.- Past Global Changes (PAGES) Project.