Actions for Responding to the Climate Threat [electronic resource] : Essays on Humanity's Greatest Challenge

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Responding to the Climate Threat [electronic resource] : Essays on Humanity's Greatest Challenge / by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, Benjamin Santer

Author
Yohe, Gary
Published
Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2023.
Edition
1st ed. 2023.
Physical Description
XX, 194 p. 17 illus., 14 illus. in color. online resource
Additional Creators
Jacoby, Henry, Richels, Richard, Santer, Benjamin, and SpringerLink (Online service)
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Contents
Five science questions that ought to be asked at the debate -- Key messages about climate change: an introduction to a series -- Evidence shows warming of the planet -- The evidence is compelling on human activity as the principle cause of global warming -- Extreme events "presage worse to come" in a warming climate -- Multiple extreme climate events can combine to produce catastrophic damages -- Vigorous action needed, and soon, on climate change -- Rejoining the fight against climate change is in the U.S. national interest. .
Summary
This book demonstrates how robust and evolving science can be relevant to public discourse about climate policy. Fighting climate change is the ultimate societal challenge, and the difficulty is not just in the wrenching adjustments required to cut greenhouse emissions and to respond to change already under way. A second and equally important difficulty is ensuring widespread public understanding of the natural and social science. This understanding is essential for an effective risk management strategy at a planetary scale. The scientific, economic, and policy aspects of climate change are already a challenge to communicate, without factoring in the distractions and deflections from organized programs of misinformation and denial. Here, four scholars, each with decades of research on the climate threat, take on the task of explaining our current understanding of the climate threat and what can be done about it, in lay language-importantly, without losing critical aspects of the natural and social science. In a series of essays, published during the 2020 presidential election, the COVID pandemic, and through the middle of 2022, they explain the essential components of the challenge, countering the forces of distrust of the science and opposition to a vigorous national response. Each of the essays provides an opportunity to learn about a particular aspect of climate science and policy within the complex context of current events. The overall volume is more than the sum of its individual articles. Proceeding each essay is an explanation of the context in which it was written, followed by observation of what has happened since its first publication. In addition to its discussion of topical issues in modern climate science, the book also explores science communication to a broad audience. Its authors are not only scientists - they are also teachers, using current events to teach when people are listening. For preserving Earth's planetary life support system, science and teaching are essential. Advancing both is an unending task.
Subject(s)
ISBN
9783030963729
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Part Of
Springer Nature eBook
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