$19.95 at Amazon.com 363 pages. Published May, 2015.
The focus of this book is the interactions between energy, ecology, and climate change, as well as a few of the responses of humanity to these interactions. It is a series of chapters discussing subtopics in which the authors were interested and wished to write about. The basic material is cutting-edge science; technical journal articles published within the last year, selected for their relevance and interest.
Each author selected eight technical papers representing his or her view of the most interesting current research in the field, and wrote summaries of them in a journalistic style that is free of scientific jargon and understandable by lay readers. This is the sort of science writing that you might encounter in the New York Times, but concentrated in a way intended to give as broad an overview of the chapter topics as possible. None of this research will appear in textbooks for a few years, so there are not many ways that readers without access to a university library can get access to this information.
This book is intended be browsed—choose a chapter topic you like and read the individual sections in any order; each is intended to be largely stand-alone. Reading all of them will give you considerable insight into what climate scientists concerned with energy, ecology, and human effects are up to, and the challenges they face in understanding one of the most disruptive—if not very rapid—event in human history; anthropogenic climate change.
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Table of Contents
Forward………………………………………………………………………………. 9
Emil Morhardt
Section I—Energy……………………………………………………………….. 11
Energy Storage……………………………………………………………………. 13
J. Emil Morhardt
Wind Energy: Technology, Geography, Other Complications….. 27
Tim Storer
Solar Power: Impacts and Sustainability………………………………… 45
Jincy Varughese
Hydraulic Fracturing in the United States………………………………. 57
Alex Frumkin
Why Fracking Works—and Sometimes Doesn’t……………………… 71
J. Emil Morhardt
The Future of Tidal Energy………………………………………………….. 87
Cassandra Burgess
Analysis of Nuclear Power as an Electricity Generation Option 103
Cameron Bernhardt
Section II—Biology and Ecology………………………………………… 115
Biological Responses to Climate Change………………………………. 117
Anna Alquitela
Saving Endangered Species…………………………………………………. 129
Alexander Birk
Species Distribution Modelling and Climate Change……………… 141
Kyle Jensen
Responses of Corals to Stress from Global Warming…………….. 157
Kimberly Coombs
Effects of Marine Conservation………………………………………….. 177
Weronika Konwent
Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture…………………………….. 189
Adin Bonapart
Carbon Storage Capacity of Altered Forest Ecosystems………… 203
Stephen Johnson
Effects of Drought and Fire in Amazonian Rainforests………….. 225
Maithili Joshi
Section III—Human Issues…………………………………………………. 239
The Social Cost of Carbon………………………………………………….. 241
Makari Krause
Climate Change and Urban Development……………………………… 259
Dan McCabe
Anticipating Climate Change Impacts on Human Health………… 275
Amelia Hamiter
Climate Change and Human Health……………………………………… 295
Allison Hu
River Delta Systems and Climate Change…………………………….. 317
Rebecca Herrera
Natural Resources and Governance Policy: A Regional Survey.. 331
Lazaros M. K. Chalkias
Economic Impacts and Future Expectations of Global Warming and Climate Change 345
Ali Siddiqui
About the Authors……………………………………………………………. 357
Index……………………………………………………………………………….. 359