Climate change

The disturbing changes occurring in the global climate and environment has been a matter of concern for the current generation. The exploration and exploitation of nature by human beings have placed tremendous and undue stress on the natural resources. Some of the recent signals of global changes warrant reconsideration of the whole concept of industrial growth that has been adopted so far. The issue of climate change due to human activities can be analysed under two broad categories: emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) and the nearly irreversible damage to the environment. Reducing emissions of GHGs is intimately connected with economic issues and hence a matter of global politics. It needs to be handled through global negotiations and, ultimately, through the use of alternate sources of energy and clean technology. The second category is more dangerous, since the recovery process will be extremely slow and the corrective measures more complicated than those for the GHG abatement. Large-scale mass movements, and not mere government policies or laws, are necessary to tackle this factor. The study of climate change encompasses various disciplines, viz. science, social science, management, administration and law. With a view to integrating these multi-dimensional aspects and bringing together the scientific issues, factual reports and peoples' perceptions about climate change, this book has taken into account published books, scientific journals, and reports, as well as articles written in periodicals and newspapers. The author hopes that this book will help the readers to be aware of various facets of our climate system and the difficulties in assessing the changes occurring in the earth-atmosphere-ocean system and in adopting suitable methods to mitigate them.