Comprehensive assessment of the state of knowledge on climate change and biodiversity, an essential reference, and now available in paperback.
In the past, climate changes have had dramatic repercussions, including large numbers of extinctions and extensive shifts in species ranges. As human-induced climate change accelerates, scientists and policymakers involved with biodiversity conservation need authoritative information in order to design effective plans and responses. Climate Change and Biodiversity meets this need. Written for the specialist as well as the concerned citizen, this important book presents a comprehensive view of the newest research and thinking on climate change and biological diversity.
Contributors to the volume, all leading researchers in their fields, discuss: what is now known about past climate changes in different areas of the world; recent trends in climate change and projections for the future; ways that particular organisms are responding to climate change; conservation challenges, including social and policy issues; and other critical topics in climate change biology.
Thomas E. Lovejoy is president of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. He coedited the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed Global Warming and Biological Diversity, published in 1992. Lee Hannah is senior climate change biologist, Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International.
"Climate Change and Biodiversity provides current, state-of-the-art understanding of global change effects on biodiversity, and it offers insights into moving the discipline forward, scientifically. I foresee that this book will become the benchmark for much future work in this important area."--Oswald Schmitz, Yale University
"Climate change threatens the very biological underpinnings of civilization. This book provides a more than timely overview of the daunting effects of climate change on biodiversity and vice versa. Anyone serious about the environment and the future of humanity needs to understand this issue. This will be a classic contribution to understanding our choices and what the future can hold."--Ted Turner, Philanthropist
"This book will be a milestone in the emerging discipline of climate change biology. No issue is more important for the global environment; the impressive line-up of experts here gives it definitive coverage."--Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard University
"A must-read for anyone, from layperson through student to expert, with an interest in conservation biology, or in the interplay between the global economy and the imperiled ecosystem services we too often take for granted."- Robert M. May, President of the Royal Society and Zoology Department, Oxford University
"Deplorable climate change will transform natural system in important ways. The authors have produced a state of the science collection explaining the data and projecting effects on biodiversity. Past, present and anticipated future trends are all considered in this comprehensive volume."--WilliamK. Reilly, Administrator, US Environmental Protection Agency (1989-93)
"Is the climate of our planet changing? If it is, what will be the effects on the animals and plants with which we share the earth? Here, at last, is authoritative evidence from around the world for all those who wish to find answers to those questions and to decide what must be done in the light of them."--Sir David Attenborough, author of Life on Earth: A Natural History
"Global environmental challenges demand unity in science, policy and action. With its focus on climate change and biodiversity, this volume is another important milestone in progress toward that urgent goal." -- Alison Richard, University of Cambridge
"This is a serious book and a cautionary tale about a complex problem: global warming and life on Earth as we know it and want to preserve it. Serious and enormously useful to the layman and scientist alike. I am immediately making room for it on my book-shelf."--Tom Brokaw
"Tom Lovejoy and Lee Hannah provide an informative and scientifically-based presentation of climate change and effects on biodiversity. The authors of the 24 chapters present authoritative information from which effective plans and responses to climate change can be designed. Recommended reading for those who need to understand the effects of climate change on ecosystems."--Rita R. Colwell, University of Maryland
"Climate Change and Biodiversity reminds us of what is at stake if we continue to ignore global warming. From the polar regions to the coral reefs to isolated mountain habitats, the impacts of our warming planet are ubiquitous, and threaten to render insignificant current efforts to protect biodiversity. The trends described in this book should be of concern to legislators and the public alike, and we all should do all that we can to avoid the worst of climate change in the future."--U.S. Senator John McCain and U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman
"Climate Change and Biodiversity provides the up-to-the-minute overview of this complex global interaction. It is a book of monumental importance to present and future generations and is a keystone work for science, policy and public understanding alike. Anyone concerned about the future of our planet and humanity needs this book."--Bruce Babbitt, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior