Preface
After much debate based on the accumulating scientific evidence it is now
generally, though still not universally, accepted that the Earth’s climate is
undergoing changes induced by man’s activities. Global warming, due primarily
to increasing concentrations of ‘greenhouse gases’ such as carbon dioxide in the
Earth’s atmosphere, has become a matter of concern well beyond the scientific
community, to politicians and to the general public. The consequences of global
warming are profound. Climate changes, including major effects on rainfall
volumes and patterns, impact immediately on agricultural practice and thus the
food supply; rising temperatures of the world’s oceans and melting of polar ice
will lead to flooding and coastal erosion and may have severely adverse influences
on marine ecosystems. In addition to climate change, the industrial activity,
which has been so vital to development of nations around the world, has other
impacts of global significance, such as air pollution and declining fish stocks. The
solution to these problems cannot lie in a reversal of industrial growth and
development but must be found in improved and environmentally sensitive
practices. All of these aspects of global environmental change are examined in this
volume.
The first article, by Sir John Houghton, who is a co-chairman of the Scientific
Assessment Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), reviews the evidence for global warming and outlines the events that led
to the setting up of the IPCC in 1988. The breadth of scientific fact and opinion
evaluated, and the care taken to articulate carefully and honestly not only the
knowledge that is available but also the degree of associated uncertainty, have
resulted in the IPCC’s reports and statements being powerfully influential with
policymakers. The second article, by Johan Kuylenstierna, Kevin Hicks and
Mike Chadwick of the Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York,
provides an international perspective on the many other problems associated
with air pollution. Impacts on human health, crop yield and quality, forestry,
buildings and visibility are examined for both developed and developing
countries. Air pollution policy in different regions of the globe is reviewed with
the aid of case studies, such as the Kathmandu Valley, and prospects for the
future are considered.
The influence of climate variability and change on the structure, dynamics and
exploitation of marine ecosystems is examined in the third article by Manuel
Barange, who is the Director of the GLOBEC International Project Office at the
Plymouth Marine Laboratory. As the oceans occupy over 70% of the Earth’s
surface and absorb twice as much of the sun’s radiation as the atmosphere or the
land surface, they play a major role in determining climate. The oceans move heat
from lower to higher latitudes, thus contributing to the complex variability of
v
After much debate based on the accumulating scientific evidence it is now
generally, though still not universally, accepted that the Earth’s climate is
undergoing changes induced by man’s activities. Global warming, due primarily
to increasing concentrations of ‘greenhouse gases’ such as carbon dioxide in the
Earth’s atmosphere, has become a matter of concern well beyond the scientific
community, to politicians and to the general public. The consequences of global
warming are profound. Climate changes, including major effects on rainfall
volumes and patterns, impact immediately on agricultural practice and thus the
food supply; rising temperatures of the world’s oceans and melting of polar ice
will lead to flooding and coastal erosion and may have severely adverse influences
on marine ecosystems. In addition to climate change, the industrial activity,
which has been so vital to development of nations around the world, has other
impacts of global significance, such as air pollution and declining fish stocks. The
solution to these problems cannot lie in a reversal of industrial growth and
development but must be found in improved and environmentally sensitive
practices. All of these aspects of global environmental change are examined in this
volume.
The first article, by Sir John Houghton, who is a co-chairman of the Scientific
Assessment Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), reviews the evidence for global warming and outlines the events that led
to the setting up of the IPCC in 1988. The breadth of scientific fact and opinion
evaluated, and the care taken to articulate carefully and honestly not only the
knowledge that is available but also the degree of associated uncertainty, have
resulted in the IPCC’s reports and statements being powerfully influential with
policymakers. The second article, by Johan Kuylenstierna, Kevin Hicks and
Mike Chadwick of the Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York,
provides an international perspective on the many other problems associated
with air pollution. Impacts on human health, crop yield and quality, forestry,
buildings and visibility are examined for both developed and developing
countries. Air pollution policy in different regions of the globe is reviewed with
the aid of case studies, such as the Kathmandu Valley, and prospects for the
future are considered.
The influence of climate variability and change on the structure, dynamics and
exploitation of marine ecosystems is examined in the third article by Manuel
Barange, who is the Director of the GLOBEC International Project Office at the
Plymouth Marine Laboratory. As the oceans occupy over 70% of the Earth’s
surface and absorb twice as much of the sun’s radiation as the atmosphere or the
land surface, they play a major role in determining climate. The oceans move heat
from lower to higher latitudes, thus contributing to the complex variability of
v