This book demystifies the models we use to simulate present and future climates, allowing readers to better understand how to use climate model results. In order to predict the future trajectory of the Earth’s climate, climate-system simulation models are necessary. When and how do we trust climate model predictions? The book offers a framework for answering this question. It provides readers with a basic primer on climate and climate change, and offers non-technical explanations for how climate models are constructed, why they are uncertain, and what level of confidence we should place in them. It presents current results and the key uncertainties concerning them. Uncertainty is not a weakness but understanding uncertainty is a strength and a key part of using any model, including climate models. Case studies of how climate model output has been used and how it might be used in the future are provided. The ultimate goal of this book is to promote a better understanding of the structure and uncertainties of climate models among users, including scientists, engineers and policymakers.

An astounding cultural shift took place 150 years ago. Good science, hard work, and innovation propelled humanity into a world of convenience, comfort, and health that kings of old could never have imagined. It also cast a long shadow. Today, we stand at a cross-road. Will we continue to limit ourselves to 19th century fossil fuel inefficiencies and pollution, thereby denying future generations the affluence we enjoy? Or will we gather the courage to move into a cleaner, safer more abundant solar powered world? Using historical anecdotes as well as modern story-telling and basic science, this book describes how humans are changing the chemistry of our air and oceans. The great life-giving cycles that maintain a livable environment are being altered, causing wide range of consequences. Serious as the situation is, it is also an opportunity. Very real solutions, both technological and economic are addressed. There is a promising future that awaits if we, as a species, are willing to take on the challenges of growth and change.

This book is a distillation of the First Annual International Technical Workshop on Climate Risk held in 2016 in Wells, Maine, USA. It is organized into four major themes, namely: the Montreal Protocol; industry and infrastructure concerns; sustainability and strategic planning; and climate science and informing business risk. The volume’s premise is that, long before the 2015 Paris Agreement, many professionals from diverse fields were working to solve the problems of human-caused climate change. The 1987 Montreal Protocol is now in support of a key emission reduction goal of the Agreement. It was time for the seasoned leaders who implement the Protocol, the world’s most successful treaty for atmospheric protection, to share their knowledge and wisdom with the next generation before that expertise was lost. The purpose of bringing these communities of practice together is to leverage the many successes to date to inspire future innovations through ‘lessons learned’; ensure that new or updated regulations are timely communicated and economically executed; and identify opportunities for related sustainable development.

This book presents the result of an innovative challenge, to create a systematic literature overview driven by machine-generated content. Questions and related keywords were prepared for the machine to query, discover, collate and structure by Artificial Intelligence (AI) clustering. The AI-based approach seemed especially suitable to provide an innovative perspective as the topics are indeed both complex, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, for example, climate, planetary and evolution sciences. Springer Nature has published much on these topics in its journals over the years, so the challenge was for the machine to identify the most relevant content and present it in a structured way that the reader would find useful. The automatically generated literature summaries in this book are intended as a springboard to further discoverability. They are particularly useful to readers with limited time, looking to learn more about the subject quickly and especially if they are new to the topics. Springer Nature seeks to support anyone who needs a fast and effective start in their content discovery journey, from the undergraduate student exploring interdisciplinary content, to Master- or PhD-thesis developing research questions, to the practitioner seeking support materials, this book can serve as an inspiration, to name a few examples. It is important to us as a publisher to make the advances in technology easily accessible to our authors and find new ways of AI-based author services that allow human-machine interaction to generate readable, usable, collated, research content.

This unique volume introduces and discusses the methods of validating computer simulations in scientific research. The core concepts, strategies, and techniques of validation are explained by an international team of pre-eminent authorities, drawing on expertise from various fields ranging from engineering and the physical sciences to the social sciences and history. The work also offers new and original philosophical perspectives on the validation of simulations. Topics and features: introduces the fundamental concepts and principles related to the validation of computer simulations, and examines philosophical frameworks for thinking about validation; provides an overview of the various strategies and techniques available for validating simulations, as well as the preparatory steps that have to be taken prior to validation; describes commonly used reference points and mathematical frameworks applicable to simulation validation; reviews the legal prescriptions, and the administrative and procedural activities related to simulation validation; presents examples of best practice that demonstrate how methods of validation are applied in various disciplines and with different types of simulation models; covers important practical challenges faced by simulation scientists when applying validation methods and techniques; offers a selection of general philosophical reflections that explore the significance of validation from a broader perspective. This truly interdisciplinary handbook will appeal to a broad audience, from professional scientists spanning all natural and social sciences, to young scholars new to research with computer simulations. Philosophers of science, and methodologists seeking to increase their understanding of simulation validation, will also find much to benefit from in the text.

An introduction to the complex world of climate models that explains why we should trust their predictions despite the uncertainties.

A student friendly guide to climate change, with a unique multi-level approach, written by leading experts.The first text to focus on the impact of climate change at a local and regional level, enriched with real-world case studies to help students understand and apply the science of climate change.Key Features- An innovative approach which xplores the global, regional, and local impacts of climate change.- Provides a comprehensive overview of climate change, to support students coming to the subject for the first time.- Contemporary case studies throughout the book, on issues such as sea ice, viticulture, and wildland fires help students understand how to apply the science of climate change in a real-world context.- Written by leading experts in the field.Digital Formats and ResourcesClimate Change is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and is supported by online resources.The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooksStudent Resources- Case studies, with discussion questions- Blog-style topical updatesLecturer Resources- Image Bank

The biggest challenge of the twenty-first century is to bring the effects of public life into relation with the intractable problem of global atmospheric change. Climate and the Picturesque in the American Tropics explains how we came to think of the climate as something abstract and remote rather than a force that actively shapes our existence. The book argues that this separation between climate and sensibility predates the rise of modern climatology and has deep roots in the era of colonial expansion, when the American tropics were transformed into the economic supplier for Euro-American empires. The book shows how the writings of American travellers in the Caribbean registered and pushed forward this new understanding of the climate in a pivotal period in modern history, roughly between 1770 and 1860, which was fraught with debates over slavery, environmental destruction, and colonialism. Offering novel readings of authors including J. Hector St. John de Crevecœur, Leonora Sansay, William Cullen Bryant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sophia Peabody, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and James McCune Smith in light of their engagements with the American tropics, this book shows that these authors drew on a climatic epistemology that fused science and sentiment in ways that citizen science is aspiring to do today. By suggesting a new genealogy of modern climate thinking, Climate and the Picturesque in the American Tropics thus highlights the urgency of revisiting received ideas of tropicality deeply ingrained in American culture that continue to inform current debates on climate debt and justice.

Published in two volumes, this new book, Advances in Sustainable Development and Management of Environmental and Natural Resources: Economic Outlook and Opinions, addresses the varied aspect of natural resources and their management in conjunction with socioeconomic aspects. With chapters from authors from around the world, this volume features 24 chapters that cover many aspects of the sustainable utilization of management of natural resources and provides new insight into the nexus of ecology and economy and their application in various fields of science. The chapters include case studies and research from India, Africa, South America, and elsewhere. After first laying the foundation, the volume goes on to discuss sustainable development and natural resource management from an economics point of view. Chapters address myriad issues involved in natural resources and environmental management, including soil and water resources management in arid lands, resource management for agricultural purposes, contemporary global legal norms of environment and sustainable development, how emissions factor into regional economies, mitigation of the impact of climate change through sustainable practices, rainwater harvesting technology, and much more. The chapters include case studies that discuss soil, agroforestry, agriculture, wetlands, and floral diversity. The book provides a solid foundation for a realistic perspective of the role of sustainable development and management of natural resources while taking the socioeconomic impact into consideration as well. It will be a valuable resource and reference for the study of ecology, economics, sustainable development, natural resource management, and other allied fields.