California's extraordinary ecological and economic diversity has brought it prosperity, pollution, and overpopulation. These factors, together with the state's national and international ties, make California an essential test case for the impact of global climate change - temperature increases, water shortages, more ultraviolet radiation. Ecological and economic changes that affect California's widely envied individualistic culture will have far-flung repercussions. Global climate change became a worldwide concern during the late 1980s as scientists debated the implications of observed ozone depletion and "greenhouse gas" concentrations, or projected us into the twenty-first century by means of complex computer simulations. Even though many questions remain unanswered, the scientific community is largely convinced that changes - possibly momentous - in the earth's climate are now underway. In this forward-looking volume some highly qualified scientists give their best estimate of what the future holds. Beginning with an overview by Joseph Knox, the authors discuss the greenhouse effect, the latest climate modeling capabilities, and the implications of climate change for California water resources, agriculture, biological ecosystems, human behavior, and energy. The warning inherent in a scenario of unchecked population growth and energy use in California clearly applies to residents of the entire planet. The sobering conclusions reached by these scientists include specific recommendations for research that will help all of us plan and prepare for potential climate change.

SRE covers a wide range of environment conditions, facts, and issues from a statistical point of vantage. The major categories (air and water pollution, solid waste generation and management, hazardous wastes and toxic substances) are covered from various perspectives. SRE also assembles information on special problems and wastes (oil spills, global warming, soil erosion), provides profiles of the pollution control industry and legislation, and presents background information of the sort required to place environmental information into a broader context. Thus SRE shows a good deal of data on industrial production in sectors that are major polluters, presents cost and budgetary information, trends in consumption, public opinion, and the like. parag Most of the materials included deal with the environment in North America. Certain subjects, however, such as oil spills and global warming, have an international focus.

"The City of Santa Cruz has been interested in intensifying tourist-oriented development that promotes year round activities in the Beach area since the 1990s (City of Santa Cruz, October 1998). In 1994/95, the La Bahia Apartments site and Coast Hotel parking lot site at the corner of West Cliff Drive and Bay Street were both analyzed to determine the feasibility of developing either site into a 275-300 room, group oriented conference hotel as part of the preparation of the City's Beach/South Laurel Plan (B/SOL Area Plan) ... Subsequent to the recommendations of the B/SOL Area Plan, the property owner submitted a plan to the City to develop the La Bahia site into a 118-room hotel with day spa, but without a conference facility ... Subsequent to approval of the project in 2003, the applicant decided not to pursue this permit project and has allowed the permit to expire. The current application was submitted to the City in March 2006"--Chapter 3. Project description.

Covering the world's literature on meteorology, climatology, atmospheric chemistry and physics, physical oceanography, hydrology, glaciology, and related environmental sciences.