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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 8, NUMBER 8, AUGUST 1995

BOOKS AND PROCEEDINGS...
GENERAL INTEREST AND POLICY

Item #d95aug73

Shaping National Responses to Climate Change: A Post-Rio Guide, H. Lee, Ed., 324 pp., Apr. 1995, $48/$24.95 pbk. (Island).

Represents the culmination of a four-year research program involving over 30 scholars. Argues that several fundamental factors must be taken into account before effective greenhouse gas reduction strategies can be developed. Despite the Rio agreement, there is no significant worldwide consensus on how to affect climate change. Highly visible and aggressive CO₂ cutbacks will not succeed in the present climate of scientific uncertainty. Incentives, not mandates, will provide the stable policy climate needed to develop new, clean technology. Requiring all countries to meet the same obligations is a prescription for inertia and failure. Discusses how to best design an effective mitigation response.

Item #d95aug74

The Politics of Global Atmospheric Change, I.H. Rowlands, 256 pp., May 1995, £40/£14.99 pbk. (Manchester Univ./St. Martins, U.S.-Can.).

According to the publisher, this is the first book to analyze negotiation over international responses to global warming and ozone depletion. Examines topics from the perspective of international relations. For example, documents the ways humanity has responded to the changes it has imposed upon the Earth's atmosphere; explains why the politics of the two issues have unfolded as they have, with the ozone issue largely resolved; why, in a more general way, some international collective action problems are resolved and others remain intransigent.

Item #d95aug75

Global Environmental Change: Interactions of Science, Policy and Politics in the United States, R.G. Fleagle, 264 pp., 1994, $59.95 (Greenwood).

Reviewed by T.F. Malone in Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., pp. 251-252, Feb. 1995. The reviewer considers this book a timely volume that presents a case study that should help illuminate discussions on the need for a new compact between science and society. Looks at the changing public view of science, reviews the evidence for global environmental change and assesses projections for the future, and analyzes policy implications for the United States and the world. With regard to governmental responsibilities, the idea of a U.S. Department of Science is rejected; instead, a lead agency for global change is suggested as a step toward eventual creation of a Department of the Environment. Also reviewed extensively by R.D. Glasser in Climatic Change, pp. 479-482, Aug. 1995.

Item #d95aug76

Vital Signs 1995—The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future, L.R. Brown, N. Lenssen, H. Kane, 176 pp., May 1995, $10.95 pbk./$89 data disk, including data for the forthcoming State of the World 1996 (Worldwatch). Published in 14 languages.

Among the key trends covered are those for food, energy use, the atmosphere (CFC production, global temperature, carbon emissions), the world economy, and population.

Item #d95aug77

Green Globe Yearbook 1995, H.O. Bergesen, G. Parmann, Eds., 320 pp., 1995, $45/£45 (Oxford).

This fourth annual review and reference of international cooperation on environment and development, from the Fridtjof Nansen Inst., focuses on the politics of climate change. The analysis section looks at the role of the IPCC and climate science in the political process; discusses paralysis in European Union Climate policy; presents arguments against a legally binding protocol on climate change. The reference section systematically lists key data on the most important agreements on environment and development, including the Global Environmental Facility.

Item #d95aug78

Climate Change Atlas: Greenhouse Simulations from the Model Evaluation Consortium for Climate Assessment (EPRI TR-105344), 1995, $155 (Kluwer). Single copies free to EPRI members (EPRI Distribution).

Consists of a series of color maps derived from computer-based visualizations of results of six Consortium-funded experiments employing a variety of enhanced greenhouse scenarios. The displays are readily comprehensible to a broad audience, and show the extent of agreement among the models for selected climatic variables.

Item #d95aug79

Encyclopedia of Environmental Biology, W.A. Nierenberg, Ed., 2114 pp. (in three volumes), May 1995, $475/$395 through Sep. 29, 1995 (Academic).

Consists of 150 articles many of which relate to global change, such as those on atmospheric ozone and the biological impact of solar ultraviolet radiation, biogeochemical cycles, biomass burning, deforestation, global atmospheric influences, global carbon cycle, nitrogen interactions with global change processes, nitrous oxide budget, and plants and high levels of CO₂.

Item #d95aug80

Atmosphere, Climate and Change, T.E. Graedel, P.J. Crutzen, 196 pp., 1995, $32.95/£19.95 (W.H. Freeman).

Explains the workings of the atmosphere as part of the whole earth system; presents data from ice cores, tree rings, ocean sediment and rocks that provide clues to the history of the earth's climate. Also explores the causes of climate change and the accuracies and inaccuracies of scientific prediction. Reviewed by P. Brimblecombe in Nature, p. 202, May 18, 1995.

Item #d95aug81

Verification 1995: Arms Control, Peacekeeping and the Environment, J.B. Poole, R. Guthrie, Eds., ca. 352 pp., Mar. 1995, $75 (Westview).

These are among the chapter titles: "Developing the Framework Convention on Climate Change"; and "The Internet as a Verification Tool for International Environmental Agreements: The Climate Change Convention."

Item #d95aug82

Climate Change, Uncertainty and Decision Making, G. Paoli, Ed., 1995 (Univ. Waterloo).

Proceedings of a workshop (Toronto, 1994) that focused on the generation and use of climate change parameters in decisions affected by climate. A joint publication of the Inst. for Risk Res. (Univ. Waterloo, Waterloo ON N2L 3G1, Can.) and the IGBP-BAHC.

Item #d95aug83

Life Support: A Citizen's Guide to Solving the Atmospheric Crisis, R. Roth, C. Carrel et al., 40 pp., $5, 1995 (Earth Island).

Covers ozone depletion, climate change and atmospheric ecology in three sections on the science, the skeptics and the solutions.

Item #d95aug84

International NGO Directory, Climate Action Network, 165 pp., 1994 (Climate Network Europe).

This new edition contains more listings from developing countries, Canada and Berlin.

Item #d95aug85

Global Trends Presentation Set—Executive Edition (Color Slides), 1994, $59.95 (WRI).

A set of 50 color slides on topics including population and human development, forests and biodiversity, energy, and atmosphere and climate. A Educational Edition is also available.