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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 12, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1999

RECENT BOOKS AND PROCEEDINGS

Information given in the annotations is frequently taken from publishers’ promotional literature. Prices and page numbers may be approximate; contact publisher for details and additional information on content. Publishers are named in parentheses at the end of each citation; addresses, when known, are listed at the end of this section. In most cases, books advertised by publishers with an expected publication date are not listed here until actually in print.

Item #d99jan30

Global Energy Perspectives, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Arnulf Grubler, and A. McDonald (Eds.), 317 pp., 1998, $27.95 pbk/$69.95 hbk (Cambridge Univ. Press).

Global energy needs are expanding, and demands for more-efficient, cleaner, and less-obtrusive energy services are increasing. This book examines alternatives among fuels, technologies, efficiency gains, conservation patterns, and pollution levels and identifies choices that are most likely to characterize and define energy production and distribution in the 21st century. It results from a five-year collaboration between the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the World Energy Council. It describes six alternative energy-development scenarios that run from a large expansion of coal-fired electricity production to strict limits on fossil fuels, from a phaseout of nuclear energy to a substantial increase, and from carbon emissions in 2100 that are one-third of today’s levels to more than a factor of three. Two of the six scenarios meet the Kyoto Protocol limits on emissions and lead to long-term atmospheric CO₂ concentrations below 450 ppmv; two clearly exceed the Kyoto limits; and two could comply with the Kyoto limits if unrestricted emissions trading is allowed. Its primary audience is researchers, educators, and policymakers in the energy, technology, economics, and environmental sectors, but it will also appeal to anyone interested in the future of energy production and the long-term global scenarios for energy-related greenhouse-gas emissions.

Item #d99jan31

Oceanic Sedimentation: Lithology and Geochemistry, A. P. Lisitzin (Transl. by J. P. Kennett), 407 pp., 1996, $65.00 hbk (AGU).

This tract represents an important, major synthesis on oceanic sediments and the processes governing their formation and distribution in space and time. Originally published in Russian, this is one of the most comprehensive books on oceanic sedimentation ever published. Lisitzin’s access to and knowledge of the more than 20 years of data on oceanographic sediments collected at the P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology in Moscow gives him a unique perspective and makes this an unmatched compilation of information. The work focuses on the influence of the environment, especially climate, on the mineral, chemical, and isotopic composition of sediments and their physical characteristics. This global perspective is rich in data on sediment sources, composition, transportation, volumes, and fluxes.

Item #d99jan32

Environmental Guide to the Internet, 4th ed., Toni Murphy and Carol Briggs-Erickson, 556 pp., 1998, $59.00 pbk (Government Institutes).

This guide provides information on some of the best sites on the Internet dealing with the preservation and protection of the environment, ecology, and conservation. Each listing includes a summary of the site, an e-mail address, and a URL, as appropriate. The book contains citations to 1200 sites, 320 of them new since the previous edition. It covers newsgroups, electronic journals and newsletters, mailing lists, and discussion groups as well as home pages. It is written for environmental consultants, industry professionals, researchers, lawyers, educators, and students.

Item #d99jan33

Air Pollution VI, C. A. Brebbia, C. F. Ratto, and H. Power, 996 pp., 1999, $425.00/£280.00 hbk (WIT Press).

This compilation of 92 papers from the Sixth International Conference on Air Pollution (held in Genoa in September of 1998, includes contributions from industry, research organizations, governments, and academia. The topics span monitoring, simulation, and management of air-pollution problems and are grouped under the following topics: chemical-transformation modeling, turbulence modeling at small and meso scales, monitoring and laboratory studies, data analysis and observation, pollution engineering, pollution management, urban and suburban transport emissions, urban air pollution, emissions inventories, health problems, damage to cultural heritage, fluid mechanics for dealing with environmental problems, atmospheric chemistry, air-pollution modeling, and aerosols and particulates.

Item #d99jan34

Environmentally Significant Consumption: Research Directions, P. C. Stern et al., Eds., 143 pp., 1997, $34.00 (plus $4.00 shipping) pbk (National Academy Press).

This compendium considers the possibility that the consumption of natural resources and manufactured goods by wealthy nations may be a more important driver of global environmental change than is world population. It also observes that little empirical evidence exists with which to evaluate that assertion. It identifies three broad research approaches that could be adopted to develop more information on the influences and effects of consumption, referring to these approaches as the environment-first strategy, the policy-oriented strategy, and the society-first strategy. The key research questions that these strategies should address are seen to be

• Which human activities are the most disruptive to the environment?
• Who is responsible for these disruptive activities?
• What social, economic, technological, political, or psychological forces cause or explain these actions?
• How can environmentally disruptive behaviors be changed?

In the course of analyzing the flows of energy and materials in our society and of describing the driving forces of consumption (social structure, culture, technology, population, social evolution, and the pursuit of well-being), emulation is identified as a surprisingly strong determinant of cultural development and consumptive practices.

Item #d99jan35

The Environmental Consequences of Growth: Steady-State Economics as an Alternative to Ecological Decline, D. E. Booth, 227 pp., 1998, $24.99 pbk/$75.00 hbk (Routledge).

The assertion that economic growth will, in its natural course, lead to solutions of environmental problems (because such solutions are good for business) is examined in terms of historical experience. No one argues with the position that new industries and industrial growth are necessary for economic growth, accumulation of wealth, and raising the standard of living. However, the examples cited here also suggest that new industries create new environmental problems and, instead of correcting those problems, they quickly assume vested political interests (such as the creation of jobs and the maintenance of employment levels) that allow them to limit environmental regulation of their activities and shield them from having to deal with (and invest in) the environmental and societal costs of their operations.

This book proposes an essentially ethical approach to dealing with environmental issues. Its thesis is that high- growth, environmentally destructive economies should be tempered with an element of ethical commitment. The mechanism offered for infusing this ethical commitment is a steady-state economy (i.e., a no- or very-low-growth economy). The author sees such an economy being brought about by (1) radically higher energy costs; (2) concern about environmental problems, such as global warming; and/or (3) economic democracy (employee-owned cooperatives or employee-controlled businesses). Such a steady-state economy is envisioned to result in smaller-scale production organizations that use energy and materials more efficiently, reduce harmful emissions to their neighborhoods, conserve environmental resources, and provide more leisure time through shorter workweeks.