Download or read book The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate written by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-30 with total page 755 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Download or read book The Arctic in the Anthropocene written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once ice-bound, difficult to access, and largely ignored by the rest of the world, the Arctic is now front and center in the midst of many important questions facing the world today. Our daily weather, what we eat, and coastal flooding are all interconnected with the future of the Arctic. The year 2012 was an astounding year for Arctic change. The summer sea ice volume smashed previous records, losing approximately 75 percent of its value since 1980 and half of its areal coverage. Multiple records were also broken when 97 percent of Greenland's surface experienced melt conditions in 2012, the largest melt extent in the satellite era. Receding ice caps in Arctic Canada are now exposing land surfaces that have been continuously ice covered for more than 40,000 years. What happens in the Arctic has far-reaching implications around the world. Loss of snow and ice exacerbates climate change and is the largest contributor to expected global sea level rise during the next century. Ten percent of the world's fish catches comes from Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that up to 13 percent of the world's remaining oil reserves are in the Arctic. The geologic history of the Arctic may hold vital clues about massive volcanic eruptions and the consequent release of massive amount of coal fly ash that is thought to have caused mass extinctions in the distant past. How will these changes affect the rest of Earth? What research should we invest in to best understand this previously hidden land, manage impacts of change on Arctic communities, and cooperate with researchers from other nations? The Arctic in the Anthropocene reviews research questions previously identified by Arctic researchers, and then highlights the new questions that have emerged in the wake of and expectation of further rapid Arctic change, as well as new capabilities to address them. This report is meant to guide future directions in U.S. Arctic research so that research is targeted on critical scientific and societal questions and conducted as effectively as possible. The Arctic in the Anthropocene identifies both a disciplinary and a cross-cutting research strategy for the next 10 to 20 years, and evaluates infrastructure needs and collaboration opportunities. The climate, biology, and society in the Arctic are changing in rapid, complex, and interactive ways. Understanding the Arctic system has never been more critical; thus, Arctic research has never been more important. This report will be a resource for institutions, funders, policy makers, and students. Written in an engaging style, The Arctic in the Anthropocene paints a picture of one of the last unknown places on this planet, and communicates the excitement and importance of the discoveries and challenges that lie ahead.
Download or read book Arctic Human Development Report written by Joan Nymand Larsen and published by Nordic Council of Ministers. This book was released on 2015-02-18 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The goals of the second volume of the AHDR – Arctic Human Development Report: Regional Processes and Global Linkages – are to provide an update to the first AHDR (2004) in terms of an assessment of the state of Arctic human development; to highlight the major trends and changes unfolding related to the various issues and thematic areas of human development in the Arctic over the past decade; and, based on this assessment, to identify policy relevant conclusions and key gaps in knowledge, new and emerging Arctic success stories. The production of AHDR-II on the tenth anniversary of the first AHDR makes it possible to move beyond the baseline assessment to make valuable comparisons and contrasts across a decade of persistent and rapid change in the North. It addresses critical issues and emerging challenges in Arctic living conditions, quality of life in the North, global change impacts and adaptation, and Indigenous livelihoods. The assessment contributes to our understanding of the interplay and consequences of physical and social change processes affecting Arctic residents’ quality of life, at both the regional and global scales. It shows that the Arctic is not a homogenous region. Impacts of globalization and environmental change differ within and between regions, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous northerners, between genders and along other axes.
Download or read book Arctic Imperatives written by Thad W. Allen and published by Council on Foreign Relations Press. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Farewell to Ice written by P. Wadhams and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sobering but important and enlightening book, A Farewell to Ice moves smoothly through explanations ice's role on our planet, its history, and the current global crisis that is climate change, finally offering tangible efforts readers can make as citizens, which are particularly relevant in the face of reluctant government powers.
Download or read book The Regional Impacts of Climate Change written by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Working Group II. and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Download or read book Responding to Oil Spills in the U S Arctic Marine Environment written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: U.S. Arctic waters north of the Bering Strait and west of the Canadian border encompass a vast area that is usually ice covered for much of the year, but is increasingly experiencing longer periods and larger areas of open water due to climate change. Sparsely inhabited with a wide variety of ecosystems found nowhere else, this region is vulnerable to damage from human activities. As oil and gas, shipping, and tourism activities increase, the possibilities of an oil spill also increase. How can we best prepare to respond to such an event in this challenging environment? Responding to Oil Spills in the U.S. Arctic Marine Environment reviews the current state of the science regarding oil spill response and environmental assessment in the Arctic region north of the Bering Strait, with emphasis on the potential impacts in U.S. waters. This report describes the unique ecosystems and environment of the Arctic and makes recommendations to provide an effective response effort in these challenging conditions. According to Responding to Oil Spills in the U.S. Arctic Marine Environment, a full range of proven oil spill response technologies is needed in order to minimize the impacts on people and sensitive ecosystems. This report identifies key oil spill research priorities, critical data and monitoring needs, mitigation strategies, and important operational and logistical issues. The Arctic acts as an integrating, regulating, and mediating component of the physical, atmospheric and cryospheric systems that govern life on Earth. Not only does the Arctic serve as regulator of many of the Earth's large-scale systems and processes, but it is also an area where choices made have substantial impact on life and choices everywhere on planet Earth. This report's recommendations will assist environmentalists, industry, state and local policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of this special region to preserve and protect it from damaging oil spills.
Download or read book Interim Synthesis Report written by and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines consequences of outer continental shelf petroleum development in light of current knowledge. Cover title: Environmental assessment of the Alaskan continental shelf.
Download or read book Future Arctic written by Edward Struzik and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In one hundred years, or even fifty, the Arctic will look dramatically different than it does today. As polar ice retreats and animals and plants migrate northward, the arctic landscape is morphing into something new and very different from what it once was. While these changes may seem remote, they will have a profound impact on a host of global issues, from international politics to animal migrations. In Future Arctic, journalist and explorer Edward Struzik offers a clear-eyed look at the rapidly shifting dynamics in the Arctic region, a harbinger of changes that will reverberate throughout our entire world. Future Arctic reveals the inside story of how politics and climate change are altering the polar world in a way that will have profound effects on economics, culture, and the environment as we know it. Struzik takes readers up mountains and cliffs, and along for the ride on snowmobiles and helicopters, sailboats and icebreakers. His travel companions, from wildlife scientists to military strategists to indigenous peoples, share diverse insights into the science, culture and geopolitical tensions of this captivating place. With their help, Struzik begins piecing together an environmental puzzle: How might the land’s most iconic species—caribou, polar bears, narwhal—survive? Where will migrating birds flock to? How will ocean currents shift? And what fundamental changes will oil and gas exploration have on economies and ecosystems? How will vast unclaimed regions of the Arctic be divided? A unique combination of extensive on-the-ground research, compelling storytelling, and policy analysis, Future Arctic offers a new look at the changes occurring in this remote, mysterious region and their far-reaching effects.
Download or read book Arctic Matters written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-04-13 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Viewed in satellite images as a jagged white coat draped over the top of the globe, the high Arctic appears distant and isolated. But even if you don't live there, don't do business there, and will never travel there, you are closer to the Arctic than you think. Arctic Matters: The Global Connection to Changes in the Arctic is a new educational resource produced by the Polar Research Board of the National Research Council (NRC). It draws upon a large collection of peer-reviewed NRC reports and other national and international reports to provide a brief, reader-friendly primer on the complex ways in which the changes currently affecting the Arctic and its diverse people, resources, and environment can, in turn, affect the entire globe. Topics in the booklet include how climate changes currently underway in the Arctic are a driver for global sea-level rise, offer new prospects for natural resource extraction, and have rippling effects through the world's weather, climate, food supply and economy.
Download or read book Governing Arctic Seas Regional Lessons from the Bering Strait and Barents Sea written by Oran R. Young and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-02 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Governing Arctic Seas introduces the concept of ecopolitical regions, using in-depth analyses of the Bering Strait and Barents Sea Regions to demonstrate how integrating the natural sciences, social sciences and Indigenous knowledge can reveal patterns, trends and processes as the basis for informed decisionmaking. This book draws on international, interdisciplinary and inclusive (holistic) perspectives to analyze governance mechanisms, built infrastructure and their coupling to achieve sustainability in biophysical regions subject to shared authority. Governing Arctic Seas is the first volume in a series of books on Informed Decisionmaking for Sustainability that apply, train and refine science diplomacy to address transboundary issues at scales ranging from local to global. For nations and peoples as well as those dealing with global concerns, this holistic process operates across a ‘continuum of urgencies’ from security time scales (mitigating risks of political, economic and cultural instabilities that are immediate) to sustainability time scales (balancing economic prosperity, environmental protection and societal well-being across generations). Informed decisionmaking is the apex goal, starting with questions that generate data as stages of research, integrating decisionmaking institutions to employ evidence to reveal options (without advocacy) that contribute to informed decisions. The first volumes in the series focus on the Arctic, revealing legal, economic, environmental and societal lessons with accelerating knowledge co-production to achieve progress with sustainability in this globally-relevant region that is undergoing an environmental state change in the sea and on land. Across all volumes, there is triangulation to integrate research, education and leadership as well as science, technology and innovation to elaborate the theory, methods and skills of informed decisionmaking to build common interests for the benefit of all on Earth.
Download or read book The Arctic Climate System written by Mark C. Serreze and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-13 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arctic can be viewed as an integrated system, characterised by intimate couplings between its atmosphere, ocean and land, linked in turn to the larger global system. This comprehensive, up-to-date assessment begins with an outline of early Arctic exploration and the growth of modern research. Using an integrated systems approach, subsequent chapters examine the atmospheric heat budget and circulation, the surface energy budget, the hydrologic cycle and interactions between the ocean, atmosphere and sea ice cover. Reviews of recent directions in numerical modelling and the characteristics of past Arctic climates set the stage for detailed discussion of recent climate variability and trends, and projected future states. Throughout, satellite remote sensing data and results from recent major field programs are used to illustrate key processes. The Arctic Climate System provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of the subject for researchers and advanced students in a wide range of disciplines.
Download or read book The North American Arctic written by Dwayne Ryan Menezes and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2019-11-04 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The North American Arctic addresses the emergence of a new security relationship within the North American North. It focuses on current and emerging security issues that confront the North American Arctic and that shape relationships between and with neighbouring states (Alaska in the US; Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada; Greenland and Russia). Identifying the degree to which ‘domain awareness’ has redefined the traditional military focus, while a new human rights discourse undercuts traditional ways of managing sovereignty and territory, the volume’s contributors question normative security arrangements. Although security itself is not an obsolete concept, our understanding of what constitutes real human-centred security has become outdated. The contributors argue that there are new regionally specific threats originating from a wide range of events and possibilities, and very different subjectivities that can be brought to understand the shape of Arctic security and security relationships in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Review of the Draft Fourth National Climate Assessment written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-06-18 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change poses many challenges that affect society and the natural world. With these challenges, however, come opportunities to respond. By taking steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, the risks to society and the impacts of continued climate change can be lessened. The National Climate Assessment, coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is a mandated report intended to inform response decisions. Required to be developed every four years, these reports provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of climate change impacts available for the United States, making them a unique and important climate change document. The draft Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report reviewed here addresses a wide range of topics of high importance to the United States and society more broadly, extending from human health and community well-being, to the built environment, to businesses and economies, to ecosystems and natural resources. This report evaluates the draft NCA4 to determine if it meets the requirements of the federal mandate, whether it provides accurate information grounded in the scientific literature, and whether it effectively communicates climate science, impacts, and responses for general audiences including the public, decision makers, and other stakeholders.
Download or read book Collaborative Research Methods in the Arctic written by Anne Merrild Hansen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-31 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the growing demand for collaborative and reflexive scholarly engagement in the Arctic directed at providing relevant insights to tackle local challenges of arctic communities. It examines how arctic research can come to matter in new ways by combining methods and engagement in the field of inquiry in new and meaningful ways. Research informs decisions affecting the futures of arctic communities. Due to its ability to include local concerns and practices, collaborative research could play a greater role in this process. By way of example of how to bring new voices to the fore in research, this edited collection presents experiences of researchers active in collaborative arctic research. It draws multidisciplinary perspectives from a broad range of academics in the fields such as law and medicine over tourism and business studies, planning and development, cultural studies, ethnology and anthropology. It also shares personal experiences of working in Greenland and with Greenlanders, whether communities, businesses and entrepreneurs, public officials and planners, patients or students. Offering useful insights into the current problems of Greenland representative of the arctic region, this book will be beneficial for researchers and scientists involved in arctic research.
Download or read book Arctic Social Indicators written by Joan Nymand Larsen and published by Nordic Council of Ministers. This book was released on 2015-02-18 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arctic Social Indicators II (ASI-II) is a follow-up activity to ASI-I (2010) and the first Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR, 2004). The objective of ASI (2010) was to develop a small set of Arctic specific social indicators that as a collective would help facilitate the tracking and monitoring of change in human development in the Arctic. ASI indicators were developed for six domains that are considered prominent aspects of human development in the Arctic by residents in the Arctic: Health and Population; Material Wellbeing; Education; Cultural Wellbeing; Contact with Nature; and Fate Control. The objective of the present volume of ASI is to present and discuss the findings of the work on measuring the set of recommended ASI indicators; to conduct a series of regional case studies to illustrate and test the strength and applicability of these indicators; to identify and describe data challenges for the Arctic region specifically in relation to these Arctic specific indicators and to draw conclusions about the ability of ASI to track changes in human development; and to formulate policy relevant conclusions for the long-term monitoring of Arctic human development. The core content of ASI-II is a set of five carefully selected case studies, which form the basis for drawing conclusions about the applicability of the ASI indicators and for formulating policy relevant conclusions. Case studies are performed for Sakha Republic (Yakutia); the West-Nordic Region; Northwest Territories; Inuit Regions of Alaska; and the Inuit World, with the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA) used to augment ASI. Findings on the state and changes in Arctic human development and wellbeing are presented. Based on our analysis and conclusions from the five case studies the framework for an ASI monitoring system is introduced. We argue that the long-term monitoring of human development in the Arctic would be greatly facilitated by the regular and frequent collection and reporting of relevant data, including those required for the proposed small set of ASI indicators.
Download or read book The Bear Report written by Thyra Heder and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sophie does not want to do her homework, a research report on polar bears. Bor-ing. They’re big. They eat things. They’re mean. What else is there to say about them anyway? As it turns out, plenty. And when a polar bear named Olafur swoops her away to the Arctic, she soon learns all about the playful bear’s habits and habitat—from glacier mice to the northern lights—and, despite her first reservations, she finds herself not just interested but excited about the Arctic. When the two are swept out to sea on an iceberg, Sophie’s new knowledge and knack for creative thinking pay off in a big way: she calls a whale to their aid! Inspired by her journey, she’s ready to return home and take another swing at her assignment, this time with gusto. The Bear Report showcases the power of curiosity and imagination to fill any blank canvas, whether it’s an incomplete homework assignment or the Arctic ice.
