The Environment - Valparaiso

This book explores many issues related to the reversal of glaciers and ice melt, including: reducing soot as it relates to glaciers, media reporting of ice melt, the rate ice sheets are melting, Antarctica and melting, and permafrost warming. Includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives; eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others.

Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know is a clear-eyed overview of the science, conflicts, and implications of our warming planet. From Joseph Romm, Chief Science Advisor for National Geographic's Years of Living Dangerously series and one of Rolling Stone's "100 people who are changing America," Climate Change offers user-friendly, scientifically rigorous answers to the most difficult (and commonly politicized) questions surrounding what climatologist Lonnie Thompson has deemed "a clear and present danger to civilization.

Climate change, threatened species and ecosystems, human population growth, and pollution are analyzed in this overview of Earths environment and climate issues. An historical perspective allows readers to trace the evolution of these issues over time.

In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and activists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and methods are described here-some are well known, some you have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in the developing world to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path toward not just slowing the earth's warming, but actually reaching drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being-giving us every reason to seize our planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.

An Inconvenient Truth--Gore's groundbreaking, battle cry of a follow-up to the bestselling Earth in the Balance--is being published to tie in with a documentary film of the same name. Both the book and film were inspired by a series of multimedia presentations on global warming that Gore created and delivers to groups around the world. With this book, Gore, who is one of our environmental heroes--and a leading expert--brings together leading-edge research from top scientists around the world; photographs, charts, and other illustrations; and personal anecdotes and observations to document the fast pace and wide scope of global warming. He presents, with alarming clarity and conclusiveness--and with humor, too--that the fact of global warming is not in question and that its consequences for the world we live in will be disastrous if left unchecked.

Using figures, cartoons, and whimsical sidebars, Steve Goreham describes our crazy world, which is far down the primrose path of global warming fantasy. Contrary to popular consensus, global warming is natural and cars are innocent. But this book is not short on science. Goreham uses charts, graphs, and references to dozens of scientific papers to support his arguments. He shows that icecap melting, stronger storms, polar bear extinction, and many other climate fears are unfounded.

"This book arms every citizen with a comprehensive dossier on just how science, economics, and politics have been distorted and corrupted in the name of saving the planet."--MARK LEVIN

Singer and Avery, argue that global warming is a natural, cyclical phenomenon that has not been caused by human activities and that its negative consequences have been greatly overestimated.

The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future.

Contemporary movies and television programs often depict the world as we know it displaced, awash in ocean tides or broken into pieces by devastating earthquakes. The climate data coming through news outlets can seem to reinforce this fatalistic view, with earth warming records hitting new levels year after year. While it can seem like natural disasters are increasingly affecting our world, is there data to support this perception or is this view of events mediated by panicked activists and the media? This anthology explores key ideas and opinions regarding discussions about natural disasters, including subjects such as the frequency and severity of natural disasters, whether natural disasters boost the economy, the role that geoengineering can play, and whether global warming is the sign of a new Ice Age.

Earthquakes and tsunamis
Volcanic eruptions and other geological events
Storms
Asteroid impacts.

There are some things you just can't plan for. This phrase is often uttered when unexpected events or circumstance take us by surprise. However there are many things for which we can plan and prepare. This informative edition discusses disaster planning from a variety of diverse perspectives. Topics such as school preparedness, the role of government in recovery efforts, and partnerships between the public and private sectors in disaster relief are discussed. Real life examples, such as the events of Hurricane Katrina, are used to illustrate subject matter in action, urging students to analyze the broader issue of disaster planning.

Hurricane Katrina brought to light many questions about Americans' preparedness for handling large-scale disasters: Is FEMA effective? Are the local, state, and federal governments sufficiently coordinated? What is the role of the National Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers in responding to disasters? Is federal flood insurance capable of cutting costs? Examining these issues from different perspectives, ""Disaster Relief"" offers students the tools to form their own opinions by bringing recent events into balanced focus.

Author Tom Streissguth provides an enthralling look into extreme weather. He examines issues from a variety of expert perspectives, highlighting key future challenges, and addressing the pros and cons of potential solutions. Readers will explore the relationship between global climate change and extreme weather, including air and water chemistry, solar radiation, hurricanes, and tropical cyclones, and heat waves. They will learn about other potential future warming and drought. They will examine the experience and impact from the Dust Bowl of the 1930s to the current water crisis in California.

There are floods throughout the world every year, many of them devastating and deadly. In Floods, author Michael Allaby explains storms and cloudbursts, thunder and lightning, and the monsoons in great detail. Sidebars display explanations or interesting pieces of information about floods and flooding, without interrupting the main flow of the text. These explain concepts from atmospheric science, such as partial pressure and vapor pressure; charge separation in storm clouds; and glacioisostasy, as well as explaining why it rains more on mountainsides than it does in the valleys.

Time chronicles the story of the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history in Hurricane Katrina, An American Tragedy. Here, in stunning pictures and gripping first-hand accounts, is the terrible tale of Katrina's deadly wrath and savage aftermath..Award-winning pictures reveal the scope of the disaster. Oral histories offer unforgettable accounts of nature's power and man's resourcefulness. Illuminating graphics show how hurricanes form and why New Orleans flooded. Powerful reporting puts readers on the scene, while insightful analysis explores the questions left in Katrina's wake: could the tragedy have been prevented, and why was aid so late to arrive? Moving and informative, sweeping in scope and ringing with the voices of those who were there, Hurricane Katrina, An American Tragedy is the definitive account of a disaster that will haunt Americans for decades to come.

Scientific research is about questions and observations. It is the process of discovery; it strives for facts and conclusions unencumbered by bias, distortion, and political sensibilities. Although sometimes the methods and motivations are flawed, science attempts to develop a body of knowledge that can guide decision makers, enhance daily life, and lay a foundation for future generations. The Inside Science series provides students with a sense of the painstaking work of scientific researchùwhether it involves microscopic cells cultured in a lab or identifying planets far beyond the solar system. It examines how scientists work and where that work leads them. Through clear and vivid narrative, carefully selected anecdotes, and direct quotes each book in the series reinforces the role of scientific research in furthering learning and creating a more livable world. Book jacket.

The killer tsunami of 2004 and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina remind us of the fragility of Earth. This title explores the past, present and future of this planet, tracing the rise and fall of ancient civilizations, exploring Earth's extreme environments and flying with scientists into the wildest of weather systems.

The Power of the Sea describes our struggle to understand the physics of the sea, so we can use that knowledge to predict when the sea will unleash its fury against us. In a wide-sweeping narrative spanning much of human history, Bruce Parker, former chief scientist of the National Ocean Service, interweaves thrilling and often moving stories of unpredicted natural disaster with an accessible account of scientific discovery. The result is a compelling scientific journey, from ancient man's first crude tide predictions to today's advanced early warning ability based on the Global Ocean Observing System. It is a journey still underway, as we search for ways to predict tsunamis and rogue waves and critical aspects of El Niño and climate change caused by global warming.

Whether ruining a commute or devastating entire homes and countries, inclement weather has the power to capture attention and headlines in a way few other topics can. While storms can be sudden or unexpected, the atmospheric conditions that produce them, as well as other kinds of weatherviolent and otherwiseare in place and churning well before the full range of their effects can be felt. This book examines the science that gives us a greater understanding of the patterns that produce hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, and a host of related conditions. It also discusses another persistent issue of inclement weather, which is how to better predict climactic extremes.

The whirling winds of tornadoes are the most violent winds that occur on Earth. While scientists do not know exactly why these windstorms develop, the death and destruction they leave behind is well documented. Efforts to better understand tornadoes, and predict their paths, are ongoing.

Tsunamis or seismic sea waves are the largest and most powerful waves in the world. These monstrous waves, which can travel back and forth across oceans, reach speeds of 300 to 600 miles per hour. Although tsunamis can go unnoticed in the open sea, their heights can reach 100 to 200 feet in shallow water where they continue to travel inland with tremendous destructive force. Tsunamis are triggered by earthquakes, submarine volcanoes, landslides, or more rarely, by meteorite impacts.