Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change

Arctic sea ice shrank to its lowest extent last summer and the devastating hurricanes which hit America demonstrate how even developed, affluent nations are vulnerable to extreme weather.

For maritime industries, rising sea levels would provide both threat and challenge.

Temperatures are expected to continue rising and extreme events are likely to become more frequent with climate change. How much climate change can we take?

How can we avoid levels which can be considered dangerous? A book launched last month by the British Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) explores these questions.

‘Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change’ builds on the scientific findings presented at a DEFRA sponsored conference of the same name which took place at the Met Office, Exeter, in February of last year at the start of the UK’s G8 Presidency.

The book gives an account of the most recent developments on the science of climate change, explores how much climate change is too much and how we can avoid it. It examines the consequences of different levels of climate change in terms of impacts for different sectors and regions as well as the world as a whole.

And it considers technological options that can be deployed to achieve different levels of climate change as the world moves to a lower carbon economy. These include marine renewable energy sources. The book contains extended and peer reviewed versions of the papers presented at the conference.

A number of new impacts were identified which give cause for concern, including the recent change that is occurring in the acidity of the ocean. This is likely to reduce its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and affect the entire marine food chain.

Writing in the forward to this book, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, ‘At the Gleneagles meeting the leaders of the G8 were able to agree on the importance of climate change, that human activity does contribute to it and that greenhouse gas emissions need to slow, peak and reverse. All G8 countries agreed on the need to make substantial cuts in emissions and act with resolve and urgency now.

‘This book will serve as more than a record of another conference or event. It will provide an invaluable resource for all people wishing to enhance global understanding of the science of climate change and the need for humanity to act to tackle the problem.’

Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change
Editorial board led by Professor Hans Joachim Schnellnhuber
Published by Cambridge University Press.
ISBN: 0 521 864712
Hardback.Price £70