Energy and Climate Change: Creating a Sustainable Future
Article Type: Books and Resources From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 19, Issue 6
David Coley,Wiley and Sons,Chichester,April 2008,£90.00,672 pp.,ISBN 978047085312-2
Energy and Climate Change: Creating a Sustainable Future provides an up-to-date introduction to the subject examining the relationship between energy and our global environment. The book covers the fundamentals of the subject,discussing what energy is, why it is important, as well as the detrimental effect on the environment following our use of energy. Energy is placed at the front of a discussion of geo-systems, living systems, technological development and the global environment, enabling the reader to develop a deeper understanding of magnitudes.
Learning is re-enforced, and the relevance of the topic broadened, through the use of several conceptual veins running through the book. One of these is an attempt to demonstrate how systems are related to each other through energy and energy flows. Examples being wind-power, and bio-mass which are really solar power via another route; how the energy used to evaporate sea water must be related to the potential for hydropower; and where a volcano’s energy really comes from.
With fermi-like problems and student exercises incorporated throughout every chapter, this text provides useful information to the growing number of students taking an interest in the subject.
WWF Report – “2010 and Beyond: Rising to the Biodiversity Challenge”
In this report, the WWF use two key indicators to examine progress towards the CBD target to achieve a “significant” reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The Living Planet Index, produced for the WWF by the Zoological Society of London, tracks nearly 4,000 populations of wildlife to assess the state of global biodiversity. The Ecological Footprint, calculated by the Global Footprint Network and its partner organisations, measures human demands on the biosphere to produce resources and absorb carbon dioxide. Based on these indicators, this report suggests that biodiversity has declined by more than a quarter in the last 35 years, highlighting that Governments are not on track to meet the 2010 target. Further details are available at: www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/2010_and_beyond.pdf
