Will Steffen

Lesley Hughes

Alix Pearce

Climate Change, Extreme Heat and Bushfires in Western Australia

The Heat is on

Jacqui Fenwick

The Heat Marches on

Robert Costanza

Lisa J. Graumlich

Scholars from a range of disciplines develop an integrated human and environmental history over millennial, centennial, and decadal time scales and make projections for the future. Human history, as written traditionally, leaves out the important ecological and climate context of historical events. But the capability to integrate the history of human beings with the natural history of the Earth now exists, and we are finding that human-environmental systems are intimately linked in ways we are only beginning to appreciate. In Sustainability or Collapse?, researchers from a range of scholarly disciplines develop an integrated human and environmental history over millennial, centennial, and decadal time scales and make projections for the future. The contributors focus on the human-environment interactions that have shaped historical forces since ancient times and discuss such key methodological issues as data quality. Topics highlighted include the political ecology of the Mayans; the effect of climate on the Roman Empire; the "revolutionary weather" of El Niño from 1788 to 1795; twentieth-century social, economic, and political forces in environmental change; scenarios for the future; and the accuracy of such past forecasts as The Limits to Growth.

An Integrated History and Future of People on Earth

Sustainability or Collapse?

Jill Jäger

David J. Carson

Clare Bradshaw

This volume is based on plenary presentations from Challenges of a Changing Earth, a Global Change Open Science Conference held in Amsterdam, The Neth- lands, in July 2001. The meeting brought together about 1400 scientists from 105 co- tries around the world to describe, discuss and debate the latest scientific - derstanding of natural and human-driven changes to our planet. It examined the effects of these changes on our societies and our lives, and explored what the future might hold. The presentations drew upon global change science from an exceptionally wide range of disciplines and approaches. Issues of societal importance – the food system, air quality, the carbon cycle, and water resources – were highlighted from both policy and science perspectives. Many of the talks presented the exciting scientific advances of the past decade of international research on global change. Several challenged the scientific community in the future. What are the visionary and creative new approaches needed for studying a complex planetary system in which human activities are in- mately interwoven with natural processes? This volume aims to capture the timeliness and excitement of the science p- sented in Amsterdam. The plenary speakers were given a daunting task: to reproduce their presentations in a way that delivers their scientific messages accurately and in sufficient detail but at the same time reaches a very broad audience well beyond their own disciplines. Furthermore, they were required to do this in just a few pages.

Proceedings of the Global Change Open Science Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 10–13 July 2001

Challenges of a Changing Earth

Klaus Bosselmann

Paulo Magalhães

It is clear that international law is not yet equipped to handle the “ecological goods and services” that exist simultaneously within and outside of all states. The global commons have always been understood as geographical spaces that exist only outside the political borders of states. A vital good such as a stable climate exists both within and outside all states, and shows traditional legal approaches to be ecological nonsense. With the recent possibility of measuring and monitoring the state and functioning of the Earth System through the Planetary Boundaries framework, it is now possible to define a “Safe Operating Space of Humankind” corresponding to a biogeophysical state of Earth. In this sense, the Common Home of Humanity is not a planet with 510 million square kilometres, but is a specific favourable state of the Earth System. Recent major scientific advances anticipate a legal paradigm shift that could overcome the disconnection between ecological realities and existing legal frameworks. If we recognize this qualitative and non-geographic space as a Common Natural Intangible Heritage of Humankind, all positive and negative “externalities” end up being included within a new maintenance system of the Common Home.

A New Approach to Managing Our Use of the Earth System

The Safe Operating Space Treaty

Katherine Richardson

Frank Oldfield

Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber

Regina Angelina Sanderson

Peter D. Tyson

Pamela A. Matson

Berrien Moore III

Billie L. Turner

Robert J. Wasson

Global Change and the Earth System describes what is known about the Earth system and the impact of changes caused by humans. It considers the consequences of these changes with respect to the stability of the Earth system and the well-being of humankind; as well as exploring future paths towards Earth-system science in support of global sustainability. The results presented here are based on 10 years of research on global change by many of the world's most eminent scholars. This valuable volume achieves a new level of integration and interdisciplinarity in treating global change.

A Planet Under Pressure

Global Change and the Earth System

David Lindenmayer

Mark Stafford Smith

Andrew A. Burbidge

Roger Kitching

Warren Musgrave

Patricia A. Werner

This book provides a strategic assessment of the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity (primarily terrestrial) to climate change and suggests ways that policy and management can deal with the threats to biodiversity associated with climate change. It begins with a long-time perspective on the evolution of Australia’s biota—why Australia is so species-rich, why its biodiversity is unique, and why the conservation of this biodiversity is so important. It goes on to describe the two centuries of acute change since European settlement—the ultimate drivers of current changes in Australia’s biodiversity and the observed changes in diversity at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels. The discussion of climate change itself is organized around the global and the Australian scales, describing the climate changes that have already been observed over the last one to two centuries and outlining the range of projections for Australia for the rest of this century. The ways in which climate change is already affecting Australia’s biota and will potentially affect it in future are described in considerable detail. The book then focuses strongly on how to reduce the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity to climate change, beginning with a description of current management principles, and an analysis of the current set of conservation strategies and tools and the current policy and institutional landscape for biodiversity conservation. Building on a set of fundamental ecological principles, the focus then shifts to ways in which adaptive capacity can be enhanced—modified and new management approaches, innovative governance systems and a much larger resource base. Finally, a set of five key messages and policy directions pulls together the major conclusions arising from the assessment.

Australia's Biodiversity and Climate Change

How did climbers from the world's flattest, hottest continent become world-class Himalayan mountaineers, the equal of any elite mountaineer from countries with long climbing traditions and home ranges that make Australia's highest summit look like a suburban hill? This book tells the story of Australian mountaineering in the great ranges of Asia, from the exploits of a brash, young colonial with an early British Himalayan expedition in the 1920s to the coming of age of Australian climbers in the 1980s. The story goes beyond the two remarkable Australian ascents of Mt Everest in 1984 and 1988 to explore the exploits of Australian climbers in the far-flung corners of the high Himalaya. Above all, the book presents a glimpse into the lives - the successes, failures, tragedies, motivations, fears, conflicts, humor, and compassion - themselves to the ultimate limits of survival in the most spectacular and demanding mountain arena of all.

Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia, 1922-1990

Himalayan Dreaming

Will Steffen

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