Timescales and Environmental Change / Edition 1

by Graham Chapman, Thackwray Driver

Overview

Time is an unstated but ever present element in all debates about environmental change - and the subtext of many disagreements. Geomorphologists think in the context of millions of years, politicians in election terms, the media in decades, and the public ceases to worry about global warming with one bad summer. This volume brings together experts from a diverse range of disciplines, to offer a range of both temporal and geographical perspectives. It does not seek to provide clear answers about right time-scales, but rather to encourage the reader, from whatever perspective, to think about change and environmental issues in a new light through different time-scales.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415132527
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/15/1996
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)
Lexile:	1450L (what's this?)

About the Author

Graham Chapman, Thackwray Driver

Table of Contents

List of figures, List of tables, List of contributors, Preface, 1 TIME, MANKIND, AND THE EARTH, 2 LONG-TERM ENVIRONMENTAL STABILITY AND INSTABILITY IN THE TROPICS AND SUBTROPICS, 3 THE CENTURY TIME-SCALE, 4 IDENTIFYING THE TIME-SCALES OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE: THE INSTRUMENTAL RECORD, 5 FUTURE GLOBAL WARMING: RESOLVING THE CLIMATOLOGIST AND ECONOMIST CONFLICT, 6 GREENHOUSE POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE PREDICTION TIMETABLE: AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE, 7 CONFLICTING TIME-SCALES: POLITICS, THE MEDIA, AND THE ENVIRONMENT, 8 ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: SOIL EROSION, ANIMALS, AND PASTURES OVER THE LONGER TERM, 9 REFRAMING FOREST HISTORY: A RADICAL REAPPRAISAL OF THE ROLES OF PEOPLE AND CLIMATE IN WEST AFRICAN VEGETATION CHANGE, 10 ECONOMIC ACTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT: PROBLEMS OF TIME AND PREDICTABILITY, 11 INDIA, DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, 12 CONCLUSION, INDEX