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Greenhouse gases and global environmental change

Today's powerpoint file

Managers should consider at least the following: changes in local and regional climate (e.g., via surface-atmosphere interactions), physiognomic shifts in vegetation, changes in runoff and erosion, implications for abundance and distribution of native plants and animals, and implications for carbon sequestration


Today, we will discuss the factors likely to change within the next 50 years, and we will consider the probability that these changes will influence ecosystems


Sources, outcomes, and solutions


Examples of recent successes


Likely impacts


Plausible impacts tied to oceans thermohaline conveyer belt


Consequences


Regional impacts


Discussion will focus on an ecosystem with which you are familiar and a land-management organization that you represent (e.g., USDA Forest Service, USDI Bureau of Land Management, USDI National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, Department of Defense, Arizona State Lands Department, private landowner). The latter will allow you to specify a mission and goals. Your discussion will be most useful if you conduct research before class on the mission and goals of one or two organizations.


Additional Information (also see assigned readings):

Abbey, E. 1980. Good News. Dutton, New York.

Antilla, L. 2005. Climate of scepticism: US newspaper coverage of the science of climate change. Global Environmental Change 15:338-352.

Committee on Scientific Basis for Predicting the Invasive Potential of Nonindigenous Plants and Plant Pests in the United States. 2002. Predicting Invasions of Nonindigenous Plants and Plant Pests. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.

El Nino web site from the Meteorological Service of Canada

Emanuel, K. (2005) Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Emanuel, K. (2005) Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years. Nature 436:868-688.

Facts and Figures about climate change from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change

Global Change Biology (journal)

Global Climate Change Research Explorer from the Exploratorium in San Francisco

Gupta, J. 2001. Our Simmering Planet. Zed Books, New York.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2001. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis.

Life After the Oil Crash

Lovejoy T.E. and Hannah, L. 2005. Climate Change and Biodiversity. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.

North American Weed Management Association

Sala, O.E. et al. 2000. Global biodiversity scenarios for the year 2100. Science 287:1770-1774.

Steffen, W. et al. 2004. Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure. Springer-Verlag, New York.

Union of Concerned Scientists searchable index: Just the Facts

US Department of Energy solar technologies