Earth System Analysis: Integrating Science for Sustainability

by Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber (Editor), Volker Wenzel (Editor)

Overview

As humanity approaches the 3rd millennium, the sustainability of our present way of life becomes more and more questionable. New paradigms for the long-term coevolution of nature and civilization are urgently needed in order to avoid intolerable and irreversible modifications of our planetary environment. Earth System Analysis is a new scientific enterprise that tries to perceive the earth as a whole, a unique system which is to be analyzed with methods ranging from nonlinear dynamics to macroeconomic modelling. This book, resulting from an international symposium organized by the Potsdam Institute, has 2 aims: first, to integrate contributions from leading researchers and scholars from around the world to provide a multifaceted perspective of what Earth System Analysis is all about, and second, to outline the scope of the scientific challenge and elaborate the general formalism for a well-defined transdisciplinary discourse on this most fascinating issue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783642523564
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	07/01/2012
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1998
Pages:	530
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.05(d)

Table of Contents

1. Earth System Analysis — The Concept.- Discourse: Earth System Analysis — The Scope of the Challenge.- Commentary: Earth System Analysis — Explorations in a Research Frontier.- Commentary: Surprises in the Climate Change Course.- Commentary: Sustainable Development — Teleology and Ambiguity.- 2. Natural Dimensions.- 1: Ecology and the Earth System.- Commentary on “Ecology and the Earth System”.- Commentary: Eco-System Modelling and the Social Sciences.- 2: Climate Change and Land Use: Global and Regional Analyses.- Commentary: On the Inconsistency at the Interface of Climate Impact Studies and Global Climate Simulations.- 3: Sustainable Development in Agricultural Landscapes.- Commentary on “Sustainable Development in Agricultural Landscapes”.- Commentary: Towards a Socially Accepted, Sustainable Management of Agricultural Landscapes.- 3. Human Dimensions.- 1: Modelling Global Environmental Change: Improving Human Dimensions Components.- 2: Internationally Tradeable Emission Certificates — Efficiency and Equity in Linking Environmental Protection with Economic Development.- Commentary: Criteria for an Equitable Distribution of Internationally Tradeable Emission Certificates.- 3: New Models of Wealth.- Commentary on “New Models of Wealth”.- Commentary on “New Models of Wealth”.- 4: Urban Metabolism and Disaster Vulnerability in an Era.- 4. Integration for Sustainability.- 1: Multi-actor Optimization of Greenhouse Gas Emission Paths Using Coupled Integral Climate Response and Economic Models.- Commentary: Short Remarks on the Problem of Integrated Modelling.- Commentary: Global Environment and Society (GES) Models, a Problem of Multiple Control Theory.- 2: Global Change and Sustainable Development: Towards an Integrated Conceptual Model.-Commentary on “Global Change and Sustainable Development”.- Commentary on “Global Change and Sustainable Development”.- 3: From a Fictional Globe to Poetic Ecosystems: Modelling Human Interactions with the Environment.- Commentary on “Modelling Human Interactions with the Environment”.- Commentary on “Modelling Human Interactions with the Environment”.- 4: Is Global Modelling Feasible?.- Commentary on “Is Global Modelling Feasible?”.- Commentary on “Is Global Modelling Feasible?”.- Register of Persons.