HON 261: Living with Climate Change in an Era of Uncertainty: Books

A beautiful and engaging guide to global warming's impacts around the world Our planet is in peril. Seas are rising, oceans are acidifying, ice is melting, coasts are flooding, species are dying, and communities are faltering. Despite these dire circumstances, most of us don't have a clear sense of how the interconnected crises in our ocean are affecting the climate system, food webs, coastal cities, and biodiversity, and which solutions can help us co-create a better future.

Topics include the following: Why does the earth have the climate it does? -- Precipitation, winds, atmospheric pressure, and the origin of climate zones -- Climate dynamics: natural variations -- Climate in the future -- Earth's responses to climate change -- Climate and sustainable development

Coastal regions around the world have become increasingly crowded, intensively developed, and severely exploited. Hundreds of millions of people living in these low-lying areas are subject to short-term coastal hazards such as cyclones, hurricanes, and destruction due to El Niño, and are also exposed to the long-term threat of global sea-level rise. These massive concentrations of people expose often-fragile coastal environments to the runoff and pollution from municipal, industrial, and agricultural sources as well as the impacts of resource exploitation and a wide range of other human impacts. Coasts in Crisis is a comprehensive assessment of the impacts that the human population is having on the coastal zone globally and the diverse ways in which coastal hazards impact human settlement and development.

Drawing on real-life situations and stories, journalist Jeff Fleischer takes an informed, approachable look at how our world will change as a result of the climate crisis, addressing sea levels, extreme weather, drought, extinction, and migration.

In A New Coast, Jeffrey Peterson draws a comprehensive picture of how storms and rising seas will change the coast. Peterson offers a clear-eyed assessment of how governments can work with the private sector and citizens to be better prepared for the coming coastal inundation. Drawing on four decades of experience at the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Senate, Peterson presents the science behind predictions for coastal impacts. While describing how and why the current policies exist, he builds a strong case for a bold, new approach, tackling difficult topics including: how to revise flood insurance and disaster assistance programs; when to step back from the coast rather than build protection structures; how to steer new development away from at-risk areas; and how to finance the transition to a new coast.

Structures of Coastal Resilience presents new strategies for creative and collaborative approaches to coastal planning for climate change. In the face of sea level rise and an increased risk of flooding from storm surge, we must become less dependent on traditional approaches to flood control that have relied on levees, sea walls, and other forms of hard infrastructure. But what are alternative approaches for designers and planners facing the significant challenge of strengthening their communities to adapt to uncertain climate futures?

Vanishing Ice is a powerful depiction of the dramatic transformation of the cryosphere--the world of ice and snow--and its consequences for the human world. Vivien Gornitz gives an up-to-date explanation of key current trends in the decline of ice mass and how it will affect will affect countless people far removed from frozen regions.

This book describes the increasing frequency and intensity of natural and man-made disasters in the world, and these disasters have devastating effects on the environment. It discusses changes in land use and land cover that have eroded the natural buffer zone that protects communities from harm. Disasters are described as emergencies caused by natural risks or man-made actions, leading to major changes in the situation in a relatively short period of time. Common examples are displacement, disease, death, and crop loss. The book mentions that disasters may vary in cause, scope, interval, and necessary intervention measures. The author also claims that the socioeconomic structure of a society remains to be a key determinant of a population's vulnerability to disasters.

"Climate change and natural disasters, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and thunderstorms, have been occurring since the dawn of time. But global warming is a phenomenon induced by humankind. Scientists across the world have been thoroughly examining the changing climate, and have found close links between global warming and extreme climatic events. Global warming induced by humans has drastically altered global climatic patterns. Natural disasters that used to occur once in a hundred years are now occurring more frequently, more extensively, and with greater intensity. The destruction and damage caused by such events are also increasing. Frequent extremities in weather events are drastically affecting the global population by increasing the death toll each passing year"--

This book explores the conditions, forces, and processes behind Florida's surprisingly varied and dynamic weather. Florida is home to two of the world's major types of climate - tropical wet-dry and humid subtropical. It experiences more tornadoes per square mile and is more frequently affected by lightning and thunderstorms than any other state. Florida is vulnerable to fog, drought, and wildfires. And it is notorious for its most prominent natural event - the hurricane. Discussing Florida's latitude, longitude, area, landscape, and population, as well as the position of the sun and the importance of evaporation and condensation, the authors break down the features that shape Florida's remarkable weather. They explain the influence of atmospheric circulation patterns such as the Hadley cell, the Coriolis force, and the Bermuda-Azores high. They describe the impacts of cold, warm, stationary, and occluded fronts. The book also covers major weather incidents from Florida's history and looks ahead to what climate change will mean for the state's future. With many maps, helpful diagrams, and clear explanations, this book is an illuminating and accessible guide to Florida's dramatic weather and climate.

Damage from hurricanes is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades because of the effects of climate change and coastal development. In turn, potential requests for federal relief and recovery efforts will increase as well. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the magnitude of the increases in hurricane damage and the associated amounts of federal aid if historical patterns hold. This book provides a detailed discussion on the implications of increased risk on the federal budget of hurricane damage in the upcoming years.

In 2017, four sequential disastershurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and the California wildfires -- created an unprecedented demand for federal disaster response and recovery resources. According to FEMA, 2017 included three of the top five costliest hurricanes on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that the cumulative damages from weather and climate related disasters in the United States were over $300 billion in 2017 alone. As of June 2018, Congress had appropriated over $120 billion in supplemental funding for response and recovery related to the 2017 hurricanes and wildfires. Further, in October 2017, close to 14,000 federal employees were deployed in response to the disasters.

Hurricane- and coastal-storm-related losses have increased substantially during the past century, largely due to increases in population and development in the most susceptible coastal areas. Climate change poses additional threats to coastal communities from sea level rise and possible increases in the strength of the largest hurricanes. Several large cities in the United States have extensive assets at risk of coastal storms, along with countless smaller cities and developed areas.