Polar Environments and Global Change

Polar Environments and Global Change PDF

Author: Roger G. Barry

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-08-09

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 1108502431

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The polar regions are the 'canary in the coal mine' of climate change: they are likely to be hit the hardest and fastest. This comprehensive textbook provides an accessible introduction to the scientific study of polar environments against a backdrop of climate change and the wider global environment. The book assembles diverse information on polar environmental characteristics in terrestrial and oceanic domains, and describes the ongoing changes in climate, the oceans, and components of the cryosphere. Recent significant changes in the polar region caused by global warming are explored: shrinking Arctic sea ice, thawing permafrost, accelerating loss of mass from glaciers and ice sheets, and rising ocean temperatures. These rapidly changing conditions are discussed in the context of the paleoclimatic history of the polar regions from the Eocene to the Anthropocene. Future projections for these regions during the twenty-first century are discussed. The text is illustrated with many color figures and tables, and includes further reading lists, review questions for each chapter, and a glossary.

Tourism and Change in Polar Regions

Tourism and Change in Polar Regions PDF

Author: C. Michael Hall

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-07-15

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13: 113697198X

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The world’s polar regions are attracting more interest than ever before. Once regarded as barren, inhospitable places where only explorers go, the north and south polar regions have been transformed into high profile tourism destinations, increasingly visited by cruise ships as well as becoming accessible with direct flights. Tourism is seen as one of the few economic opportunities in these regions but at the same time the polar regions are being opened up to tourism development they are being affected by a number of new factors that are interconnected to travel and tourism. Climate change, landscape and species loss, increasing interest in energy resources and minerals, social changes in indigenous societies, and a new polar geopolitics all bring into question the sustainability of polar regions and the place of tourism within them. This timely volume provides a contemporary account of tourism and its impacts in polar regions. It explores the development and prospects of polar tourism, as well as tourism’s impacts and associated change at high latitudes from environmental, economic, social and political perspectives. It draws on cutting edge research from both the Arctic and Antarctic to provide a comparative review and illustrate the real life issues arising from tourism’s role in these regions. Integrating theory and practice the book fully evaluates varying perspectives on polar tourism and proposes actions that could be taken by local and global management to achieve a sustainable future for polar regions and development of tourism. This complete and current account of polar tourism issues is written by an international team of leading researchers in this area and will have global appeal to higher level students, researchers, academics in Tourism, Environmental Studies, Arctic/Polar Studies and conservation enthusiasts alike.

Climate Change in the Polar Regions

Climate Change in the Polar Regions PDF

Author: John Turner

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-05-12

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 052185010X

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Comprehensive, up-to-date account of polar climate change over the last one million years for researchers and advanced students in polar science.

Climate Change and the New Polar Aesthetics

Climate Change and the New Polar Aesthetics PDF

Author: Lisa E. Bloom

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2022-08-08

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 147801864X

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In Climate Change and the New Polar Aesthetics, Lisa E. Bloom considers the ways artists, filmmakers, and activists engaged with the Arctic and Antarctic to represent our current environmental crises and reconstruct public understandings of them. Bloom engages feminist, Black, Indigenous, and non-Western perspectives to address the exigencies of the experience of the Anthropocene and its attendant ecosystem failures, rising sea levels, and climate-led migrations. As opposed to mainstream media depictions of climate change that feature apocalyptic spectacles of distant melting ice and desperate polar bears, artists such as Katja Aglert, Subhankar Banerjee, Joyce Campbell, Judit Hersko, Roni Horn, Isaac Julien, Zacharias Kunuk, Connie Samaras, and activist art collectives take a more complex poetic and political approach. In their films and visual and conceptual art, these artists link climate change to its social roots in colonialism and capitalism while challenging the suppression of information about environmental destruction and critiquing Western art institutions for their complicity. Bloom’s examination and contextualization of new polar aesthetics makes environmental degradation more legible while demonstrating that our own political agency is central to imagining and constructing a better world.

A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008

A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008 PDF

Author:

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 9780309092128

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In 2007-2008, many nations around the world will host an intense, coordinated field campaign of polar observations, research, and analysis called the "International Polar Year." This report presents an overview of potential science themes, enabling technologies, and public outreach opportunities that can be used to focus International Polar Year on societal needs. The committee recommends that the U.S. scientific community and participating agencies use this opportunity to better understand environmental change and variability in the polar regions; explore new scientific frontiers ranging from the molecular to the planetary scales; and engage the public through varied educations and outreach activities.

Stories of Change and Sustainability in the Arctic Regions

Stories of Change and Sustainability in the Arctic Regions PDF

Author: Rita Sørly

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-17

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1000475859

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This book presents stories of sustainability from communities in circumpolar regions as they grapple with environmental, economic and societal changes and challenges. Polar regions are changing rapidly. These changes will dramatically effect ecosystems, economy, people, communities and their interdependencies. Given this, the stories being told about lives and livelihood development are changing also. This book is the first of its kind to curate stories about opportunity and responsibility, tensions and contradictions, un/ethical action, resilience, adaptability and sustainability, all within the shifting geopolitics of the north. The book looks at change and sustainability through multidisciplinary and empirically based work, drawing on case studies from Norway, Sweden, Alaska, Canada, Finland and Northwest Russia, with a notable focus on indigenous peoples. Chapters touch on topics as wide ranging as reindeer herding, mental health, climate change, land-use conflicts and sustainable business. The volume asks whose voices are being heard, who benefits, how particular changes affect people’s sense of community and longstanding and cherished values plus livelihood practices and what are the environmental, economic and social impacts of contemporary and future oriented changes with regard to issues of sustainability? This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainability studies, sustainable development, environmental sociology, indigenous studies and environmental anthropology.

Tourism and Change in Polar Regions

Tourism and Change in Polar Regions PDF

Author: C. Michael Hall

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-07-15

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1136971998

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Explores the relationship between tourism and climate change in both Arctic and Antarctic polar regions by considering the associated environmental, economic, social and political factors. This book draws on both Arctic and Antarctic Polar region case studies to help illustrate these climate change issues.

The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate PDF

Author: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-05-19

Total Pages: 1807

ISBN-13: 1009178466

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems

Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2011-06-02

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 0309210879

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The polar regions are experiencing rapid changes in climate. These changes are causing observable ecological impacts of various types and degrees of severity at all ecosystem levels, including society. Even larger changes and more significant impacts are anticipated. As species respond to changing environments over time, their interactions with the physical world and other organisms can also change. This chain of interactions can trigger cascades of impacts throughout entire ecosystems. Evaluating the interrelated physical, chemical, biological, and societal components of polar ecosystems is essential to understanding their vulnerability and resilience to climate forcing. The Polar Research Board (PRB) organized a workshop to address these issues. Experts gathered from a variety of disciplines with knowledge of both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Participants were challenged to consider what is currently known about climate change and polar ecosystems and to identify the next big questions in the field. A set of interdisciplinary "frontier questions" emerged from the workshop discussions as important topics to be addressed in the coming decades. To begin to address these questions, workshop participants discussed the need for holistic, interdisciplinary systems approach to understanding polar ecosystem responses to climate change. As an outcome of the workshop, participants brainstormed methods and technologies that are crucial to advance the understanding of polar ecosystems and to promote the next generation of polar research. These include new and emerging technologies, sustained long-term observations, data synthesis and management, and data dissemination and outreach.