This fully updated, full-color fourth edition of the award-winning Environmental Encyclopedia features approximately 1, 300 signed articles providing in-depth, worldwide coverage of environmental topics and issues. Articles are written in nontechnical language, providing current status and analysis, and suggesting solutions whenever possible. Entries range from 200-2, 000 words and many are accompanied by full-color images and diagrams. Multidisciplinary in scope, the Environmental Encyclopedia is the perfect resource for environmental studies and sciences classes as well as other disciplines touching on environmental issues.

Climate change poses many challenges that affect society and the natural world. With these challenges, however, come opportunities to respond. By taking steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, the risks to society and the impacts of continued climate change can be lessened. The National Climate Assessment, coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is a mandated report intended to inform response decisions. Required to be developed every four years, these reports provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of climate change impacts available for the United States, making them a unique and important climate change document. The draft Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report reviewed here addresses a wide range of topics of high importance to the United States and society more broadly, extending from human health and community well-being, to the built environment, to businesses and economies, to ecosystems and natural resources. This report evaluates the draft NCA4 to determine if it meets the requirements of the federal mandate, whether it provides accurate information grounded in the scientific literature, and whether it effectively communicates climate science, impacts, and responses for general audiences including the public, decision makers, and other stakeholders.