The exclusive role of natural ecosystems is a key factor in the maintenance of the biospheric equilibrium. The current global crisis is largely caused by their dramatic decline by 43% in the past hundred years. Ignoring the immutable laws and limitations which determine the existence of all living things in the biosphere could lead humanity to an ecological catastrophe. This book presents the ecological, demographic, economic and socio-psychological manifestations of the global crisis and outlines the immutable laws and limitations which determine the existence of all living things in the biosphere. The authors are eminently qualified to write about the problems associated with the global crisis and consider the causes behind humanity's conflict with its environment. V. Danilov-Danilian, Associate of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Russia's former Minister of the Environment, and K. Losev, professor at Moscow State university, are leading Russian ecologists and I. Reyf is a journalist who specializes in ecology and global development. Dr. Danilov-Danilian works on the economics of nature management, economic and mathematical model building, sustainable development theory and ecology. Dr Losev is the chief researcher and head of the division of the VINITI. All the authors have published numerous papers, articles and books on such subjects as glaciology, hydrology, environment studies, global change and sustainable development.

Climate change, a familiar term today, is far more than just global warming due to atmospheric greenhouse gases including CO2. In order to understand the nature of climate change, it is necessary to consider the whole climatic system, its complexity, and the ways in which natural and anthropogenic activities act and influence that system and the environment. Over the past 20 years since the first edition of Understanding Global Climate Change was published, not only has the availability of climate-related data and computer modelling changed, but our perceptions of it and its impact have changed as well. Using a combination of ground data, satellite data, and human impacts, this second edition discusses the state of climate research today, on a global scale, and establishes a background for future discussions on climate change. This book is an essential reference text, relevant to any and all who study climate and climate change. Features Provides a thought-provoking and original approach to the science of climate. Emphasises that there are many factors contributing to the causation of climate change. Clarifies that while anthropogenic generation of carbon dioxide is important, it is only one of several human activities contributing to climate change. Considers climate change responses needed to be undertaken by politicians and society at national and global levels. Totally revised and updated with state-of-the-art satellite data and climate models currently in operation around the globe.

This book provides new insights on the study of global environmental changes using the ecoinformatics tools and the adaptive-evolutionary technology of geoinformation monitoring. The main advantage of this book is that it gathers and presents extensive interdisciplinary expertise in the parameterization of global biogeochemical cycles and other environmental processes in the context of globalization and sustainable development. In this regard, the crucial global problems concerning the dynamics of the nature-society system are considered and the key problems of ensuring the system’s sustainable development are studied. A new approach to the numerical modeling of the nature-society system is proposed and results are provided on modeling the dynamics of the system’s characteristics with regard to scenarios of anthropogenic impacts on biogeochemical cycles, land ecosystems and oceans. The main purpose of this book is to develop a universal guide to information-modeling technologies for assessing the function of environmental subsystems under various climatic and anthropogenic conditions.

Large-scale natural catastrophes are environmental phenomena. Numerous studies in recent years have concluded that the frequency of occurrence of such natural disasters have been incereasing. leading to an enhanced risk of very considerable human and economic losses and the widespread destruction and pollution of habitats, settlements and infrastructure. In 2001 over 650 natural disasters happened around the globe with economic losses exceeding $35 billion. 2004 ended with the South East Asian tsunami on 26th December with its huge toll on life and local economics and this demonstrated that the efffects of such disasters are most keenly felt in poorer or developing regions. The problem of natural disaster prediction and the implementation of environmental monitoring systems to receive, store and process the information necessary for solutions of specific problems in this area , have been analysed by the three authors of this book, all of whom are internationally respected experts in this field.

Opening with a survey of contemporary global ecodynamics, including its basic components, this book goes on to discuss greenhouse effect problems in the context of global carbon cycle dynamics. The coverage includes land ecosystem changes, air-sea exchange models, high-latitude environmental dynamics, and a discussion of basic aspects of global environmental modelling and relevant monitoring systems. The volume concludes by examining society systems with emphasis on the problems of sustainable development.

Opening with a survey of contemporary global ecodynamics, including its basic components, this book goes on to discuss greenhouse effect problems in the context of global carbon cycle dynamics. The coverage includes land ecosystem changes, air-sea exchange models, high-latitude environmental dynamics, and a discussion of basic aspects of global environmental modelling and relevant monitoring systems. The volume concludes by examining society systems with emphasis on the problems of sustainable development.

This book gives new insight to the study of the global environmental changes using the ecoinformatics and microwave remote sensing tools together with the adaptive-evolutionary technology of geoinformation monitoring. The main advantage of this book consists in the accumulation of the interdisciplinary scientific knowledge for the parameterization of the global biogeochemical cycles and other environmental processes in the context of globalization and sustainable development. In this regard, the crucial global problems of the dynamics of the climate-nature-society system have been considered and the key problems of ensuring its sustainable development have been addressed. An analysis of the present trend in changing ecological systems has been discussed, including different types of forest ecosystems and ocean aquatories. The emphasis has been given to the accomplishment of the global geoinformation monitoring, which could provide a reliable control of the environmental processes development with reliable prognostic estimates of the consequences of human activities. A new approach to the numerical modelling of the climate-nature-society system has been presented and demonstrative results have been given about the modelling of the dynamics of this system‟s characteristics, in cases of realization of some scenarios of the anthropogenic impacts to the biogeochemical cycles, the land ecosystems and oceans. Methods and algorithms for the big data manipulation and processing in the remote sensing environmental monitoring systems have been described.