This timely book provides a comprehensive insight into the challenges facing humanity and Earth in the 21st century. It opens with a discussion of the domination of all the continents and oceans by a growing human population. This is followed by an appraisal of the extent to which water and food supplies will be able to accommodate this population, which may reach eleven billion by 2100. The rapidly increasing ability to change biology and evolution through genomics is considered next and complements a discussion of disease, which is viewed largely as an evolutionary struggle between humanity and pathogens. A seemingly insatiable demand for energy, future energy supplies and the impact of their use on climate and attempts to ameliorate these effects are next examined. The book concludes with a discussion of the partial destruction of the ozone layer and the international effort to repair the damage./a

This book is the outcome of two International Conferences held at the ISEC in Bangalore, India: the international conference on “Climate Change and Social-Ecological-Economical Interface-Building: Modelling Approach to Exploring Potential Adaptation Strategies for Bio-resource Conservation and Livelihood Development” held during 20–21 May 2015 and jointly organized by the Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources (CEENR), Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) and the Centre for Environmental Systems Research (CESR), University of Kassel, Germany; and the international conference “Climate Change and Food Security – the Global and Indian Contexts,” jointly hosted by the CEENR, ISEC and the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, on 18–19 February 2015. The selected papers presented in this book portray a broad range of international research efforts aimed at developing a deeper understanding of human-environment systems but also at translating scientific knowledge into political and societal solutions and responses to the challenge of climate change.

Opportunities Beyond Carbon presents climate change as potentially the 'best crisis we ever had'. It maps the many opportunities for communities large and small, local and international, making the transition to a low carbon economy. John O'Brien has compiled essays by key politicians, investors, business people, activists and academics on how to make the most of the current predicament. This fresh, lucid and practical optimism for the future offers a foundation for an entirely new and proactive attitude to climate change.

Climate change and other global environmental changes deserve attention by the the humanities - they are caused mainly by human attitudes and activities and feed back to human societies. Focussing on religion allows for analysis of various human modes of perception, action and thought in relation to global environmental change. On the one hand, religious organizations are aiming to become "greener"; on the other hand, some religious ideas and practices display fatalism towards impacts of climate change. What might be the fate of different religions in an ever-warming world? This book gathers recent research on functions of religion in climate change from theological, ethical, philosophical, anthropological, historical and earth system analytical perspectives. Charting the spread from regional case studies to global-scale syntheses, the authors demonstrate that world religions and indigenous belief systems are already responding in highly dynamic ways to ongoing and projected climate changes - in theory and practice, for better or for worse. The book establishes the research field "religion in climate change" and identifies avenues for future research across disciplines.

Stories from Your Future The complex issue of climate change is one that our race is struggling to address. The solutions are not beyond us in any way. Technological solutions exist, scientific knowledge is plentiful, the world can afford the transition but still significant action eludes us. Rational arguments for rapid action abound. We do not need any more of those. What is needed is a different way of communicating that inspires and attracts the widest possible group of humans towards wanting to travel on this same journey. As part of the VISIONS 2100 Project, this book tells of the power of Visions and invites the reader to create and share their own vision of a better world. Only by starting conversations of the future will we manage to build the world that we really want. The book balances worries about catastrophe with social and environmental improvements by referencing psychology, management thought, case studies and personal anecdotes. In also references the parallels between the world’s journey and coping with the chronic illness of the author’s wife. The book is framed around eighty short visions by some of the world’s leading environmental thinkers including Mary Robinson, Christiana Figueres, Bill McKibben, Connie Hedegaard, Yvo de Boer and many others. Having a vision of a better world is likely to result in the world being better. ‘Poverty is eradicated. Every child goes to school regardless of sex, race, religion or place of birth. Every woman enjoys equality with every man. Every household has access to energy. In 2100, the world is just.’ Mary Robinson, Special Envoy on Climate Change, United Nations ‘Opportunity from 2100 forward is unimaginably vast and incredibly varied.’ Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC ‘Timing is everything, and it hurts to think we blew it.’ Bill McKibben, 350.org The future is a beautiful, if challenging, partner. Your choice is whether you take the risk in having a first date or whether you are happy to accept a life of regret. www.visions2100.com

Using the principles of John Rawls’ theory of justice, this book offers an alternative political vision, one which describes a mode of governance that will enable communities to implement a sustainable and socially just future. Rawls described a theory of justice that not only describes the sort of society in which anyone would like to live but that any society can create a society based on just institutions. While philosophers have demonstrated that Rawls’s theory can provide a framework for the discussion of questions of environmental justice, the problem for many philosophical theories is that discussions of sustainable development open the need to address questions of ecological interdependence, historical inequality in past resource use and the recognition that we cannot afford to ignore the limitations of growth. These ideas do not fit in comfortably in standard discourse about theories of justice. In contrast, this book frames the discussion of global justice in terms of environmental sustainability. The author argues that these ideas can be used to develop a coherent political theory that reconciles cosmopolitan arguments and the non-cosmopolitan or nationalist arguments concerning social and environmental justice. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental philosophy and ethics, moral and political philosophy, global studies and sustainable development.