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With weather-related losses on the rise, this timely volume explores the poorly-understood fields of hazard vulnerability and disaster management. Including issues of societal responses to climate change, as well as insurance matters and current research methodologies, Thomas Downing presents an ...

With weather-related losses on the rise, this timely volume explores the poorly-understood fields of hazard vulnerability and disaster management. Including issues of societal responses to climate change, as well as insurance matters and current research methodologies, Thomas Downing presents an overview of the future of climatic disasters, and our ability to cope with them.

Climate change is one of the most challenging issues of our time. As key sites in the production and management of emissions of greenhouse gases, cities will be crucial for the implementation of international agreements and national policies on climate change. This book provides a critical analysis ...

Climate change is one of the most challenging issues of our time. As key sites in the production and management of emissions of greenhouse gases, cities will be crucial for the implementation of international agreements and national policies on climate change. This book provides a critical analysis of the role of cities in addressing climate change and the prospects for urban sustainability.Cities and Climate Change is the first in-depth analysis of the role of cities in addressing climate change. The book argues that key challenges concerning the resources and powers of local government, as well as conflicts between local goals for economic development and climate change mitigation, have restricted the level of local action on climate change. These findings have significant implications for the prospects of mitigating climate change and achieving urban sustainability. This book provides a valuable interdisciplinary analysis of these issues, and will appeal to students and researchers interested in sustainability at local and global scales.

Global climate change has emerged as one of today's most challenging and controversial policy issues. In this significant new contribution, a roster of premier scholars examines economic and social aspects of that far-reaching phenomenon. Although the 1997 "summit" in Kyoto focused world attention ...

Global climate change has emerged as one of today's most challenging and controversial policy issues. In this significant new contribution, a roster of premier scholars examines economic and social aspects of that far-reaching phenomenon. Although the 1997 "summit" in Kyoto focused world attention on climate, it was just one step in an ongoing process. Research by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been ongoing since 1988. An extensive IPCC Working Group report published in 1995 examined the economic and social aspects of climate change. In this new volume, eminent economists assess that IPCC report and address the questions that emerge. The result is a reasoned, cogent look at the realities of climate change and some methods (and difficulties) of dealing with them. William Nordhaus's introduction establishes the context for this book. It provides basic scientific background, reviews the IPCC's activities, and explains the genesis of the project. Subsequent contributions fall into two categories. Early chapters review analytical issues critical to social and economic understanding of climate change. For example, Granger Morgan looks at how typical decisionmaking frameworks relate to this topic. Other chapters in this section discuss discounting and intergenerational equity, the possible role of cost-benefit analysis, and the institutional architecture needed to address the problem effectively. A second set of chapters address specific economic questions surrounding climate-change policy. For example, John Weyant and Tom Kram look at the costs of slowing climate change. Weyant agrees with the IPCC that the economic cost is high, relative to other economic and environmental policies. There is tremendous uncertainty in these estimates, however, and different approaches to modeling -- economic, engineering, and social-psychological -- yield very different interpretations and prognoses. In another chapter, Robert Mendelsohn examines the costs of not slowing climate change. What impacts can we expect, how might they vary among different nations and regions, and how likely are we to encounter catastrophic results?