Global Warming and Climate Change [Paperback]

In the industrial age, the atmosphere has been polluted by certain gases called Green House Gases (GHG). These gases allow the solar radiation of shorter wavelength to pass through downwards through the atmosphere heating the earth surface; but GHG do not allow the infrared radiation of longer wavelength emanated by the earth to pass through. Resultantly, the captured heat warms up the earth and the atmosphere. This phenomenon of warming is similar to induced heating in the horticultural Greenhouse where the heat is entrapped inside the glass walls of greenhouse. Thus the polluting gases in the atmosphere are called Green House Gases (GHG). The principal GHGs are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), CFC (Chlorofluorocarbon) and nitrous oxide (N2O) etc.

Generally speaking, global temperature rise should affect the quality of rainfall, duration of rainfall and timing of rainfall, upsetting agricultural production schedule and even productivity, glacial melting and rise of sea level, occurrence of storm and possibly other geological and meteorological phenomena. But the effect of the global warming will not be uniform, some countries will have more rainfall and other countries will suffer from intense aridity and long-term fear of desertification.  Most of the nations will be losers in one way or the other and therefore the potential loser nations will wish to prevent global warming, which can be achieved mainly by reduction of emission of GHG.

In Part I, we introduce the fundamentals of the Climatic Science and Climatology. In Part II, we have highlighted the IPCC studies of anthropogenic global warming and climate change in some details. The Part III of the book studies the economics of climate change at basic level and the associated sociological impacts.

Climate change is a subject of global concern and hence will be of interest to a wider readership of policy makers, sociological and political professionals, scientists, economists, and students, researchers and teachers of universities and academic institutions. Though the book is not specifically designed for a university course, graduate students will find it highly useful for all environment science and sustainability programmes.

This book may serve as a sequel to author's two earlier books Renewable Energy and Water Resources – Strategic Overview for Global Sustainability of this publisher. There are two other books of this author on relevant subjects Sustainable Development – Environment, Energy and Water Resources (Ane Books, New Delhi/CRC Press US) and Green World Green Energy (Gyan Publishing House, New Delhi). The readers may find all of them as useful and relevant reading.

PART I

Climate Science & Fundamentals of Climate Change

Chapter 1:   Weather, Climate and Climate Change – An Introduction

Chapter 2:   Basic Elements of Global Climate:

Chapter 3:   Solar Radiation & Energy Balance

Chapter 4:   Inter-Year Climate Change

Chapter 5:   Physical Laws and General Circulation Modelling

Chapter 6:  Palaeoclimatology: Ancient Climate and Climate Change

PART II

Anthropogenic Global Warming & Climate Change:

        Chapter 7:  Outline of Anthropogenic Character of Global warming

        Chapter 8: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

        Chapter 9: UNFCCC 1992 & International Conferences on Climate Change

        Chapter 10: Major UN Climate Change Conferences till date

PART III

Social and Economic Impacts of Climate Change

        Chapter 11: Elements of Economics of Climate Change

        Chapter 12:  Carbon Trading

        Chapter 13: Climate Technologies

        Chapter 14: Urban Climate Change

        Chapter 15: Climate Change & Human Migration 

Prof. M.K. Ghosh Roy has a B.Tech. (Hons) in Naval Architecture from IIT Kharagpur and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Bombay University. He worked for some years in shipbuilding and other industries and eventually rose to senior management position. Because of his increasing research work, he became Senior Professor at IIT Madras. His research papers are included in the Transactions of Royal Institution of Naval Architects, London and Japan. He had later switched to Environmental Science and Engineering. He is already author of five books, viz. Sustainable Development —  Environment, Energy and Water; Sea, Seafaring and Ship — Evolution through Ancient, Medieval & Modern Times; Green World Green Energy — A Search for a New Way of Living; Renewable Energy and Water Resources — Global Strategic Overview.