Confronting Climate Change [Paperback]

What are the manifest and likely future consequences of climate change? How will the world respond to the challenges of climate change in the twenty-first century? How should people think about confronting the politics of climate change?

In this highly accessible introduction to the predicted global impacts of climate change, Constance Lever-Tracy provides an authoritative guide to one of the most controversial issues facing the future of our planet. Discussing how the social and natural sciences must work together more effectively in confronting climate change, Lever-Tracy provides a sober, critical assessment of the politics of global warming and climate change.

By combining sociology, environmental studies and politics, Confronting Climate Changewill serve as an introduction that will appeal to students and general readers alike.

Introduction  Part I: What Do We Know?  1. Introduction to Part I  2. Knowns and Unknowns  3. Manifest Vulnerabilities  4. Future Risks  5. Confronting the Risks  Part II: What Can We Do?  6. Introduction to Part II  7. Changing Our Practices  8. Changing Our Power: Natural Gas, Biofuels and Nuclear Energy  9. Changing Our Power: Water, Wind, Sun and Earth  10. Adapting to a Changing Climate  Part III: Who Can Do It?  11. From the Bottom Up or the Top Down  12. Global Conflict or Co-operation?  13. Conclusion

Constance Lever-Tracy was Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Flinders University of South Australia, now retired. Her recent work includes editing the Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society(2010), and the entry for Global Warming in the International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences(2008).