Product Description: Social and natural scientists often are called upon to produce, or participate, in the pro­ duction of forecasts. This volume assembles essays that (a) describe the organizational and political context of applied forecasting, (b) review the state-of-the-art for many fore­ casting models and methods, and (c) discuss issues of predictability, the implications of forecaSt errors, and model construction, linkage and verification...read more

Product Description: Does the solution to our energy crisis depend upon the de­ velopment of coal, nuclear, solar, or some other energy source? Are we better off because science and technology have made us less vulnerable to natural catastrophes? How, in fact, do we see ourselves now in relation to our natural world? The answers to these questions lie as much within the humanities as in the sciences...read more

Product Description: In the bewildering days after diagnosis of a severe disease, patients learn two daunting facts: One, no doctor has all the answers, and two, there are no answers, only odds. For readers (and their families) who want to be involved in the key choices regarding treatment, Dr...read more

Product Description: Questions surrounding the issue of climate change are evolving from "Is it happening?" to "What can be done about it?" The primary obstacles to addressing it at this point are not scientific but political and economic; nonetheless a quick resolution is unlikely...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This comprehensive resource contains the latest data on the effects of exercise on blood glucose and metabolism, prevention of type 2, treatment plans, and medication adjustment, as well as exercise’s effects on conditions such as retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This text is the culmination of a three-year project to research and study the impacts of global climate change on ecosystems and individual wildlife species in North America. In 1997, the National Wildlife Federation provided fellowships to eight graduate students to conduct research on global climate change, this book presents the results...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Laboratory Earth taps the relevant knowledge from physical, biological, and social sciences needed to study the planet holistically. This so-called Earth Systems Science fosters a new way to understand the Earth and our roles as inhabitants, with the purpose of building solutions to the bewildering global environment and overdevelopment...read more

Explores the science of global change and the current state of the planet, citing the consequences for environmental irresponsibility and providing a framework for considering global change issues.

"Scientists on Gaia" is a multidisciplinary exploration of the controversial Gaia hypothesis which was first phrased by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the early 1970s. Forty-four contributions detail the philosophical, empirical, and theoretical foundations of Gaia, mechanisms through which planetwide homeostasis could occur, applicability of the hypothesis to planets other than Earth, possible destabilization by outside forces and public policy implications. The Gaia hypothesis posits that Earth's physical and biological processes are linked to form a complex, self-regulating system and that life has affected this system over time. Traditional science states that life is primarily a passive passenger on Earth, dependent on the Earth's chemistry, atmosphere, geology, and oceans. The Gaia hypothesis, on the other hand, suggests that life is an active participant in shaping the physical and chemical environment on which life also depends. "Scientists on Gaia" provides a mulltilensed examination of the hypothesis, shows how Gaia can be formulated as a scientific hypothesis rather than some kind of New Age philosophy, and addresses significant changes in the hypothesis since its conception.

Assesses the underlying causes of global climate change, the potential social and environmental repercussions, and strategies for averting wholesale catastrophe

It has been widely recognized recently that in order to make scientific progress on large and important problems (eg, carbon dioxide effects on climate, viability of various sites for nuclear waste disposal etc.), it is necessary to integrate knowledge from wide ranging sets of disciplines. This is certainly true in the climate sciences, for progress in understanding the cause of the ice ages or the effects of industrial pollution on the future climate or even the likelihood of severe climatic consequences in the aftermath of nuclear war. All require state-of -the -art input from many geoscience disci­ plines climatology, oceanography, meteorology, chemistry, ecology, glaciology, geology, astronomy, space technology, computer technology, mathematics etc. Major international meetings have called for interaction of such geo-science disciplines to solve real world problems. To move beyond the rhetorical level, the NATO Special Programme on Global Transport Mechanisms in the Geo-Sciences whose activities started in 1983, deci­ ded to organise his closing symposium on such a topic which focus on the relationship between climate and geo-sciences. This symposium was held at the end of May 1988 at the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-Ia-Neuve, Belgium. One hundred-and-thirty participants from the 16 NATO countries and a number of non-NATO countries assembled for the Symposium. Another feature was the attendance by special invitation of 16 pro­ mising young scientists who might well become leading scientists on climate and geo-sciences in their respective countries in the next century.

A leading climatologist and a science writer chronicle Earth's climate history--from the primeval tempests that saw the beginnings of life to the crucial environmental problems confronting the planet today--and demonstrate how life and weather evolved together

Analyzes the underlying problems demonstrated by the Love Canal disaster, the Three Mile Island crisis, and the oil shortage

Proposes a solution to urgent world problems stemming from recent climatic changes and depleted resources that is based on the principle of insuring future survival through the maintenance of reserve supplies of necessities