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Chapter 1. Climate Shock

Figure 1.6: Variations of the Earth's surface temperature in the Northern Hemisphere for the past 1,000 years. Yearly data and running average from thermometers, tree rings, corals, ice cores, and historical records. Gray represents 95 percent confidence range. Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Figure 1.7: Variations in rainfall in the Sahel region of Africa, measured as deviations from the long-term average. The measurements are 'normalized' in such a way that any departure from the range from -1 to +1 degrees C might occur by change, but any departure outside of this range is probably a sign of a change in weather patterns. On this evidence, the 'normal' weather in the Sahel is drier now than in the 1950s.

Figure 1.8: The rising trend of global sea level closely follows the rising temperature trend. Source: James Hansen/GISS.

Figure 1.9: This graph plots the change in position of the front of the Grindewald glacier, in Switzerland, relative to its present position since 1500. The glacier has retreated about 1.5 kilometers since 1850, and about half of this retreat has occurred since 1940. The glacial retreat mirrors the rise in global temperature.

Figure 1.10: As the Earth shifts into or out of an interglacial, temperature variations and changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere move in step. Data from the Vostok ice core.

Chapter 2. Species in Danger: Three Case Studies

Chapter 3. Nuclear Power

Chapter 4. Biotechnology & Genetically Manipulated Organisms

Chapter 5. The Paradox of Sustainable Development

Chapter 6. Deforestation

Chapter 7. War and Peace: Security at Stake

Chapter 8. Globalization is Environmental

Chapter 9. What is Wilderness and Do We Need It?

Chapter 10. The Urban Environment: Calcutta and Los Angeles

Chapter 11. Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

Figure 11.3: Schematic of human domination of the Earth system.

Figure 11.4: Human domination or alteration of several major components of the earth system, expressed as (from left to right) percentage of the land surface transformed; percentage of the current atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration that results from human action; percentage of accessible surface fresh water used; percentage of terrestrial nitrogen fixation that is human-caused; percentage of plant species in Canada that humanity has introduced from elsewhere; percentage of bird species on Earth that have become extinct in the past two millenia, almost all of them as a consequence of human activity; and percentage of major marine fisheries that are fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted.

Chapter 12. Soil and Agriculture

Chapter 13. Air and Water

Chapter 14. Energy

Figure 14.4: The top curve is a representative BAU emissions path for global carbon emissions as CO2 from fossil fuel combustion and cement manufacture: 1.5% per year growth starting from 7.0 GtC/year in 2004. The bottom curve is a CO2 emissions path consistent with atmospheric CO2 stabilization at 500 ppm by 2125. [See also SOM text.] The bottom curve assumes an ocean uptake calculated with the High-Latitude Exchange Interior Diffusion Advection (HILDA) ocean model and a constant net land uptake of 0.5 GtC/year. The area between the two curves represents the avoided carbon emissions required for stabilization.

Figure 14.5: Idealization of Figure 14.4: A stabilization triangle of avoided emissions (gray) and allowed emissions (black). The allowed emissions are fixed at 7 GtC/year beginning in 2004. The stabilization triangle is divded into seven wedges, each of which reaches I GtC/year in 2054. With linear growth, the total avoided emissions per wedge is 25 GtC, and the total area of the stabilization triangle is 175 GtC. The arrow at the bottom right of the stabilization triangle points downward to emphasize that fossil fuel emissions must decline substantially below 7 GtC/year after 2054 to achieve stabilization at 500 ppm.

Chapter 15. Toxicology

Chapter 16. The Inner Life

Chapter 17. Ethics, Philosophy, Gender

Chapter 18. Poetry

Chapter 19. History and the Environment

Chapter 20. Nature Writing

Chapter 21. Politics and Public Policy

Chapter 22. Law and Environmental Justice

Chapter 23. Economics

Figure 23.3: Fuel use and real GNP per year.

Figure 23.4: Productivity per worker-hour (as measured by real value added per worker-hour) and fuel use per worker-hour in the U.S. manufacturing sectors from 1909 to 1980. Fuel use includes fossil fuels and electricity. Background shows factory workers c. 1900. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service, Edison National Historical Site.

Figure 23.5: (top) Ratio of output per unit fuel (tons per kilocalorie) used by extractive sectors of the U.S. economy; (bottom) Net energy return (EROI) over time for U.S. fossil fuel sources.

Chapter 24. Human Population

Chapter 25. Anthropology

Chapter 26. Conviction and Action