Eco-Resorts is a design guide for low impact, environmentally friendly tourist resorts in the tropics. The book is the first to offer architects practical, detailed guidance in developing resort buildings that work with a tropical climate and meet the needs and expectations of the client and building inhabitants.
Providing a concise, up-to-date presentation of current knowledge of climate change and its implications for society as a whole, this new edition has been thoroughly updated and extended to include the latest information. The text describes the components of the global climate, considers how the many elements of climate combine to define its behaviour, and reviews how climate change is measured.
Concern exists over human-generated increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases and their potential consequences to society. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 finds that global temperatures have increased by 0.8єC since 1850 and that climate warming is now 'unequivocal'. While the human imprint is becoming increasingly apparent, Earth’s climate has shifted dramatically and frequently during the last few million years, alternating between ice ages, when vast glaciers covered Northern Europe and much of North America, and interglacials—warm periods much like today. Farther back in geologic time, climates have differed even more from the present. Thus, to fully understand the unusual changes of the 20th century and possible future trends, these must be placed in a longer-term context extending beyond the period of instrumental records.
The Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments, a companion volume to the recently-published Encyclopedia of World Climatology, provides the reader with an entry point to the rapidly expanding field of paleoclimatology—the study of climates of the past. Highly interdisciplinary in nature, paleoclimatology integrates information from a broad array of disciplines in the geosciences, ranging from stratigraphy, geomorphology, glaciology, paleoecology, paleobotany to geochemistry and geophysics, among others. The encyclopedia offers 230 informative articles written by over 200 well known international experts on numerous subjects, ranging from classical geological evidence to the latest research. The volume is abundantly illustrated with line-drawings, black-white and color photographs. Articles are arranged alphabetically, with extensive bibliographies and cross-references.
Mitch, the hurricane that devastated Central America in 1998, was one of the most savage storms of the century, however, research shows that, overall, hurricanes are not growing fiercer or more frequent. With the intensification of climate research in recent years and rising concern that humans may be altering the global climate, funding agencies have increased the resources available for evaluating the evidence of global warming and its likely consequences. Hurricanes, Revised Edition is a fully revised, authoritative guide to hurricanes. It contains new and updated sidebars explaining concepts from atmospheric science, such as potential temperature; the link between the jet stream and mid-latitude depressions; why the wind blows; and the conservation of angular momentum - the principle that explains the way hurricane winds accelerate as air spirals inward. Measurements are given in familiar units, such as pounds, feet, miles, and degrees Fahrenheit, and in each case the metric or scientific equivalent has been added. Appendices list some of the most notorious hurricanes of the past and the set of names that are used to identify tropical cyclones in different parts of the world. Also, suggestions for relevant further reading have been added at the end of each section as well as in a comprehensive bibliography at the end of the book. Sources include useful books and a large number of web addresses.
A very brief introduction to the geography, climate, plants, and animals of Australia.
