Global Warming: Looking Beyond Kyoto

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reflects the growing international consensus that the earth's climate is being changed by anthropogenic greenhouse gasses. Evidence presented by the IPCC and others points to the potential for increasingly dangerous weather, new disease outbreaks, regional water shortages, the loss of habitat and species, and other disturbing developments that could have profound social and economic impacts. Opinions on what should be done, however, remain sharply divided within and among countries. Though monumental in its efforts, the Kyoto Protocol has left much to be agreed upon and achieved, with the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide --the United States --rejecting it.In G lobal Warming: Looking Beyond Kyoto , some of the best-known and respected authorities in climate policy provide a comprehensive agenda for global collective action. Representing both industrialized and developing nations, the contributors present a thought-provoking examination of the economic, social, and political context of climate policy within their countries. With Kyoto's emissions targets set to expire in 2012, these authors call for a multilateral approach that goes beyond the mitigation-focused Kyoto policies, balancing them with strategies for adaptation. They also stress the importance of generating policies that work within a time frame commensurate with that of climate change itself. Informed, insightful, and even-handed, this book gives a new impetus to the increasingly important global climate policy debate. Contributors include R.K. Pachauri (Energy Resources Institute and the IPCC), Richard S. Lindzen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Stefan Rahmstorf (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), Stephen H. Schneider and Thomas Heller (Stanford University), Robert Mendelsohn and William D. Nordhaus (Yale University), Gernot Klepper and Sonja Peterson (Kiel Institute for World Economics), Robert N. Stavins (Harvard University), Alexander Golub (Environmental Defense), Howard Dalton (U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), John Stone (Carleton University, Ottawa), Jyoti Parikh (Integrated Research and Action for Development), and Shen Longhai (China Energy Conservation Association)

Zedillo was president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000, and is now a professor in international economics and politics at Yale University as well as an adjunct professor of forestry and environmental studies. He has edited this collection of essays from noted climate policy experts regarding global warming and the call for "global collective action." Using the policies defined by the Kyoto Protocol, these essays focus on what we know about global warming at this point in history, and what we need to know by the time the Kyoto policies expire in 2012. The essayists range from noted economists to business professors to Nobel Prize winners who are also members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)