Synopses & Reviews
America's Climate Choices is a coordinated set of activities convened in response to a request from Congress to "study the serious and sweeping issues associated with global climate change, including the science and technology challenges involved, and provide advice on actions and strategies the nation can take to respond." Expert committees were assembled to assess options and write consensus reports. Collectively, the America's Climate Choices reports provide a broad, action-oriented, and authoritative set of analyses to inform and guide responses to climate change across the nation.
Global climate change is one of America's most significant long-term policy challenges. Human activities---especially the use of fossil fuels, industrial processes, livestock production, waste disposal, and land use change---is affecting global average temperatures, snow and ice cover, sea level, ocean acidification, growing seasons and precipitation patterns, ecosystems, and human health. Climate-related decisions are being carried out by almost every agency of the federal government, as well as many state and local government leaders and agencies, businesses and individual citizens. However, there is currently no comprehensive way to assess the effectiveness of those efforts.
Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change describes and assesses different activities, products, and strategies for informing decision makers about climate change. It discusses who is making decisions (on the local, state, national and international levels), identifies the types of decisions that need to be made about climate change, and assesses the information systems and service needed to both inform and evaluate responses. Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change examines the growing demand for better information on climate change, and how that information may best be provided to guide the development of future decision-making resources.
Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change offers much-needed guidance to those creating and implementing public policy, and offers guidance on improving public understanding of climate change. The information presented in this book will be valuable to decision makers; the public and private sectors; the physical and social science research communities; practitioners of decision-making assistance, including non-governmental organizations and government agencies; and communicators and educators of climate change science.
Synopsis
Global climate change is one of America's most significant long-term policy challenges. Human activity--especially the use of fossil fuels, industrial processes, livestock production, waste disposal, and land use change--is affecting global average temperatures, snow and ice cover, sea-level, ocean acidity, growing seasons and precipitation patterns, ecosystems, and human health. Climate-related decisions are being carried out by almost every agency of the federal government, as well as many state and local government leaders and agencies, businesses and individual citizens. Decision makers must contend with the availability and quality of information, the efficacy of proposed solutions, the unanticipated consequences resulting from decisions, the challenge of implementing chosen actions, and must consider how to sustain the action over time and respond to new information.
Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change, a volume in the America's Climate Choices series, describes and assesses different activities, products, strategies, and tools for informing decision makers about climate change and helping them plan and execute effective, integrated responses. It discusses who is making decisions (on the local, state, and national levels), who should be providing information to make decisions, and how that information should be provided. It covers all levels of decision making, including international, state, and individual decision making. While most existing research has focused on the physical aspect of climate change, Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change employs theory and case study to describe the efforts undertaken so far, and to guide the development of future decision-making resources.
Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change offers much-needed guidance to those creating public policy and assists in implementing that policy. The information presented in this book will be invaluable to the research community, especially social scientists studying climate change; practitioners of decision-making assistance, including advocacy organizations, non-profits, and government agencies; and college-level teachers and students.