Global Change and Local Places

Book excerpt: This comprehensive book explores the ways people and biota contribute to climate change in four localities of the United States. This volume summarizes the findings of the Global Change in Local Places (GCLP) project initiated by the Association of American Geographers to investigate the contribution of local factors to global change, how and why these factors change over time, and how the effects might be controlled and mitigated locally. The sources and driving forces for greenhouse gas emissions vary widely among the four research sites, as do the possibilities and propensities to mitigate emissions and adapt to the local changes global warming could bring. Policy makers and legislators will be unable to address human-induced climate change effectively without the insights revealed by examining and understanding the daily routines that are simultaneously the sources of climate change and the keys to reducing its severity and coping with its effects.