Global Environmental Change Understanding the Human Dimensions (1992) / Chapter Skim
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1 Prologue
1 Prologue
Pages 17-23
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From page 17... ...
Because people engage in purposeful behavior, it is also important to focus on human responses to global changes. For example, after people learned that CFCs rising into the stratosphere would deplete the ozone there and threaten human health, they made serious efforts to phase out industrial and commercial uses of these chemicals.
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From page 18... ...
These three examples reappear later on to illustrate issues in the human dimensions of global change. GREENHOUSE GASES AND CLIMATE CHANGE Human activities threaten to alter the global climate by releasing so-called greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs, and nitrous oxide, that have the effect of increasing the proportion of heat from the sun that is retained at the top of the atmosphere.
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From page 19... ...
whose effects are similar to those of CFCs; it allowed developing countries to actually increase their use of CFCs; it offered minimal assistance to governments seeking to reduce the use of CFCs within their own jurisdictions; it provided little guidance on compliance; and it did not succeed in drawing in key players like China and India. But the pressure of worldwide public opinion, driven by dramatic recurrences of sharp yearly reductions in ozone over Antarctica and by a growing scientific consensus concerning the dangers of ozone depletion, led to a renegotiation of the protocol that has strengthened its provisions in a number of areas.
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From page 20... ...
AMAZONIAN DEFORESTATION AND THE LOSS OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY Human activities are decreasing biological diversity on land, in fresh waters and the seas, in industrialized and developing nations, from the coldest inhabited lands to the tropics. But because of the huge variety of species confined to the tropical moist forests, their destruction is likely to cause more Toss of biological diversity at the species level than any other human activity.
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From page 21... ...
It follows as well that simple, one-dimensional policies, such as a carbon tax or a uniform law of the atmosphere, cannot by themselves control global environmental change. The stories also suggest the need to build stronger links between the natural sciences and the social sciences in efforts to understand global environmental changes and to devise public policies to respond to them in an effective manner.
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From page 22... ...
ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK This book articulates the principal elements of a strategy for adding to knowledge of the human dimensions of global environmental change. It takes stock of relevant existing knowledge, identifies what is unknown but might be learned about human behavior that could improve understanding of global change, and sets forth a series of programmatic guidelines to give direction to efforts over the next 5 to 10 years to improve that understanding.
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From page 23... ...
Chapter 5, in particular, will be of interest to social scientists who are looking for ways to relate global change research to progress in their disciplines. In Chapter 8, we present the structure of a national research program on the human dimensions of global change.
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