Geography of Climate Change

Climate change is one of the inescapable themes of current times. Climate change confronts society in issues as diverse as domestic and international political debate and negotiation, discussion in the media and public opinion, land management choices and decisions, and concerns about environmental, social and economic priorities now and for the future. Climate change also spans spatial, temporal and organisational scales, and has strong links with nature-society relationships, environmental dynamics, and vulnerability. Understanding the full range of possible consequences of climate change is essential for informed decision making and debate.

This book provides a collection of chapters that span environmental, social and economic aspects of climate change. Together the chapters provide a diverse and contrasting series that highlights the need to analyze, review and debate climate change and its possible impacts and consequences from multiple perspectives. The book also is intended to promote discussion and debate of a more integrated, inclusive and open approach to climate change and demonstrates the value of geography in addressing climate change issues.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

Richard Aspinall is a geographer with research interests in coupled human-environmental systems, especially in land use, environmental change, and ecosystem services, and in GIS. From 2006-2011 he was Director of the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, an interdisciplinary institute addressing economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability.