1st Edition
Surviving the Climate Crisis Australian Perspectives and Solutions
This is the first textbook to adopt an integrated perspective of climate change in Australia, drawing on research from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2021, 2022) Sixth Assessment Reports to make it the most up-to-date resource available. It fills a knowledge gap in an ever-increasing hot topic for the country, its people, economy and environment.
Australia has been identified by a number of respected sources as a ‘climate change hotspot’, with all major sectors of the economy considered vulnerable or highly vulnerable to the anticipated adverse impacts of climate change. The chief industry sectors examined in this book include energy, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, tourism and mining. Other chapters focus on other key thematic areas, such as protected areas and world heritage sites (including their natural and cultural values), coastal and island environments, biosecurity, biodiversity and ecosystem services, human health, water resources, cities and settlements, rural and regional areas, and Indigenous communities.
Ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students with limited science backgrounds, this book will inform those undertaking business, management, sustainability, education, environmental, development or heritage studies and other social science programs.
Acknowledgement
Acronyms
Preface
Author Biography
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Science of Climate Change
Chapter 3: The Climate of Australia: Past, Present and Future
Chapter 4: Responding to climate change
Chapter 5: Natural Systems
Chapter 6: Economic Systems
Chapter 7: Social Systems
Chapter 8: Synthesis
References
Biography
Stephen M. Turton, born in 1959, grew up in Southern Africa and New Zealand, and has lived in Australia for 40 years. He graduated from the University of Canterbury in 1982 (BSc and MSc in geography) and James Cook University in 1992 (PhD in geography and environmental science). He is now retired and an Adjunct Professor in Environmental Geography in the Research Division at Central Queensland University. From 2005 to 2016, he held several senior roles as Director and Professor of Geography at James Cook University in Cairns. From 2003 to 2005, he was an Associate Professor and Director of Research for the Rainforest Cooperative Research Centre. From 1984 to 2003, he was a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Geography at James Cook University. He is a Councillor of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland, a former Councillor of the Institute of Australian Geographers, a former Councillor of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation and a former member of the Wet Tropics Management Authority’s Scientific Advisory Committee. He is a Past President of the Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, a Past President of the Institute of Australian Geographers and Immediate Past Chair of the National Committee for Geographical Sciences, Australian Academy of Science. He was also an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports, Working Group 2 (Impacts and Adaptation). He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Australian Geographers and a recipient of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland’s highest honour, the J.P. Thomson Medal. He has published over 130 scientific reports, book chapters and journal articles in rainforest ecology, environmental geography and climate change adaptation in tourism and natural resource management. Steve and his wife, Wendy, a fellow graduate of the University of Canterbury and James Cook University, have three sons, all living in Australia.
"This book is a climate change tour-de-force. Covering climate science and the history of climate knowledge, impacts past, present and future, and the solutions that we can, and must employ, it is an invaluable one-stop-shop for anyone engaged in the most challenging issue of our time."
- Lesley Hughes, Distinguished Professor of Biology, Macquarie University, Australia, and board member of Australia's Climate Change Authority.
"Australia is on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Read Surviving the Climate Crisis by Stephen M. Turton to understand the science, the impacts, and the solutions to this defining threat."
- Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor, University of Pennsylvania and author of The New Climate War
