Oil, Water and Climate An Introduction

About this book

Today's oil and gas are at record prices, whilst global energy demand is increasing from population and economic development pressures. Climate change, resulting in large part from the burning of fossil fuels, is exacerbating the impacts of the excelerated exploitation of our natural resources. Therefore, anxieties over energy, water, and climate security are at an all-time high. Global action is needed now in order to address this set of urgent challenges and to avoid putting the future of our civilization at risk.

This book examines the powerful interconnections that link energy, water, climate and population, exploring viable options in addressing these issues collectively. Difficult political decisions and major reforms in resource governance, policies, market forces, and use are needed and this book provides excellent introductory material to begin to understand and to address these problems.

Contents

Foreword; Introduction; 1. Overview; 2. Carbon dioxide emissions, global warming, and water resources; 3. Population, environmental impacts, and climate change; 4. Carbon cycle and human impacts on it; 5. Peak oil, energy, water, and climate; 6. Oil consumption and CO2 emissions from transportation; 7. Oil, economy, power, and conflicts; 8. Energy alternatives and their connection to water and climate; 9. The water cycle and global warming; 10. Freshwater availability, sanitation deficit, and water usage - connection to energy and global warming; 11. Rivers, lakes, aquifers, and dams - relation to energy and climate; 12. Water contamination, energy, and climate; 13. Geopolitics of water and the international situation; 14. Water alternatives; 15. Global climate change - observations, modeling, and predictions; 16. Energy and water challenges and solutions in a changing climate framework - commonality, differences, and connections.

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Biography

Catherine Gautier (Doctorat Es Science in Physics/ Meteorology, Universite de Paris, 1984) is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Gautier is the former Director of the Institute for Computational Earth System Science and current Head of the Earth Space Research Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She co-edited with Jean-Louis Fellous Comprendre le changement climatique (2007).