Preface

Climate change is one of the most important problems today. It affects everybody as well as the natural environment in which we live. Recently, the weather has changed causing all kinds of problems for both humans and the current biota. These changes in weather and weather patterns have led to changes in the physical processes occurring in the natural environment, such as frequency and magnitude of floods, droughts, rates of soil erosion, and associated phenomena. Sea level changes, slope stability, thawing of permafrost, and desertification are among the consequences of climate change. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in numerous local and international meetings at which the causes and mitigation of the more problematic effects of climate change have been discussed.

The main idea of global warming was developed by a consortium of mainly European scientists and funded by numerous governments. They argue that the whole world has been warming at an ever-increasing rate since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, c. 1870 AD. The causes are presumed to be the effects of greenhouse gases and the results are published in numerous reports and updates (e.g., Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]) [1]. In a previous book [2], the origin and history of the concept of global warming was discussed and it was clear that not all climate scientists agreed. Instead, some thought that climate change could be restricted to regional areas that could become warmer or colder as well as wetter or dryer. Obviously, the high variability of climate at all time scales complicates the situation. Although the IPCC has revised its conclusions many times, not all scientists agree with the results.

The objective of this book is to obtain a picture of the climatic changes occurring around the world during the last 20–50 years together with the resulting changes in land use and the environment. Remarkably few papers have come from countries where the ideas of global warming were developed. Instead, more than 100 potential chapters were offered dealing with the changes in climate in tropical and subtropical countries. These changes did not prove global warming in most of these areas, but rather they described the environmental changes that were due to more moderate changes in climate. One paper from Nigeria analyzed 50 years of data from actual weather stations and concluded that the climate was not changing, but that instead the weather alternated with decades of years with cooler and wetter climates with other periods of warmer weather accompanied by drought.

The book is divided into five sections. Section 1 begins with a chapter discussing some possible causes of the arguments over the concept of global warming. This is followed by a chapter examining the evidence from satellites, which raises doubts about the worldwide application of global warming theory. Other possibilities are explored such as ocean currents and hurricanes piling up heat energy in the North Atlantic region, and periodic deep-water warm, thermo-saline current carrying heat south to the Antarctic seas [3, 4]. This would be counterbalanced by cold surface Antarctic waters flowing north to replace the mass of the warm thermo-saline current. The post-2018 increase in violence of the weather around the Northern Hemisphere appears to have started after a great amount of warm

air moved north to the tropical areas instead of going south to Antarctica. Its causes and effects are not currently known. Section 2 provides an example of the response of Spanish schoolchildren to the theory of global warming. Section 3 consists of several chapters discussing the effects of climate change on agriculture and the environment. Chapters describe the land use changes in various tropical and subtropical countries in contrast to the effects of climatic changes in northern Russia. In many cases, the changes involve growing different crops that can cope with the new climatic conditions. Section 4 consists of chapters describing changes in hydrology and appropriate mitigation measures including minimizing the effects of drought. The problems involved include soil erosion, mass wasting, changes in stream courses with using solar panels to improve efficiency of irrigation. Section 5 consists of three chapters dealing with the problems encountered by humans in hot climates. A chapter in this section discusses the problems of survival of bees, which are essential for pollination of plants and crops. Without bees, animals are in trouble since they rely on vegetation as an essential part of the food chain.

> **Stuart A. Harris** Emeritus Professor, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
