Questions surrounding the issue of climate change are evolving from "is it happening?" to what can be done about it?". The primary obstacles to addressing it at this point are not scientific but political and economic; nonetheless a quick resolution is unlikely. Ignorance and confusion surrounding the issue - including lack of understanding of climate science, its implications for the environment and society, and the range of policy options available - contributes to the political morass over dealing with climate change in which we find ourselves. This text addresses that situation by bringing together a wide range of writings that examine the many dimensions of the topics most important in understanding climate change and policies to consider it. The chapters consider: climate science in historical perspective; analysis of uncertainties in climate science and policy; the economics of climate policy; north-south and intergenerational equity issues; the role of business and industry in climate solutions; and policy mechanisms including joint implementation, emissions trading, and the so-called clean development mechanism.
Stephen H. Schneider is the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Professor of Biology, and a Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He served as a National Center For Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist from 1972-1996, where he co-founded the Climate Project in 1973. He focuses on climate change science, integrated assessment of ecological and economic impacts of human-induced climate change, and identifying viable climate policies and technological solutions. He has consulted for federal agencies and White House staff in seven consecutive administrations. He has been involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in every assessment since 1988. More recently he was Coordinating Lead Author, Working Group II, Chapter 19, "Assessing Key Vulnerabilities and the Risk from Climate Change" and a core writer for the Fourth Assessment Synthesis Report. He along with four generations of IPCC authors received a collective Nobel Peace Prize for their joint efforts in 2007.Schneider has already begun to help structure the Fifth IPCC assessment (AR5), and was a delegate to the AR5 Scoping Meeting in Venice in July 2009.
Elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2002, Schneider received the American Association for the Advancement of Science/ Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology and a MacArthur Fellowship for integrating and interpreting the results of global climate research. Founder (1975) and still editor of the interdisciplinary journal Climatic Change, he has authored or co-authored over 500 books, scientific papers, proceedings, legislative testimonies, edited books and chapters, reviews and editorials and has been featured in numerous televisions and film productions (please see attached vita). Dr. Schneider counsels policy makers, corporate executives, and non-profit stakeholders about using risk management strategies in climate-policy decision-making, given the uncertainties in future projections of global climate change and related impacts. He is actively engaged in improving public understanding of science and the environment through extensive media communication and public outreach. He has created a very comprehensive website on climate issues for the attentive public: climatechange.net. Many of his talks and appearances can be found on Youtube.
He is a cancer survivor since 2001, and helped design a new protocol for "maintenance therapy" for his rare mantle cell lymphoma. The story is described in his book "The Patient From Hell" and in his cancer website, patientfromhell.org.
