Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Acronyms
- 1 Personal Beginnings
- PART I THE CHANGING ARCTIC
- PART II WORKING TOGETHER
- PART III WHAT IS THE PRESENT STATE OF KNOWLEDGE?
- PART IV WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
- Appendix I The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- Appendix II What Will Happen in the Future If We Do Nothing or If We Try Very Hard to Aggressively Reduce GHG Emissions: Projected Change Under Different Emission Scenarios
- Appendix III Some Geophysical Background Notes Related to Climate and Weather
- Appendix IV Orbital Forcing
- Appendix V The Concept of Commitment
- Bibliography
- Credits
- Index
PART IV - WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Acronyms
- 1 Personal Beginnings
- PART I THE CHANGING ARCTIC
- PART II WORKING TOGETHER
- PART III WHAT IS THE PRESENT STATE OF KNOWLEDGE?
- PART IV WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
- Appendix I The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- Appendix II What Will Happen in the Future If We Do Nothing or If We Try Very Hard to Aggressively Reduce GHG Emissions: Projected Change Under Different Emission Scenarios
- Appendix III Some Geophysical Background Notes Related to Climate and Weather
- Appendix IV Orbital Forcing
- Appendix V The Concept of Commitment
- Bibliography
- Credits
- Index
Summary
In this section, we take stock of where we are. Our knowledge of the state of the Arctic environment ultimately depends on universities producing scientists capable of conducting focused interdisciplinary research, on Arctic peoples being willing to enrich such work with their own indigenous cultural knowledge and on governments providing adequate funding and infrastructure. In the chapter entitled “The Long and the Short of It,” we will revisit our six environmental stressors by asking the following three questions: (1) When was the stressor anticipated, (2) when was it perceived (detected) and (3) what did we as a regional or global community do about it? This exercise enables us to evaluate how successful governments have been in organising international cooperative remedial actions and to identify future needs. Climate change is the most foreboding issue we face, but it remains the only stressor lacking any promising international cooperative action founded on a science-based approach. In the Epilogue, the possibility of more direct involvement by the Arctic Council in addressing climate change remedial actions is discussed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Changing Arctic EnvironmentThe Arctic Messenger, pp. 265 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015