Global Change and Our Common Future includes 22 edited presentations from the Forum on Global Change and Our Common Future. The Forum, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and Sigma Xi, was organized to inform the public about the changes occurring in the global environment and the implications for public policy.

Table of Contents


Front Matter
Part A: Society's Stake in Global Change
1. Toward a Global Environmental Policy
2. Global Change and Our Common Future: The Benjamin Frankline Lecture
3. Global Change and Carrying Capacity: Implications for Life on Earth
Part B: The Earth System
4. The Earth System
5. Mission to Planet Earth Revisited
6. Historical Perspectives: Climatic Changes Throughout the Millennia
7. Mathematical Modeling of Greenhouse Warming: How Much Do We Know?
8. The Earth's Fragile Ozone Shield
9. Terrestrial Ecosystems
10. Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
11. The Human Causes of Global Environmental Change
Part C: Impacts of Global Change
12. What Does Global Change Mean for Society?
13. Impacts of Future Sea Level Rise
14. Threats to Biological Diversity as the Earth Warms
15. Deforestation and Its Role in Possible Changes in the Brazilian Amazon
16. Impacts of Global Change
Part D: Implications For Public Policy
17. The Global Environment: A National Security Issue
18. Implications for Public Policy: Options for Action
19. View from the North
20. View from the South
21. Political Leadership and the Brundtland Report: What Are the Implications for Public Policy
22. Global Warming: Is It Real and Should It Be Part of a Global Change Program?
Appendixes
A: Program -- Forum on Global Change and Our Common Future
B: Committee on Global Change and Oversight Committee Members