Overview

The Earth System is revolutionary in its design because it addresses the issues of global change from a true Earth systems perspective. Lessons from Earth's past allow students to put such modern global change issues in historical context. The book describes how the Earth system ""works"" and maintains homeostasis, highlighting those events that provide lessons for the future. It describes the effects of humans on the Earth system, emphasizing the global issues of climate change, ozone depletion, and loss of biodiversity. Finally, it concludes by discussing the prospect for life on planets outside the solar system and on Earth in its long-term future.Now available in an accessible and up-to date format through Kendall Hunt Publishing, the NEW 4th edition of The Earth System: Features updated research! The new edition features color images and data / figures based on research through the end of 2021 – including the 2022 IPCC report (which was released in draft form in 2021). Is practical! Students can learn first-hand the impact of environmental changes through the coverage of human heat stress, new technologies for reducing CO2 emissions, such as electric vehicles, small modular nuclear reactors, wind and solar power. Has been reformatted! Chapters have been added / split to discuss the topics of origin and life amid new research, climate stability on Earth-life planets, exoplanets, and on Earth's long-term future and the search for extraterrestrial life. Is student friendly! To aid the learning process, students are presented with Critical-Thinking Problems to encourage students to synthesize concepts to real-life; Useful Concepts, with in-depth presentations of fundamental concepts from the natural sciences essential to our understanding of the Earth system; and Thinking Quantitatively, which emphasizes how mathematics is used to better understand the workings of the Earth system. Is flexible! The new edition includes enough material for two one-semester courses, one of which might focus on the present Earth system and near-term environmental problems; and a second one that might cover longer-term changes in the Earth system and implications for life elsewhere.

Full Product Details

Author:   James Kasting ,  Lee Kump ,  Robert Crane
Publisher:   Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co ,U.S.
Imprint:   Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co ,U.S.
Edition:   4th Revised edition
ISBN:  

9781792404368

ISBN 10:   1792404360
Pages:   578
Publication Date:   30 June 2023
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you.

Table of Contents

Dedication  About the Authors  Preface  PART I. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE: GLOBAL CHANGE   Introduction   Global Change on Short Time Scales        A Closer Look: Are Hurricanes Getting Stronger with Time?        A Closer Look: The Discovery of the Antarctic Ozone Hole   Global Change on Long Time Scales        Thinking Quantitatively: Measuring the Isotopes of Hydrogen  PART II. COMPONENTS OF THE EARTH SYSTEM CHAPTER TWO: DAISYWORLD: AN INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS   The Systems Approach        Thinking Quantitatively: Stability of Positive Feedback Loops   The Daisyworld Climate System        Useful Concepts: Graphs and Graph Making   External Forcing: The Response of Daisyworld to Increasing Solar Luminosity  CHAPTER THREE: GLOBAL ENERGY BALANCE: THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT   Introduction   Electromagnetic Radiation   Temperature Scales   Blackbody Radiation   Planetary Energy Balance        A Closer Look: Planetary Energy Balance        Thinking Quantitatively: How the Greenhouse Effect Works: The One-Layer Atmosphere   Atmospheric Composition and Structure   Physical Causes of the Greenhouse Effect   Effect of Clouds on the Atmospheric Radiation Budget   Introduction to Climate Modeling   Climate Feedbacks  CHAPTER FOUR: THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION SYSTEM   The Global Circulatory Subsystems   The Atmospheric Circulation        A Closer Look: The Relationships between Temperature Pressure, ad Volume—The Ideal Gas Law        A Closer Look: How Hurricanes (Tropical Cyclones) Work   Global Distributions of Temperature and Rainfall   Implications for Global Warming  CHAPTER FIVE: THE CIRCULATION OF OCEANS   Winds and Surface Currents       A Closer Look: Vorticity   The Circulation of the Deep Ocean        A Closer Look: The 1982–1983 and 1997–1998 ENSO Events        A Closer Look: The Salt Content of the Oceans and the Age of Earth        Useful Concepts: Isotopes of Carbon        A Closer Look: Carbon-14—A Radioactive Clock  CHAPTER SIX: THE CYROSPHERE   Introduction   River and Lake Ice, Seasonal Snow Cover, and Permafrost   Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover   Permafrost   Glaciers and Ice Sheets   Glacier Flow        Thinking Quantitatively: Movement of Glaciers   Sea Ice and Climate  CHAPTER SEVEN: CIRCULATION OF THE SOLID EARTH: PLATE TECTONICS   Introduction   Anatomy of Earth        A Closer Look: The Principle of the Seismograph   The Theory of Plate Tectonics   Plates and Plate Boundaries        A Closer Look: Deep-Sea Life at Mid-Ocean Ridge Vents   The Physiology of the Solid Earth: What Drives Plate Tectonics?        A Closer Look: Radiometric Age Dating of Geological Materials    Recycling of the Lithosphere: The Rock Cycle   Plate Tectonics Through Earth History  CHAPTER EIGHT: RECYCLING OF THE ELEMENTS: CARBON AND NUTRIENT CYCLES   Systems Approach to the Carbon Cycle        Useful Concepts: The Concept of the Mole   The Short-Term Organic Carbon Cycle        A Closer Look: Oxygen Minimum Zone   The Long-Term Organic Carbon Cycle   The Inorganic Carbon Cycle        Useful Concepts: pH   The Carbonate-Silicate Geochemical Cycle        A Closer Look: Biological Enhancement of Chemical Weathering   Links Between the Organic and Inorganic Carbon Cycle   Phosphorus and Nitrogen Cycles  CHAPTER NINE: FOCUS ON THE BIOTA: METABOLISM, ECOSYSTEMS, AND BIODIVERSITY   Life on Earth   Structure of the Biosphere   Ecosystems        A Closer Look: Physiological versus Ecological Optima for Growth   Biodiversity   Diversity of Interactions  PART III. HISTORY OF THE EARTH AND OF LIFE  CHAPTER TEN: ORIGIN OF THE EARTH   Introduction   Formation of the Solar System        A Closer Look: Determining the Age of the Earth   Formation of the Atmosphere and Ocean   A Modern View of the Prebiotic Atmosphere        A Closer Look: Oxidation of the Atmosphere by Escape of Hydrogen        A Closer Look: Mantle Redox Evolution  CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE ORIGIN OF LIFE   Introduction        A Closer Look: What Does It Mean to be Alive?   The RNA World        A Closer Look: The Compounds of Life  CHAPTER TWELVE: EFFECT OF LIFE ON THE ATMOSPHERE: THE RISE OF OXYGEN AND OZONE   Effect of Life on the Early Atmosphere   The Rise of Oxygen   The Great Oxidation Event        A Closer Look: Mass-Independent Sulfur Isotope Ratios and What They Tell Us About the Rise of Atmospheric O2  Oxygen and Ozone Levels During the Proterozoic Eon        Thinking Quantitatively: Carbon Isotopes and Organic Carbon Burial   Variations in Atmospheric O2 During the Phanerozoic   Modern Controls on Atmospheric O2 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LONG-TERM CLIMATE REGULATION   Introduction   The Faint Young Sun Paradox Revisited   The Long-term Climate Record        Thinking Quantitatively: Energy Balance Modeling of the Snowball Earth        A Closer Look: How Did Life Survive the Snowball Earth?   Variations in Atmospheric CO2 and Climate During the Phanerozoic        A Closer Look: The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum  CHAPTER FOURTEEN: BIODIVERSITY THROUGH EARTH’S HISTORY   The Fossil Record of Biodiversity        Useful Concepts: Taxonomy   The Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction        A Closer Look: Causes of the End-Permian Extinction   Extraterrestrial Influences and Extinction        A Closer Look: The K-T Strangelove Ocean  CHAPTER FIFTEEN: PLEISTOCENE GLACIATIONS   Geologic Evidence of Pleistocene Glaciation   Milankovitch Cycles        Thinking Quantitatively: Kepler’s Laws        Thinking Quantitatively: Effect of the Sun and Moon on Earth’s Obliquity and Precession   Glacial Climate Feedbacks        A Closer Look: Stochastic Resonance and Rapid Climate Change  PART IV. EFFECT OF HUMANS ON THE EARTH SYSTEM CHAPTER SIXTEEN: GLOBAL WARMING, PART ONE: RECENT CLIMATE AND THE CONCEPT OF RADIATIVE FORCING   Introduction   Holocene Climate Change   Carbon Reservoirs and Fluxes        A Closer Look: Three-Dimensional General Circulation Models   CO2 Removal Processes and Time Scales   Other Trace Gases and Total Radiative Forcing        A Closer Look: The Chemistry of CO2 Uptake  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: GLOBAL WARMING, PART TWO: FUTURE CLIMATE PROJECTIONS AND IMPACTS   Introduction   Projections of Future Radiative Forcing and Climate   Changes in Sea Level        A Closer Look: Measurements of Polar Ice Mass Loss Made by the GRACE Mission   Human Heat Stress   Additional Human Impacts of Global Warming  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: STRATEGIES FOR SLOWING GLOBAL WARMING   Introduction   Past Policies to Slow Global Warming   Electricity Production in the United States   Reducing CO2 Emissions from Transportation   Dealing with Other CO2 Sources   Specific Climate Policies that Might Be Adopted  CHAPTER NINETEEN: OZONE DEPLETION   Introduction   Ultraviolet Radiation and Its Biological Effects   Ozone Vertical Distribution and Column Depth   The Chapman Mechanism   Catalytic Cycles of Nitrogen, Chlorine, and Bromine   Sources and Sinks of Ozone Depleting Compounds   The Antarctic Ozone Hole        A Closer Look: How the Link between Freons and Ozone Depletion Was Discovered   Evidence of Midlatitude Ozone Depletion   Mechanisms for Halting Ozone Depletion  CHAPTER TWENTY: HUMAN THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY   Introduction   The Modern Extinction        A Closer Look: Other Consequences of Tropical Deforestation   Why We Should Care About Biodiversity  APPENDIX A: UNITS AND UNIT CONVERSIONS  APPENDIX B: TEMPERATURE CONVERSIONS  APPENDIX C: PERIODIC TABLE  APPENDIX D: USEFUL FACTS  GLOSSARY  INDEX

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