Climate hotspots: key vulnerable regions, climate change and limits to warming
- Abstract
Defining and operationalizing Article 2 of the UNFCCC remains a challenge. The question of what is dangerous climate change is not a purely scientific one, as danger necessarily has a subjective dimension and its definition requires judgment and precaution. The papers in this special issue of Regional Environmental Change attempt to navigate this problem, by offering an overview of the latest scientific findings in the context of risks and uncertainties, and assess some key vulnerabilities that might lead to dangerous climate change. This synthesis provides an overview of the papers in this issue and looks at four areas of possible dangerous climate change—adverse declines in regional food and water security, loss of arctic sea ice with projected extinction of species, large-scale sea-level rise and loss of coral reef systems.
- Resource Type
- Peer-reviewed article
- Authors
- William Hare Wolfgang Cramer Michiel Schaeffer Antonella Battaglini Carlo Jaeger
- Publication
- Regional Environmental Change
- Volume
- 11
- Pages
- 1-13
- Date
- Mar 2011
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10113-010-0195-4
- Organization Type
- Academic
- Health and Human Impact
- Food security
- Climate and Environmental Impact
- Overview/general
- Region
- International
- Other
- Vulnerability assessment Vulnerable populations