Open AccessAnthropogenic Climate Change in Asia: Key Challenges
Author(s) -
Ramaswamy V.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2009eo490001
Subject(s) - climate change , megacity , agriculture , geography , natural resource economics , global warming , population , environmental science , climatology , economy , ecology , economics , geology , biology , demography , archaeology , sociology
The energy, agricultural, and water sectors in Asia, a vast continent that comprises more than half of the worlds population, are crucially vulnerable to shifts in climate. The acceleration of economic development in Asia over the past few decades, the dependence of its huge agricultural economy on rainfall, and its growing energy demands have thrust climate change and its impacts squarely into important sectors of the Asian society. Further, it is likely that there has been significant anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over the Asian continent ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) [2007]; see Figure 1a). Asian megacities are already witnessing stresses in food, water, transportation, health, and air quality.