Contents: 1. Seawater pH and Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide/Gerald E. Marsh. 2. Heat Wave in South and East Asia under the Influence of global warming/Masatoshi Yoshino. 3. Role of solar intrinsic variability in the modern era of anthropogenic climate change/Rajesh Agnihotri. 4. An integrated approach to a successor of Kyoto protocol/H.W. Kua and A. Gunawansa. 5. Climate change in the Northwestern Himalayas – A Myth or Reality?/M.R. Bhutiyani. 6. Phenological Response to climate change/Pavol Nejedlik. 7. Land use and water demand under a changing climate: Experiences of smallholder farmers from Muooni dam site, Kenya/Cush L. Ngonzo, Chris A. Shisanya and Joy A. Obando. 8. Climate change in Madhya Pradesh: Impact on food security and livelihood/Sachin Kumar Jain. 9. Awareness, Education and capacity building-Managing life and livelihood; coping with drought: The role of knowledge and education/Ben Wisner. 10. Climate change and sustainable agriculture in India/R.T. Gahukar. 11. Climate variability and agricultural production in arid and semi arid Kenya/C.A. Shisanya, A. Anyamba, J. Okolla, W.C. Rechna and J. Small. 12. Modeling of Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Fishery/B.K. Bala. 13. Adaptation or mitigation to climate change: dichotomy in the Latin American Context/M. Quintero-Angel and Y. Carvajal-Escobar. 14. Climate change and its impact on Public health/Gopal Krishna. 15. Biomass-A Massive strategy to curb climate change/M. Verma, K. Misra and S.K. Brar. 16. Temperature-Mortality relationships in Urban areas: Methods and applications to Boston, Massachusetts and Baltimore, Maryland, USA-Andrew Blohm, Pranav Vaidya and Matthias Ruth. 17. Effect of documented land use changes on temperature and humidity regime in Hungary/A. Druszler, K. Csirmaz, P. Vig and J. Mika. 18. Climate change: Response form Urban sector with an adaptation perspesctive/Divya Sharma. 19. Present situation of climate change and its possible impacts/B.V.R. Punyawardena. 20. Glaciers of Bhagirathi River Basin, Garhwal Himalaya and their distribnution in space/S.P. Dpbhal, R.K. Chaujar and Manish Mehta.

The German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), stated, Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal. Few statements, if any, have such timeless universality, applying both to human affairs and to natural processes. In the context of our own time, the more narrowly-focused phrase, climate change, has permeated the fabric of society as never before, from the halls of academe to the corridors to government to the realm of popular conscientiousness. But, climate change is neither a new phrase nor a new concept.

It is not difficult to imagine that our ancestors, long before written language, living at the edge of survival, pondered climate change and its impact on their future, on the availability of food and warmth. We are hardly any different, more educated and sophisticated, certainly, but still pondering, wondering creatures who seek to understand how and why it changes and in what ways we will be affected. And, not just people of our own time, but those who have gone before us. The 18th century philosophical approach to climate change gave way in the 19th century to a more scientific approach, leading to debate with a familiar ring. Svante Gustaf Arrhenius (1859-1927), for example, speculated that lower levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere might have caused the ice ages. There was debate on whether sunspots might be related to climate change, a continuing, but unresolved debate even now.

Many of the 19th century discussions continue today. We are yet faced with fundamental unknowns in the quest to understand climate change, its cases, and the degree to which human activity is a potential and possibly preventable cause. New imperatives come to bear because we are now truly an interrelated, global community. We have to welcome the initiative and the highly appreciated effort of Dr. Siddhartha P. Saikia in bringing together from around the globe twenty experts, the chapter authors of the diverse aspects and perspectives on climate change. (Jacket)