A Biomass Future for the North American Great Plains

Toward Sustainable Land Use and Mitigation of Greenhouse Warming
2007
ISBN: 978-1-4020-5600-0
Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Buch, Englisch, Band 27, 200 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 541 g

Reihe: Advances in Global Change Research

WHY THIS BOOK? This book is an exploration of the possibility that a significant portion of the North American Great Plains (NAGP), now primarily in rangeland, corn, soybean, and small-grain production, can be converted to the production of biomass-energy crops. Biomass can be used as a substitute for some of the fossil fuels the use of which is now increasing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO ) 2 and contributing to global warming and climatic change. Such a land use change to biomass could lead not only to a global good but also to specific economic and environmental benefits for the NAGP region. This analysis is prompted by the following facts and trends: The emission of CO from fossil fuel combustion and tropical deforesta- 2 tion and the rising concentrations of other greenhouse gases make global warming a virtual certainty in this century; indeed the evidence is strong that a warming is already discernible. Global warming will lead to climatic change and, while the geographic d- tribution of this change is not yet known, most general circulation models (GCMs) suggest that midcontinental regions in the northern hemisphere (such as the NAGP) are likely to become drier as well as warmer. NAGP, one of the world’s major breadbaskets, is subject to periodic droughts and other climatic stresses that may worsen with global wa- ing.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rosenberg, Norman J.

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Energietechnik | Elektrotechnik Windkraftanlagen, Wasserkraftanlagen
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Regional- & Raumplanung Landschaftsplanung, Ländliche Planung
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Regional- & Raumplanung Stadtplanung, Kommunale Planung
• Geowissenschaften Geologie Meteorologie, Klimatologie
• Technische Wissenschaften Energietechnik | Elektrotechnik Geothermale Energie
• Technische Wissenschaften Verfahrenstechnik | Chemieingenieurwesen | Biotechnologie Biotechnologie Industrielle Biotechnologie
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Klimawandel, Globale Erwärmung
• Technische Wissenschaften Energietechnik | Elektrotechnik Alternative und erneuerbare Energien
• Technische Wissenschaften Umwelttechnik | Umwelttechnologie Umwelttechnik
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umwelttechnik
• Technische Wissenschaften Energietechnik | Elektrotechnik Solarenergie, Photovoltaik
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Ökologie
• Technische Wissenschaften Energietechnik | Elektrotechnik Biogasanlagen, Energie aus Biomasse
• Naturwissenschaften Agrarwissenschaften Agrarwissenschaften
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Nachhaltigkeit

Inhaltsverzeichnis

The Physical Environment.- People and the Economy.- Agriculture and Sustainability.- The Wildcard of Climate Change.- A Role for the Plains in Combating Climate Change.- Outlook.

Über Autor(innen)

The author is Regent's Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Meteorology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Laboratory Fellow Emeritus at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland-College Park.