• News Release

  

  

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  See Also

  Economics, Energy/Environment, International Organizations, Global Health

  CFR’s New Online Guide to Climate Change Examines Global Impact and Policy Options

  October 20, 2008
  Council on Foreign Relations

  The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has produced a new online multimedia feature, "Crisis Guide: Climate Change," the latest installment in the Emmy Award-winning Crisis Guide series. Using an array of audio, video, imagery, and text, the guide provides a comprehensive exploration of climate change, its global impact, and policy options for addressing it. The guide, narrated by veteran journalist Michael Goldfarb, includes:

  • an overview of the international dialogue on climate change, including video clips of speeches by world leaders;
  • a video slideshow with CFR fellows Michael A. Levi and David G. Victor summarizing the scientific evidence and explanations of climate change and the international policy framework in place to address it;
  • an analysis of the contributors to and impact of climate change, including a discussion of changes in the Arctic by CFR fellow Scott G. Borgerson and an examination of the link between climate change and global health by CFR fellow Laurie A. Garrett;
  • a wide-ranging survey of policy choices, energy and infrastructure options, and technological advances that may help to mitigate the impact of climate change, including international treaties, cap and trade systems, forest management, solar and wind power, biogas, mass transportation, carbon capture and storage, electric vehicles, and fusion power;
  • an interactive map examining development and emissions indicators from across the world;
  • perspectives on climate change from experts in various fields, including military affairs, the insurance industry, and geoeconomics, the last of which is discussed by Sebastian Mallaby, the director of CFR's Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies; and
  • a chapter offering links to more than sixty treaties, speeches, and other documents from CFR and other institutions, as well as links to experts and organizations addressing the issue of climate change.

  Among the information contained in the guide are these surprising facts:

  • Melting ice caps are not the largest cause of sea-level rise. Instead, the water in warming oceans is expanding, thus increasing sea levels.
  • Coal, not oil, is the world's most abundant fossil fuel.
  • Canada uses more energy per capita than the United States.
  • France produces 80 percent of its energy with zero emissions.
  • Some studies show Antarctica is actually getting cooler.
  • Cities, home to half the world's population, consume three-quarters of the world's energy.

  Crisis Guides, CFR's interactive, award-winning franchise, seek to bring context and historical perspective to the world's most complex issues. Produced with MediaStorm, the series also includes "Crisis Guide: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," which offers an in-depth look at the history of the conflict and its geopolitical repercussions, "Crisis Guide: The Korean Peninsula," which looks at the standoff between the two Koreas, and "Crisis Guide: Darfur," which looks at the tragedy in Sudan's Darfur region. The next guide will focus on the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

  "Crisis Guide: Climate Change" is available at www.cfr.org/climate_change_crisis_guide.

   

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• Publications Information

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  For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.

  New Books

  Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.

  

  In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.

  In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.

  Complete list of CFR Books

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