Major international interdisciplinary research programmes are now underway to increase our understanding of how the Earth System operates and how it is changing through the effects of human activities. Although understanding and predictive capacity are still limited, scientists already agree that significant global changes must be expected in the next 50 years that will affect the capacity of the earth to sustain life.

Governments, business and industry have, therefore, come to recognize that scientific knowledge about the changing global environment - as yet incomplete but rapidly evolving - is becoming indispensable for wise long-term policy making, the goal being to design preventive, adaptive and remedial measures.

Thus global change science and policy making are engaged in a process of forming a new partnership that is taking shape as further insights evolve.

Effective continuous interaction between the partners requires mutual understanding: decision-makers need to understand the unique potential but also the limitations of the results of scientific research in progress while scientists must take into account the priorities and constraints of policy-makers in designing and implementing policies that will promote long-term sustainability of life on this planet.

This book contributes in a unique manner to this mutual understanding. For the first time, one book describes both ongoing research in global change and the response process that the research results are evoking. It is of interest to all stakeholders in the scientific community as well as to decision-makers in industry, business and government.