In recent years there have been many attempts to use simple energy balance models to simulate the climatic changes that occurred during the Pleistocene by altering the earth's energy budget through sma 11 orb ita 1 element changes. Attempts with mean annual models which resolved latitudinal variation in tem- perature failed to produce large ice sheets when the obliquity was changed a few degrees (1,2) although these early models were generally more sensitive than today's parameterizations would suggest. Attention then turned to seasona 1 energy balance models, since the primary insolation anomaly is seasonal. Sel- lers (3), Thompson and Schneider (4) and North and Coakley (5) developed simple models which were either effectively zonally averaged or included a separate land and ocean surface tempera- ture at each latitude. Suarez and Held (6) added some vertical resolution in their model. All included the ice-albedo feedback mechanism and horizontal transport which was essentially diffu- sive. The models shared one interesting property : they remai- ned rather insensitive to the sizes of orbital changes which were thought to have occurred in the Pleistocene. There were minor differences in the results and some pointed toward possi- ble ways out of the puzzle but curiously the mechanisms of ice- -albedo feedback in the insolation and water vapor feedback in the infrared terms ·seemed too weak to account for the ice ages (for a review of these models see (7) and more recently (8)).

This book comprehensively addresses the most challenging water issues in India in a changing climate for the first time and suggests potential solutions. It has been observed that over the past two decades, water usage has significantly increased in India due to population growth, economic development and an increase in multiple uses of water, including irrigation, hydropower, industries, domestic consumption, fisheries, eco-system needs and the environment. India’s water future is mainly influenced by rising food demand to feed the increasing population, emerging climate change impacts on agriculture and the water sector, the increasing cost of interventions, poor cost recovery, the low level of technology adoption and weak water policy.

The effects of climate change are beginning to be felt around the world with rising temperatures, changing precipitation levels, more frequent and severe storms and longer more intensive droughts threatening human life and livelihoods and damaging property and infrastructure. As such, society in all countries – both developing and developed – need to increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change, where resilience is the ability of a system to absorb stresses and adapt in ways that improve the overall sustainability of the system; enabling it to be better prepared for future climate change impacts.

George Schaller has spent much of his life traversing wild and isolated places in his quest to understand and conserve threatened species—from mountain gorillas in the Virunga to snow leopards in the Himalaya. Throughout his career, Schaller has spent more time in Tibet than anywhere else, devoting over thirty years to the region's unique wildlife, culture, and landscapes.