Wildfires, changing glaciers, deforestation, open-pit mining, increasing
demands for food and bio-fuel production and the growth of megacities
change our landscape. The book comprehensively reviews the current
knowledge on how natural and anthropogenic land-use/cover changes affect
weather, air quality and climate worldwide and explains how these
changes may trigger further land-use/cover changes. It discusses how
anthropogenic land-use/cover changes have affected local and regional
climate and air quality since the settlement of America and the
industrialisation. It addresses the topic how long-range transport of
pollutants and dust of devasted areas as well as teleconnections may
cause changes far away from the areas where the land-use/cover changes
occurred, for which land-use/cover change may become an international
issue similar to CO2. It also discusses relations to global change and
future societal and scientific challenges related to land-use/cover
changes.