Climate Change
The study of Urban Climatology is strongly linked to research surrounding global climate change: as centres for socio-economic activities, cities produce large amounts of Green House Gases, most notably CO2 as a consequence of human activities such as transport, development (e.g. concrete production), waste related to heating and cooling requirements etc.
Furthermore globally, cities are said to grow into the 21st century (and beyond) due to the opportunities they present and as a consequence of globalization - as they grow and develop the landscapes in which they inhabit will change so too will the atmosphere resting above them, increasing emissions of GHG's thus contributing to the global green house effect.
Finally, many cities are vulnerable to the projected consequences of climate change (sea level rise, changes in temperature, precipitation, storm frequency) as most develop on or near coast-lines, nearly all produce distinct urban heat islands and atmospheric pollution: as areas in which there is concentrated human habitation these effects potentially will have the largest and most dramatic impact (e.g. France's heat wave in 2003) and thus are a major focus for urban climatology.
Read more about this topic: Urban Climatology
Famous quotes containing the words climate and/or change:
“Nobody is so constituted as to be able to live everywhere and anywhere; and he who has great duties to perform, which lay claim to all his strength, has, in this respect, a very limited choice. The influence of climate upon the bodily functions ... extends so far, that a blunder in the choice of locality and climate is able not only to alienate a man from his actual duty, but also to withhold it from him altogether, so that he never even comes face to face with it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“It is not impossible, of course, after such an administration as Roosevelt’s and after the change in method that I could not but adapt in view of my different way of looking at things, that questions should arise as to whether I should go back on the principles of the Roosevelt administration.... I have a government of limited power under a Constitution, and we have got to work out our problems on the basis of law. Now, if that is reactionary, then I am a reactionary.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)