Climate change is the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period of time, like a couple of decades or more. Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions in a region. Unmitigated climate change can cause severe emission of greenhouse gases and global warming. Human activities, like use of fossil fuels, transport, and polluting industry etc., are the major contributors to climate change, resulting into rise in temperatures, extreme heat waves, wildfires, dust storms, cyclones, hurricanes, floods, landslides, droughts, melting of ice, sea-level rise, deforestation, reduction of fertile land, hunger, poverty, health risks, extinction of species, death of humans and animals, population migration, economic slowdown, and social unrest, etc. Climate change is the number-one challenge for all countries across the globe, adversely affecting almost all the humans and countries, rich or poor, developed, developing or under-developed.

The present book, comprising of seven sections and 60 chapters, encounters this challenge of climate-change head-on. It discusses the causes of climate change, its adverse effects, monitoring, adaptation, and the mitigation steps comprehensively, with an aim to sensitize the governments, concerned agencies and citizens of the world about this gigantic problem while recommending its solutions.