Global environmental change is a subject of major scientific and political importance, and of rising media attention. But what do processes such as desertification, acidification and global warming involve? There is a need for a clear, well-integrated account by the scientists themselves of how these processes are altering the earth's natural environments. In The Changing Global Environment leading physical geographers provide distilled and up-to-date summaries of research in their own field - themes such as rainforest destruction and remote sensing by satellites. This is not a collection of unconnected research papers, but an integrated text. Taken as a whole, the book is distinguished by its concerns for environmental variations across space and through time, for human-environment interactions and for an awareness that the world is made up of real places and regions. It should be of interest to students in departments of geography, geoscience and environmental studies taking courses in global environmental change, advanced physical geography, climatic change and human ecology.