Un pianeta in riscaldamento: Impatto Sociale ed Economico del Cambiamento Climatico

Climate change is arguably one among the foremost challenges our planet is facing in the 21st century. Its consequences are being experienced on all continents and are expected to become more severe in the coming decades. The treats posed by climate change have set the international community the dilemma of drastically limiting the emissions of greenhouse gases or to face the consequences of global temperature rise. About fifty years ago, side effects of human activity on global climate were not perceived as a major scientific issue and people largely ignored it. Today, the opposite viewpoint predominates: there is much public concern that the world is warming, and may continue to warm as a result of human activities. At the same time, awareness of climate change and the urgent need for action is increasingly widespread. Global warming is now a major issue, not solely in science but also in the political, economic and policy-making fields, that humankind has to cope with. The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to analyse the origin of climate change and its effects on Earth's ocean, atmosphere, biota, land, and human health, as well as the economic and social impact of a warmer world.