"Global Change and Local Places explores the ways people and biota contribute to climate change in four localities of the United States. The volume summarizes the findings of the Global Change and Local Places (GCLP) project initiated by the Association of American Geographers (AAG) to develop methods to determine how localities contribute to global change; how those contributions change over time; what forces drive such changes; what controls local residents exercise over such driving forces; and how locally initiated efforts at mitigation and adaptation can be promoted.

The sources and driving forces for greenhouse gas emissions vary widely among the four research sites, as do the possibilities and propensities to mitigate emissions and adapt to the local changes global warming could bring. Policy makers and legislators will be unable to address human-induced climate change effectively without the insights revealed by examining and understanding the daily routines that are simultaneously the sources of climate change and the keys to reducing its severity and coping with its effects."--Jacket.