This multidisciplinary reference is really more like five encyclopedias which focus in turn on physical and chemical dimensions, biology and ecology, causes and consequences, response to global environmental change, and social and economic dimensions. Each begins with a group of essays on major topics in that field, which together provide an introduction as well as a starting point for exploring the encyclopedia. From there, alphabetically arranged shorter articles describe a variety of topics, programs, definitions, acronyms, and biographies of contributors to the field—including the three most recent environmental Nobel Laureates. The substantive scientific articles represent current knowledge—sometimes from novel viewpoints—and are written at the level of journals such as Scientific American and AMBIO. Each begins with a few italicized paragraphs describing why the topic is important and where it fits into the broader aspects of global change. Sample topics include agricultural subsidies and environmental change, art and the environment, biomass fuel power development, climate feedbacks, Earth First!, environmental cadmium in the food chain, environmental changes driven by civil conflict and war, green investment, land reclamation from seas, model simulations of present and historical climates, Montreal Protocol, no regrets principle, remote sensing, and technological society and its relation to global environmental change.