This work provides an in-depth perspective and update on special topics in Global Environmental Change in relation to Human Security. It offers an overview of new Joint Projects of the four International Global Change Programmmes and on research efforts in Germany. It is also an up-to-date report on emerging necessities in Global Environmental Change research, and a collection of suggestions for its future evolution.

Introduction: The Anthropocene

Global Change Research in the Anthropocene: Introductory Remarks
Managing Global Change: Earth System Science in the Anthropocene
The "Anthropocene"
Sustainability Science
What about Complexity of Earth Systems?
Global Change and Human Security
Climate Change, New Weather Extremes and Climate Policy
Assessing Human Vulnerability to Global Climatic Change
Fire Ecology of the Recent Anthropocene
Disaster Prevention
Global Environmental Change and Human Health
Urban Disasters as Indicators of Global Environmental Change: Assessing Functional Varieties of Vulnerability
Energy in a Sustainable Development Perspective
Interfaces between Nature and Society
Integrative Water Research: GLOWA Volta
Carbon Cycle Research as a Challenge of the Anthropocene
International Institutions and the Carbon Regime
Global Environmental Change and Food Systems GECAFS: A new interdisciplinary research project
Food Security in South Asia
Scientific Challenges for Anthropogenic Research in the 21st Century
Scientific Challenges for Anthropogenic Research in the 21st Century: Problems of Scale.