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Full Description
This book is designed for first- and second-year university students (and their instructors) in earth science, environmental science, and physical geography degree programmes worldwide. The summaries at the end of each section constitute essential reading for policy makers and planners. It provides a simple but masterly account, with a minimum of equations, of how the Earth's climate system works, of the physical processes that have given rise to the long sequence of glacial and interglacial periods of the Quaternary, and that will continue to cause the climate to evolve. Its straightforward and elegant description, with an abundance of well chosen illustrations, focuses on different time scales, and includes the most recent research in climate science by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It shows how it is human behaviour that will determine whether or not the present century is a turning point to a new climate, unprecedented on Earth in the last several million years.
Contents
Foreword xiii
Acknowledgements xv
About the companion website xvii
Introduction 1
Part I: The Climate Engine of The Earth: Energy 5
1. Why are there many different climates on Earth? 7
2. Different climates . . . such diversity of life 11
3. From a patchwork of climates to an average climate 19
4. The global mean climate 27
5. Atmosphere and ocean: key factors in climate equilibrium 33
Part II: More On The Energy Balance of The Planet 55
6. Thermal radiation, solar andterrestrial radiation 57
7. The impact of the atmosphere on radiation 61
8. Radiative transfer through the atmosphere 73
9. The energy balance 87
10. Climate forcing and feedback 93
11. Climate modelling 99
Part III: The Different Causes of Climate Change 109
12. The choice of approach 111
13. The Sun's emission 115
14. The position of the Earth with respect to the Sun 119
15. The composition of the atmosphere 129
16. Heat transfer from the Equator to the poles 135
17. Oscillations due to ocean-atmosphere interactions 137
Part IV: Learning From The Past ... 149
18. Memory of the distant past 151
19. Since 2.6 million years ago: the dance of glaciations 161
20. Glacial-interglacial cycles and the Milankovitch theory 181
21. The glaciation dance: consequences and lessons 191
22. The past 12,000 years: the warm Holocene 201
23. Global and regional fluctuations(Timescale 3: decades) 225
24. Future warming and past climates 231
Part V: Climate Change in Recent Years 241
25. Recent climate change 243
26. The impact of global warming on the cryosphere 257
27. The impact of warming on the ocean 273
28. The impact of warming on the biosphere 285
29. Warming in the 20th century: natural or human-induced? 297
Part VI: Climate in The 21st Century: Different Scenarios 323
30. Two key factors 325
31. Projections: economic scenarios and climate models 329
32. Simulations: a survey 333
33. Future warming and its consequences 343
34. The choice 355
35. Climate change in the present state of the planet 363
Conclusion 369
References 373
Index 383
