A Change in the Weather

by Allaby, Michael; Garratt, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780816047901
• ISBN10: 0816047901
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Facts on File

Summary

Examines the history of climate change and its impact on the earth.

Table of Contents

Preface	xv
Introduction	xvii
HOW THE ATMOSPHERE PRODUCES OUR WEATHER	1	(9)
Composition and structure of the atmosphere	1	(1)
Mars was not always a cold desert	1	(1)
Atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and Mars	2	(1)
How Earth acquired Its three atmospheres	2	(1)
How oxygen accumulated	3	(1)
Layers of the atmosphere	4	(3)
Troposphere and tropopause	7	(1)
Stratosphere and stratopause	7	(1)
Mesosphere and mesopause	8	(1)
Thermosphere, exosphere, and ionosphere	8	(2)
GENERAL CIRCULATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE	10	(8)
Seasons and Tropics	11	(1)
Why Earth is not like the Moon	12	(1)
Trade winds and Hadley cells	13	(2)
George Hadley and Hadley cells	14	(1)
Polar and Ferrel cells	15	(3)
The Coriolis effect	16	(2)
TRANSPORT OF HEAT BY THE OCEANS	18	(10)
Ocean currents	18	(2)
El Niño	19	(1)
Thermohaline circulation and North Atlantic Deep Water	20	(3)
The Great Conveyor	23	(1)
Ocean gyres and boundary currents	24	(4)
Why the Arctic is warmer than the Antarctic	25	(3)
EVAPORATION AND CONDENSATION AND HOW THEY PRODUCE OUR WEATHER	28	(9)
The water molecule and the hydrogen bond	29	(1)
Breaking the bond: evaporation	30	(1)
Specific heat capacity	30	(2)
Latent heat and adiabatic cooling and warming	32	(3)
Latent heat and dew point	32	(2)
Adiabatic cooling and warming	34	(1)
Potential temperature	35	(2)
Potential temperature	35	(2)
CLIMATES OF THE PAST	37	(7)
Revealing the past	37	(1)
Tree rings	37	(1)
Radiocarbon dating	38	(1)
Pollen and beetles	39	(1)
Seabed sediment	40	(1)
Ice cores	40	(2)
Vostok, GISP, and GRIP	41	(1)
Oxygen isotopes and "heavy" water	42	(1)
Carbonate from the seabed	43	(1)
CLIMATE CHANGES THAT HAVE CHANGED HISTORY	44	(8)
Radiometric dating	44	(1)
Reading stalagmites	45	(1)
The Anasazi	45	(1)
The domestication of animals and plants	46	(2)
Indus Valley civilization.	48	(1)
Out of the steppes of Central Asia	49	(1)
The Mongol Empire	50	(1)
Khmer Empire	51	(1)
MILUTIN MILANKOVITCH AND HIS ASTRONOMICAL CYCLES	52	(9)
Eccentricity	52	(2)
Obliquity	54	(1)
The axial wobble	55	(1)
Hipparchus and the precession of the equinoxes	55	(2)
The significance of precession	57	(1)
When the cycles coincide	57	(2)
The Milankovitch cycles	59	(1)
Adhemar and Croll	59	(1)
Milankovitch on Mars	60	(1)
ICE AGES OF THE PAST-AND FUTURE?	61	(9)
Louis Agassiz and the Great Ice Age	61	(2)
Louis Agassiz and the Great Ice Age	62	(1)
Glacials, interglacials, and geologic time	63	(4)
How glaciers begin and move	67	(1)
Snowball Earth	67	(2)
Will there be more ice ages?	69	(1)
EDWARD WALTER MAUNDER AND THE UNRELIABLE SUN	70	(9)
The 11-year sunspot cycle	70	(2)
Sunspots	71	(1)
The Spörer Minimum, Dalton Minimum, and Maunder Minimum	72	(1)
Tree rings and isotopes	73	(2)
The inconstant Sun	75	(1)
Sunspots and cloud formation	76	(1)
The link persists	77	(2)
THE MEDIEVAL OPTIMUM	79	(8)
Cold weather during the Dark Ages	80	(1)
Norse colonies and explorations	80	(2)
Erik the Red and settlements in Greenland	82	(1)
Warm weather everywhere	82	(2)
Sea levels and higher rainfall	84	(1)
Start of the deterioration	84	(3)
THE LITTLE ICE AGE	87	(7)
Increasingly severe storms	87	(1)
Wet summers, poor harvests, and famines	88	(1)
Diseases favored by wet weather	88	(1)
Agriculture retreating from marginal land	89	(1)
Glaciers begin advancing	90	(1)
Cold winters in the lowlands	91	(1)
Frost fairs	91	(1)
Distribution of pressure	92	(1)
Slow recovery and the origin of the "traditional" Christmas scene	93	(1)
GREENHOUSE GASES AND THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT	94	(11)
Effective temperature	94	(2)
Radiation emission and absorption	96	(2)
Jean-Baptiste Fourier, John Tyndall, and the greenhouse effect	98	(1)
Svante Arrhenius	99	(1)
The faint Sun paradox and the Gaia hypothesis	99	(4)
Svante Arrhenius	100	(1)
Snowball Earth and Greenhouse Earth	101	(1)
The Gaia hypothesis	102	(1)
The enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming potentials	103	(2)
THE CARBON CYCLE	105	(8)
Respiration	105	(3)
Photosynthesis	106	(2)
The carbon reservoirs	108	(1)
The cycle-sources and sinks	109	(1)
Carbonate lysocline and carbonate compensation depth	110	(1)
Perturbing the natural cycle	111	(1)
Carbon dioxide fertilization and the missing carbon sink	112	(1)
HOW BRIGHT IS THE EARTH?	113	(8)
Albedo	113	(4)
Albedo and temperature	117	(1)
Positive feedback	118	(1)
Ice-albedo feedback and climate warming	119	(1)
Changing land use alters the albedo	120	(1)
CLOUDS AND PARTICLES	121	(7)
Some clouds are more reflective than others	121	(2)
Reflection and absorption	123	(1)
Cloud condensation nuclei	124	(1)
John Aitken and cloud condensation nuclei	125	(1)
Atmospheric aerosols	125	(1)
Effect on radiation	126	(1)
Aerosols and clouds	126	(2)
RADIATION FROM THE SUN AND FROM THE EARTH	128	(7)
Electromagnetic radiation	128	(2)
Blackbody radiation	129	(1)
The spectrum and the rainbow	130	(2)
The complete electromagnetic spectrum	132	(1)
Solar wind, cosmic rays, and radioactive decay	132	(3)
The solar spectrum	133	(2)
THE RADIATION BALANCE	135	(8)
Latent heat and the Bowen ratio	136	(1)
Diurnal and seasonal changes	137	(1)
Incoming radiation and the ozone layer	138	(2)
Why the sky is blue	140	(1)
Outgoing radiation	140	(3)
MEASURING CLIMATE CHANGE	143	(8)
Siting the thermometer	143	(1)
Need to standardize instruments
and the way they are used	144	(2)
The Central England temperature record	146	(1)
Measuring very small changes	147	(2)
Central England temperature record	147	(2)
Surface stations	149	(1)
Weather balloons and satellites	149	(1)
Is the world growing warmer?	150	(1)
URBAN HEAT ISLANDS	151	(7)
City air Is drier, but rainfall Is higher	151	(1)
Humidity	152	(1)
Cities are less sunny	152	(2)
Cities are less windy, except along urban canyons	154	(1)
Heat islands and urban domes	155	(1)
Heat islands and global warming	156	(2)
IS THE SEA RISING?	158	(6)
The expansion and contraction of ice sheets	158	(1)
Isostasy and glacial rebound	159	(1)
Thermal expansion and storage	160	(1)
Records of sea level	160	(1)
Will the sea rise in years to come?	161	(3)
Isle of the Dead	161	(3)
GLOBAL WARMING	164	(5)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change	164	(1)
The Third Assessment Report	165	(1)
Criticisms	166	(2)
Doubts about economic growth	168	(1)
MODELING THE ATMOSPHERE	169	(6)
Constructing models	169	(2)
The gas laws	170	(1)
The development of climate models	171	(2)
Lapse rates and stability	171	(2)
Models have limitations	173	(1)
Other approaches to modeling	174	(1)
IS CLIMATE CHANGE ALL BAD?	175	(6)
Evaporation and effective precipitation	175	(1)
Effects on agriculture	176	(1)
Effects on wildlife	176	(1)
Most warming in high latitudes	177	(1)
Exotic diseases	178	(1)
Sea levels and storms	179	(2)
CAN WE PREVENT CLIMATE CHANGE OR MUST WE ACCEPT AND ADAPT TO IT?	181	(4)
The precautionary principle	181	(1)
Reducing emissions	182	(2)
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol	183	(1)
Is Kyoto achievable?	184	(1)
Appendixes
SI units and conversions	185	(1)
Prefixes used with SI units	186	(1)
Bibliography and further reading	187	(4)
Index	191

Excerpts

At present, climate change is a controversial topic. A Change in the Weather, a new volume in the Dangerous Weather set, looks at climate change and its consequences with a fair, critical eye. It examines the major controversies and locates them in the broader context of the climatic changes that have taken place in the past. Beginning with a definition of climate change, this volume provides a general account of the way the atmosphere and oceans work to produce climates, along with an outline of the astronomical and other influences that affect climatic changes. It then describes different types of climates that have prevailed in the past and explains the way past climates are studied. An important topic covered is the greenhouse effect and the history of this idea, which leads into an overview of the present concern over global warming induced by an enhanced greenhouse effect.
For middle school and high school students, teachers, and general readers, A Change in the Weather is filled with interesting facts on climate and climate change, providing a current and comprehensive survey of the issues surrounding this important topic.
Special features provide a comparison between the atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and Mars; information on George Hadley and Hadley cells; discussion of why the Arctic is warmer than the Antarctic; a look at adiabatic cooling and warming and latent heat; coverage of the Vostok, GRIP, and GISP projects; and an overview of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.