Earth's Climate Past and Future

by Ruddiman, William F.

• ISBN13: 9780716737414
• ISBN10: 0716737418
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-12-15
• Publisher: W. H. Freeman

Summary

Paleoclimatology courses are growing, attracting a wide variety of students in earth and environmental sciences, geography, ecology, and related fields. Earth's Climate: Past and Futureworks as either a nonmajors introduction to Earth system science or climate change, or as a majors/graduate-level overview of the processes and techniques in climate science. Written from a multidisciplinary perspective by one of the field's preeminent researcher/instructors, the text summarizes the major lessons to be learned from 550 million years of climate changes, as a way of evaluating the climatological impact on and by humans in this century. The book also looks ahead to possible effects during the next several centuries of fossil fuel use.

Table of Contents

PART I Framework of Climate Science	1	(83)
Overview of Climate Science	2	(16)
Earth's Climate System Today	18	(36)
Climate Archives, Data, and Models	54	(30)
Part II Tectonic-Scale Climate Change	84	(88)
CO2 and Long-Term Climate	86	(17)
Plate Tectonics and Climate	103	(26)
Greenhouse Earth	129	(18)
Back into the Icehouse: The Last 55 Million Years	147	(25)
Part III Orbital-Scale Climate Change	172	(102)
Astronomical Control of Solar Radiation	174	(19)
Insolation Control of Monsoons	193	(17)
Insolation Control of Ice Sheets	210	(24)
Orbital-Scale Change in Carbon Dioxide and Methane	234	(20)
Orbital-Scale Interactions in the Climate System	254	(20)
PART IV Deglacial and Millennial Climate Changes	274	(78)
The Last Glacial Maximum	276	(25)
Climate During and Since the Last Glaciation	301	(29)
Mellennial Oscillations in Climate	330	(22)
PART V Historical and Future Climate Change	352
Historical Changes in Climate	354
Humans and Climate Change	383
Climate in the Twentieth Century	405
Climate Change in the Next 100 to 1000 Years	423