Earth's Climate: Past and Future

William F. Ruddiman

Macmillan, 2001 - Science - 465 pages

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 Future works 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.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - fullerenedream - LibraryThing

This book gives an excellent introduction to climate change concepts. It would be better if it included more real data in its graphs, rather than oversimplified, smoothed-out curves.

Contents

• Lectures Based on Earths Climate Lecture Topic Section and Chapter 1 Overview of the climate system Part I Chapter: 1
• Response times and feedbacks 3 Radiation and the atmosphere Chapter: 2
• Heat transfer in the atmosphere and ocean 5 Deep water ice and vegetation 6 Climate data and models Chapter: 3
• Faint young Sun Part II Chapter: 4
• Basics of plate tectonics Chapter: 5
• CO input: 9
• CO removal: 10
• Climate on the supercontinent Pangaea: 11
• The Cretaceous greenhouse climate Chapter: 13
• CHRPTER14 Climate During and Since the Lost: 14
• Oxygen isotopes Chapter: 15
• Orbital variations Part III Chapter: 17
• Earths Climate System Today: 18
• Framework of Climate Science CHHPTER 11 OrbitalScale Changes in Carbon: 21
• Orbital changes in monsoons Chapter: 22
• Survey of the last glacial maximum Part IV Chapter 1 3: 25
• The last cleglaciation Chapter: 27
• 8118O in ice sheets Chapter: 29
• Cause of millennial changes: 30
• Heat Transfer in Earths Atmosphere: 31
• the Little Ice Age Part V Chapter 1 6: 32
• instrument records: 33
• Impacts of climate on early humans and civilizations Chapter 17: 35
• natural changes Chapter 1 8: 37
• Heat Transfer in Earths Oceans: 39
• 2xCO and 4xCO worlds: 40
• Climate Hrchives 0ata and Models: 54
• Climate Data: 66
• C02 and LongTerm CM: 86
• TectonicScale Climate Change: 88
• Climate Factors That Control Chemical: 94
• CHRPTER4 C02 and LongTerm Climate 86 CHRPTER 14 Climate 0uring and Since the Last: 103
• The Polar Position Hypothesis: 109
• What Controls Chemical Weathering?: 125
• 6reenhouse Earth: 129
• Sea Level Changes and Climate: 137
• Calculating Changes: 146
• Global Climate Cool over the Last: 154
• Understanding and Predicting Tectonic: 166
• CIHPIER8 flstronomical Control of Solar Radiation: 174
• Changes in Insolation Received on Earth: 185
• cms Insolation Control of Monsoons: 193
• Refinements of the Orbital Monsoon: 204
• Insolation Control of Ice Sheets: 210
• CHRPTERll OrbitalScale Changes in Carbon: 234
• OrbitalScale Interactions in: 254
• Which Drives: 265
• The Last 6lacial Maximum: 276
• Testing Model Simulations Against Biotic: 284
• How Cold Were the Glacial Tropics?: 295
• A Shift in the Balance of Power: 302
• Climate Changes During and Since: 313
• Millennial Oscillations in Climate: 331
• Millennial Oscillations During the Last: 342
• Implications of Millennial Oscillations: 350
• The Last 55: 352
• Proxy Measures of Historical Climate: 357
• Historical and Instrumental Observations: 369
• Natural Causes of Historical Climate Changes: 376
• The Impact of Climate on Human Evolution: 384
• The Impact of Climate on Early Civilizations: 391
• Impacts of Humans on CH4 Levels: 402
• Rstronomical Control of Solar Radiation 174: 405
• Earths Sensitivity to Greenhouse Gases: 408
• Insolation Control of Monsoons 193: 423
• Future Climate Change Caused: 429
• 256: 434
• The Impacts of Future Increases: 438
• 260: 451

Bibliographic information

• Title: Earth's Climate: Past and Future
• Author: William F. Ruddiman
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2001
• ISBN: 0716737418, 9780716737414
• Length: 465 pages
• Subjects: Science / Earth Sciences / Geology