Earth's Climate: Past and Future

William F. Ruddiman, University 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 1 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
• Climate Factors That Control Chemical: 4
• Basics of plate tectonics Chapter: 5
• CO removal 11 Climate on the supercontinent Pangaea 12 The Cretaceous greenhouse climate Chapter: 6
• Tectonicscale changes in sea level 14 Oxygen isotopes Chapter: 7
• Overview of the Climate System: 8
• Changes in insolation received on Earth 18 Orbital changes in monsoons Chapter: 9
• Orbital changes in ice sheets 1 Chapter: 10
• Orbital changes in ice sheets: 11
• The Last Glacial Maximum: 13
• Temperature Scales: 17
• Carbon isotopes and orbital changes in deep water: 22
• Oxtygen Isotope Ratios 8180: 24
• Is 87Sr86Sr: 46
• Climate Models: 71
• 28: 86
• CO and LongTerm Climate: 101
• Plate Tectonics and Climate: 103
• The Polar Position Hypothesis: 109
• 32: 122
• What Controls Chemical Weathering?: 125
• Greenhouse Earth: 129
• Sea Level Changes and Climate: 137
• Earths Climate System Today: 144
• Heat Transfer in Earths Atmosphere: 185
• Cycles and Modulation: 192
• Refinements of the Orbital Monsoon: 204
• 289: 238
• Heat Transfer in Earths Oceans: 247
• 204: 253
• Orbitalscale interactions in the climate system Chapter 12: 254
• Northern Hemisphere: 260
• Survey of the last glacial maximum Part IV Chapter 13: 299
• Climate During and Since the last: 301
• Climate Changes During and Since: 313
• Ice on Earth: 355
• Historical and Instrumental Observations: 369
• Natural Causes of Historical Climate Changes: 376
• Humans and Climate Change: 383
• The Impact of Climate on Early Civilizations: 391
• Impacts of Humans on CH Levels: 406
• 220: 451
• 406: 453
• 44: 456

Bibliographic information

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