Waubonsee Community College

Climate change, a multidisciplinary approach, William James Burroughs

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Climate change

bibliography

148297815

William James Burroughs

a multidisciplinary approach

This is an updated textbook on climate change for courses in meteorology, oceanography, environmental science, earth science and geography. It provides an up-to-date presentation of current knowledge of climate change and its implications for society as a whole

Introduction : Weather and climate ; What do we mean by climate variability and climate change? ; Connections, timescales and uncertainties ; The big picture -- Radiation and the Earth's energy balance : Solar and terrestrial radiation ; Solar variability ; Summary -- The elements of the climate : The atmosphere and oceans in motion ; Atmospheric circulation patterns ; Radiation balance ; The hydrological cycle ; The biosphere ; Sustained abnormal weather patterns ; Atmosphere-ocean interactions ; The great ocean conveyor ; Summary -- The measurement of climate change : In situ instrumental observations ; Satellite measurements ; Re-analysis work ; Historical records ; Proxy measurements ; Dating ; Isotope age dating ; Summary -- Statistics, significance and cycles : Time series, sampling and harmonic analysis ; Noise ; Measures of variability and significance ; Smoothing ; Wavelet analysis ; Multidimensional analysis ; Summary -- The natural causes of climate change : Autovariance and non-linearity ; Atmosphere-ocean interactions ; Ocean currents ; Volcanoes ; Sunspots and solar activity ; Tidal forces ; Orbital variations ; Continental drift ; Changes in atmospheric composition ; A belch from the deep ; Catastrophes and the 'nuclear winter' ; Summary -- Human activities : Greenhouse gas emissions ; Dust and aerosols ; Desertification and deforestation ; The ozone hole ; Summary -- Evidence of climate change : Peering into the abyss of time ; From greenhouse to icehouse ; Sea-level fluctuations ; The ice ages ; The end of the last ice age ; The Holocene climatic optimum ; Changes during times of recorded history ; The medieval climatic optimum ; The little ice age ; The twentieth-century warming ; Concluding observations -- Consequences of climate change : Geological consequences ; Flora and fauna ; Mass extinctions ; Sea levels, ice sheets and glaciers ; Agriculture ; The historical implications of climatic variability ; Spread of diseases ; The economic impact of extreme weather events ; Summary -- Modelling the climate ; Global circulation models ; Simulation of climatic variability ; The challenges facing modellers ; Summary -- Predicting climate change : Natural variability ; Predicting global warming ; The predicted consequences of global warming ; Doubts about the scale of global warming ; What can we do about global warming? ; The Gaia hypothesis