Long-Term Climatic Variations

Long-Term Climatic Variations PDF Author: Jean-Claude Duplessy
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642790666
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 571

Book Description
Climate is the most important component of the Earth's environment and climatic fluctuations have a strong impact on water supplies, vegetation, energy use etc. Thus our understanding of the climatic system is of utmost importance. Leading experts in the field of climate modelling and paleoclimatology present the most recent methods for reconstructing past climatic variations and for modelling the climatic system and its evolution. The first of three parts is devoted to the climatic system and the physical basis for its modelling; the second summarizes the evolution of the global atmosphere, the ocean, the continents, the biosphere, and the ice sheets during recent climatic cycles; the last part focusses on the understanding of past and future climatic changes.

Climate Change

Climate Change PDF Author: The Royal Society
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309302021
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 74

Book Description
Climate Change: Evidence and Causes is a jointly produced publication of The US National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. Written by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists and reviewed by climate scientists and others, the publication is intended as a brief, readable reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative information on the some of the questions that continue to be asked. Climate Change makes clear what is well-established and where understanding is still developing. It echoes and builds upon the long history of climate-related work from both national academies, as well as on the newest climate-change assessment from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It touches on current areas of active debate and ongoing research, such as the link between ocean heat content and the rate of warming.

Long-Term Climate Monitoring by the Global Climate Observing System

Long-Term Climate Monitoring by the Global Climate Observing System PDF Author: Thomas R. Karl
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401103232
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 513

Book Description
Is the climate warming? Is the hydrological cycle intensifying? Is the climate becoming more variable or extreme? Is the chemical composition of the atmosphere changing? Is the solar irradiance constant? Answers to these questions are fundamental to understanding, predicting, and assessing climate on time scales ranging from weeks to a century. Atmospheric, oceanic, and environmental scientists have primarily relied on an ad-hoc collection of disparate environmental observational and data management systems to address these problems. But these systems were not designed to measure climate variations and, as a result, changes and variations of the earth system during the instrumental climate record is far from unequivocal. This book develops a framework from which a Global Climate Observing System, currently being discussed in international forums, can be implemented to monitor changes and variations of climate. Audience: Administrators, policy makers, professionals, graduate students, and others interested in learning how we can ensure a long-term climate record for application to national economic development and understanding ecosystem dynamics.

Climate Variability and Ecosystem Response at Long-Term Ecological Research Sites

Climate Variability and Ecosystem Response at Long-Term Ecological Research Sites PDF Author: David Greenland
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190287837
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
This volume in the Long-Term Ecological Research Network Series would present the work that has been done and the understanding and database that have been developed by work on climate change done at all the LTER sites. Global climate change is a central issue facing the world, which is being worked on by a very large number of scientists across a wide range of fields. The LTER sites hold some of the best available data measuring long term impacts and changes in the environment, and the research done at these sites has not previously been made widely available to the broader climate change research community. This book should appeal reasonably widely outside the ecological community, and because it pulls together information from all 20 research sites, it should capture the interest of virtually the entire LTER research community.

The Earth as Transformed by Human Action

The Earth as Transformed by Human Action PDF Author: B. L. Turner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521446303
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 740

Book Description
The Earth as Transformed by Human Action is the culmination of a mammoth undertaking involving the examination of the toll our continual strides forward, technical and social, take on our world. The purpose of such a study is to document the changes in the biosphere that have taken place over the last 300 years, to contrast global patterns of change to those appearing on a regional level, and to explain the major human forces that have driven these changes. The first section deals strictly with the major human forces of the past 300 years and the second is a detailed account of the transformations of the global environment wrought by human action. The final section examines a range of perspectives and theories that purport to explain human actions with regard to the biosphere.

The Impact of Climatic Variations on Agriculture

The Impact of Climatic Variations on Agriculture PDF Author: M.L. Parry
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940092965X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 742

Book Description
Three important studies were initiated in the 19708 to investigate the relation ship between climatic variations and agriculture: by the National Defense University (1980) on Crop Yields and Climate Change to the Year eooo, by the U.s. Department of Transportation (1975) on Impacts 0/ Climatic Change on the Biosphere and by the U.s. Department of Energy (1980) on Environmental and Societal Consequences 0/ a Possible CO -Induced Climatic Change (the ClAP 2 study). These were pioneering projects in a young field. Their emphasis was on measuring likely impacts of climatic variations rather than on evaluating possible responses, and they focused on first-order impacts (e.g., on crop yields) rather than on higher-order effects on society. A logical next step was to look at higher-order effects and potential responses, as part of a more integrated approach to impact assessment. This was undertaken by the World Climate Impact Program (WCIF), which is directed by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The WCIF is one of four aspects of the World Ciimate Program, which was initiated in 1979.

Climate in Earth History

Climate in Earth History PDF Author:
Publisher: National Academies
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description


Long-term Climate Variations in China and Global Warming Signals

Long-term Climate Variations in China and Global Warming Signals PDF Author: Zeng-Zhen Hu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Atmospheric temperature
Languages : en
Pages : 64

Book Description


Atmospheric Evolution on Inhabited and Lifeless Worlds

Atmospheric Evolution on Inhabited and Lifeless Worlds PDF Author: David C. Catling
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521844126
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 595

Book Description
A comprehensive and authoritative text on the formation and evolution of planetary atmospheres, for graduate-level students and researchers.

The Long Thaw

The Long Thaw PDF Author: David Archer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400880777
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 195

Book Description
Why a warmer climate may be humanity’s longest-lasting legacy The human impact on Earth's climate is often treated as a hundred-year issue lasting as far into the future as 2100, the year in which most climate projections cease. In The Long Thaw, David Archer, one of the world’s leading climatologists, reveals the hard truth that these changes in climate will be "locked in," essentially forever. If you think that global warming means slightly hotter weather and a modest rise in sea levels that will persist only so long as fossil fuels hold out (or until we decide to stop burning them), think again. In The Long Thaw, David Archer predicts that if we continue to emit carbon dioxide we may eventually cancel the next ice age and raise the oceans by 50 meters. A human-driven, planet-wide thaw has already begun, and will continue to impact Earth’s climate and sea level for hundreds of thousands of years. The great ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland may take more than a century to melt, and the overall change in sea level will be one hundred times what is forecast for 2100. By comparing the global warming projection for the next century to natural climate changes of the distant past, and then looking into the future far beyond the usual scientific and political horizon of the year 2100, Archer reveals the hard truths of the long-term climate forecast. Archer shows how just a few centuries of fossil-fuel use will cause not only a climate storm that will last a few hundred years, but dramatic climate changes that will last thousands. Carbon dioxide emitted today will be a problem for millennia. For the first time, humans have become major players in shaping the long-term climate. In fact, a planetwide thaw driven by humans has already begun. But despite the seriousness of the situation, Archer argues that it is still not too late to avert dangerous climate change--if humans can find a way to cooperate as never before. Revealing why carbon dioxide may be an even worse gamble in the long run than in the short, this compelling and critically important book brings the best long-term climate science to a general audience for the first time. With a new preface that discusses recent advances in climate science, and the impact on global warming and climate change, The Long Thaw shows that it is still not too late to avert dangerous climate change—if we can find a way to cooperate as never before.