The Climate Crisis: An Introductory Guide to Climate Change

Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.

ISBN: 9780521407441 | 0521407443
Cover: Hardcover
Copyright: 1/29/2010

Rent

(Recommended)

$91.78

Term

Due

Price

Semester

Dec 13

$96.61

Quarter

Aug 16

$91.78

Short Term

Jul 3

$86.95

*This item is part of an exclusive publisher rental program and requires an additional convenience fee. This fee will be reflected in the shopping cart.
Buy New

Special Order: 1-2 Weeks

$132.00
eBook

Available Instantly

Online: 180 Days

Downloadable: 180 Days

$35.10

Most climate scientists wholeheartedly agree with the above statement by the US President. An incredible wealth of scientific data on global warming has been collected in the last few decades. The history of the earth's climate has been probed by drilling into the polar ice sheets and the sediment layers of the oceans' vast depths. Great advances have been made in computer modeling of our climate. Each year, over 10,000 scientific papers are published containing the key word "climate".

Preface	p. ix
Retrospective: what we knew and when we knew it	p. 1
Awareness of the past	p. 4
Understanding climate	p. 7
Finding the smoking gun	p. 11
Summary	p. 15
Earth's energy budget	p. 16
The concept of radiative forcing	p. 17
Greenhouse gases	p. 21
Other human-related climate forcings	p. 32
Climate forcings that are not our fault	p. 34
Summary	p. 37
Climate change so far	p. 39
Temperature changes	p. 40
Rain and snow	p. 47
Clouds and radiation	p. 51
Patterns of atmospheric circulation	p. 54
Tropical storms	p. 57
Causes of the observed climate changes	p. 62
Summary	p. 67
Snow and ice	p. 68
Ice sheets	p. 69
Sea ice	p. 78
Permafrost	p. 81
Summary	p. 84
How the oceans are changing	p. 86
The oceans are heating up	p. 87
Sweet or salty?	p. 91
Are ocean currents changing?	p. 93
Sea level rise	p. 94
The oceans are turning sour	p. 98
Summary	p. 103
The past is the key to the future	p. 105
Climate changes over millions of years	p. 106
The Paleocene Eocene thermal maximum (PETM)	p. 106
Pliocene	p. 109
Glacial cycles	p. 109
Our current interglacial period	p. 118
The last 2000 years	p. 119
The instrumental period	p. 122
Summary	p. 123
What the future holds	p. 125
Scenarios or predictions?	p. 126
How future climate is computed	p. 127
How warm will it get?	p. 129
Rainfall changes	p. 135
How high will the seas rise?	p. 139
Changing ocean currents?	p. 145
Ice and snow changes	p. 146
How sour will the oceans get?	p. 148
Summary	p. 150
Impacts of climate change	p. 151
Are plants and animals already feeling the heat?	p. 152
The future of nature	p. 160
Food, water, health: how global warming will affect us	p. 170
Climate impacts by region	p. 178
Can we adapt?	p. 185
Avoiding climate change	p. 191
Energy supply: the present, the forecast, and what can be changed	p. 196
Energy consumption	p. 205
Other mitigation strategies	p. 210
A more optimistic vision	p. 213
What it will cost	p. 217
Climate policy	p. 221
Do we need a climate policy?	p. 222
What global policy targets?	p. 224
Global conflict, or unprecedented global cooperation?	p. 227
Epilogue	p. 231
References	p. 232
Illustration credits	p. 235
Index	p. 240
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Please wait while the item is added to your bag...

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

The Climate Crisis: An Introductory Guide to Climate Change

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials