Incluye bibliografía: páginas 257-276 e índice: páginas 311-318

Glosario: páginas 247-255

Foreword.. Preface.. Abbreviations.. 1. Climate in context.. Weather and climate.. The climate system.. Climate change: separating facts from fears.. The story.. 2. The character of the atmosphere.. The structure and composition of the atmosphere.. The circulation of the atmosphere.. Some climate phenomena.. Ozone: a stratosphere story.. Perspective.. 3. The world ocean.. The important properties of water.. The ocean's layered structure.. The ocean's surface currents.. Global flows of water through the ocean and atmosphere.. The ocean-atmosphere interaction of El Niño-Southern oscillation.. Perspective.. 4. The carbon cycle and how it influences climate.. Reservoirs of carbon.. The carbon cycle.. The acidification of the ocean.. Perspective: uncertainties in the carbon cycle.. 5. A scientific framework for thinking about climate change.. Energy balance.. Radiative forcing.. The greenhouse effect.. Aerosols.. Changes in land use.. Natural forcings.. Important features of the climate system.. Perspective.. 6. Learning from climates past.. A Lesson from the distant past: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.. The Ice Age.. Fluctuations in ancient climate.. The climate of the past 100,000 years.. The climate of the Holocene: the past 12,000 years.. Lessons learned.. 7. A century of warming and some consequences.. A century of warming and its causes.. Precipitation and drought.. Severe storms and other extreme events.. More lessons from the American West : ecosystem responses.. Perspective.. 8. More consequences: the sensitive Arctic and sea-level rise.. The shrinking Arctic Ice Cap.. Melting permafrost and changing tundra.. Ice loss beyond the Arctic and sea-level rise.. Lessons for sea-level rise from the most recent interglacial period

9. Climate models and the future.. What are climate models?.. Are climate models credible?.. Simulating the twentieth century: Anthropogenic versus natural causes of climate change.. Peering into the future.. Perspective.. 10. Energy and the future.. Coal: a vast enterprise.. The nuclear option.. Wind and solar power: icons for the future.. Solutions.. Notes.. Glossary.. Bibliography.. Student companion.. Index

Climate Change is geared toward a variety of students and general readers who seek the real science behind global warming. Exquisitely illustrated, the text introduces the basic science underlying both the natural progress of climate change and the effect of human activity on the deteriorating health of our planet. Noted expert and author Edmond A. Mathez synthesizes the work of leading scholars in climatology and related fields, and he concludes with an extensive chapter on energy production, anchoring this volume in economic and technological realities and suggesting ways to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Climate Change opens with the climate system fundamentals: the workings of the atmosphere and ocean, their chemical interactions via the carbon cycle, and the scientific framework for understanding climate change. Mathez then brings the climate of the past to bear on our present predicament, highlighting the importance of paleoclimatology in understanding the current climate system. Subsequent chapters explore the changes already occurring around us and their implications for the future. In a special feature, Jason E. Smerdon, associate research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, provides an innovative appendix for students. Inglés