The Future of the World's Climate
- 2nd Edition - January 31, 2012
- Editors: Ann Henderson-Sellers, Kendal McGuffie
- Language: English
- Hardback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 3 8 6 9 1 7 - 3
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 3 8 6 9 5 7 - 9
At a time of so much politicized debate over the phenomenon of global warming, the second edition of The Future of the World's Climate places the discussion in a broader geologica… Read more
At a time of so much politicized debate over the phenomenon of global warming, the second edition of The Future of the World's Climate places the discussion in a broader geological, paleo-climatic, and astronomical context. This book is a resource based on reviews of current climate science and supported by sound, accurate data and projections made possible by technological advances in climate modeling.
Crucially, this title examines in detail a wide variety of aspects, including human factors like land use, expanding urban climates, and governmental efforts at mitigation, such as the Kyoto Protocol. It also examines large-scale, long-term changes in oceans, glaciers, and atmospheric composition, including tropospheric ozone and aerosols. Weather extremes are addressed, as well as the impact of catastrophic events such as massive volcanism and meteorite impacts.
Readers will find a complete picture of the Earth's future climate, delivered by authors drawn from all over the world and from the highest regarded peer-reviewed groups; most are also contributors to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Assessment Reports.
- Winner of the 2012 ALSI Choice Award from Atmospheric Science Librarians International
- Each chapter has undergone major revisions and new content has been added throughout
- More than 200 tables, diagrams, illustrations, and photographs
- A cross-disciplinary resource encompassing the geosciences, life science, social science, and engineering
Includes (but is not limited to) the geosciences, life science, social science, and engineering; Instructors and students at the undergraduate and graduate levels studying climatology, atmospheric science, oceanography, geology, environmental science and engineering, ecology, and, to a lesser extent, political science
Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Abbreviations & Acronyms
Stephen H. Schneider: In Memoriam
Introduction
Chapter 1. Seeing Further
1.1. The Future of Our Climate: Introduction and Outline
1.2. Global Warming: Climate’s ‘Elephant in the Room’
1.3. The Complexity of the Future of the World’s Climate
1.4. Climate Future of the Coorong: Communicating from Global ‘Ground Zero’
1.5. Futurology of Climate
Introduction
Chapter 2. People, Policy and Politics in Future Climates
2.1. Introduction: Human and Ecological Systems and Paradigm Change
2.2. The Challenges of Governance for Mitigation of Climate Change
2.3. A Governance Approach to Address Climate Change
2.4. Science and Politics in the International Climate Regime
2.5. The Role of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol
2.6. Top-Down Actions Stemming From Inside and Outside UNFCCC/Kyoto
2.7. Bottom-Up Approaches: Civil Society Participation and Influence
2.8. Prospects for the Future
2.9. Future Unknowns: Living on a Warmer Earth?
Chapter 3. Urban Climates and Global Climate Change
3.1. Introduction: Living in Cities
3.2. Local and Regional Urban Climates: The Biophysical Basis
3.3. Cities and Global Climate Change
3.4. Current State-of-the-Art in Simulating Urban Climates
3.5. Cities and the Future Climate
Chapter 4. Human Effects on Climate Through Land-Use-Induced Land-Cover Change
4.1. Introduction: Land Change and Climate
4.2. The Scale of Human Modification
4.3. Mechanisms/Processes Through Which LULCC Affects Climate
4.4. Links Between LULCC and Climate
4.5. Land Use and Understanding our Future Climate
Introduction
Chapter 5. Fast and Slow Feedbacks in Future Climates
5.1. Introduction: The Sensitive Climate
5.2. Fast-Feedback Climate Sensitivity
5.3. Slow Feedback Processes Related to the Carbon Cycle
5.4. Coupled Climate–Carbon Cycle Model Results and Linear Feedback Analysis
5.5. Other Slow and Less-Considered Feedbacks
5.6. Climate Feedbacks and the Future Climate
Chapter 6. Variability and Change in the Ocean
6.1. Introduction: Climate Variability
6.2. Observed Ocean Variability and Change
6.3. Projections for the Future
6.4. Ocean Biogeochemical Feedbacks
6.5. Oceanic Variability and Change
Chapter 7. Climatic Variability on Decadal to Century Timescales
7.1. Introduction: Oceans and Future Climate
7.2. Tropical Decadal Variability
7.3. Description of Extra-tropical Decadal Variability
7.4. Evidence of Centennial Variability
7.5. The Stochastic Climate Model: The Null Hypothesis For Climate Variability
7.6. Summary: Future Unknowns
Chapter 8. The Future of the World's Glaciers
8.1. Introduction: Climate and the Cryosphere
8.2. Elements
8.3. Glacier Mass Balance
8.4. Modelling Tools
8.5. Recent and Present States of the World’s Glaciers
8.6. The Outlook for Glaciers
8.7. Reflections: Glaciers and the Future Climate
Chapter 9. Future Regional Climates
9.1. Introduction: Close-up of Climate Change
9.2. Regional-Scale Climate Phenomena
9.3. Downscaling Global Climate Projections
9.4. Sources of Uncertainty
9.5. Achieving Regional Climate Predictions
9.6. Regionalizing Future Climate
Introduction
Chapter 10. Climate and Weather Extremes
10.1. Introduction: Extremes of Climate
10.2. Methodological Issues Regarding the Analysis of Extremes
10.3. Observed Changes in Extremes
10.4. Climate Processes and Climate Extremes
10.5. How Well do Climate Models Simulate Extremes?
10.6. The Future
10.7. Extremes in Our Future Climate
Chapter 11. Interaction Between Future Climate and Terrestrial Carbon and Nitrogen
11.1. Introduction: Cycling Terrestrial Nutrients
11.2. Climate System Feedbacks
11.3. Biogeochemical Processes
11.4. Observational Constraints
11.5. Modelling Nitrogen–Carbon Interactions
11.6. Consequences of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change for Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles
11.7. Vegetation and the Future Climate
Chapter 12. Atmospheric Composition Change
12.1. Introduction
12.2. Key Interactions in the Climate–Chemistry System
12.3. Trends in Emissions of Chemical Species and in Chemically Active Greenhouse Compounds
12.4. Distribution and Changes of Chemical Active Greenhouse Gases and Their Precursors
12.5. Climate Impact from Emission Changes
12.6. Contributions to Tropospheric Changes from the Transport Sector and for Different Regions
12.7. Impact on Tropospheric Composition from Climate Change and Changes In Stratospheric Composition
12.8. Cross Cutting Issues (Policy Relations, Integration)
12.9. Summary and Conclusions
Chapter 13. Climate–Chemistry Interaction
13.1. Atmospheric Composition, Chemistry, and Climate
13.2. Climatically-Important Chemical Compounds
13.3. Climate–Chemistry Interaction of Tropospheric Ozone
13.4. Climate–Chemistry Interaction of Tropospheric Sulfate Aerosols
13.5. Mitigation Policies for Climate and Air Quality
13.6. Future Study of Climate–Chemistry Interaction
Introduction
Chapter 14. Records from the Past, Lessons for the Future
14.1. Timescales of Climate Change, their Causation, and Detection
14.2. Regional Responses to Millennial-Scale Forcing
14.3. Rapid Climate Changes
14.4. Biosphere Feedbacks
14.5. Lessons from the Past for the Study of Climate Changes
14.6. Lessons from the Past for Future Climates
Chapter 15. Modelling the Past and Future Interglacials in Response to Astronomical and Greenhouse Gas Forcing
15.1. Introduction: Interglacials and Warm Climate
15.2. Model and Experiments Used for Simulating the Last Nine Interglacials
15.3. Precession and Obliquity During the Interglacials
15.4. Latitudinal and Seasonal Distribution of Insolation
15.5. Modelling the GHG and Insolation Contributions to the Difference Between Pre- and Post-MBE Interglacials
15.6. GHG and Insolation Contributions to the Individual Interglacial Climates
15.7. Future of Our Interglacial
15.8. Probing Future Astro-Climates
Chapter 16. Catastrophe
16.1. Introduction: What is a Climate Catastrophe?
16.2. Massive Volcanism: Case Study of the Triassic–Jurassic (Tr–J) Event
16.3. Extraterrestrial Impacts: Case Study of the End-Cretaceous Events
16.4. The Potential of the K–Pg Impact to Cause Environmental Change
16.5. Comparison of the Tr–J And K–Pg Events
16.6. ‘Deep-Time’ Context for Anthropogenic Environmental and Climate Change
16.7. Future Climate Catastrophes
Introduction
Chapter 17. Future Climate Surprises
17.1. Introduction: Probing Future Climates
17.2. Defining Climate Surprises
17.3. Melting of Large Masses of Ice
17.4. Changes in Atmospheric and Oceanic Circulation
17.5. Loss of Biomes
17.6. Coping with Climate Surprises
17.7. Future Climate: Surprises, Responses, and Recovery Strategies
17.8. Conclusion: Gaps in Knowledge
Chapter 18. Future Climate
18.1. Gaia and Earth System Science
18.2. Humans in the Earth System
18.3. Trans-Disciplinary Earth System Science
Bibliography
Index
Editors’ Biographies
Biographies
- Edition: 2
- Published: January 31, 2012
- Language: English
AH
Ann Henderson-Sellers
Affiliations and expertise
Macquarie University, Sydney, AustraliaKM
Kendal McGuffie
Affiliations and expertise
University of Technology, Sydney, AustraliaRead The Future of the World's Climate on ScienceDirect