Life on our planet depends upon having a climate that changes within narrow limits - not too hot for the oceans to boil away nor too cold for the planet to freeze over. Over the past billion years Earth's average temperature has stayed close to 14-15°C, oscillating between warm greenhouse states and cold icehouse states. We live with variation, but a variation with limits. Paleoclimatology is the science of understanding and explaining those variations, those limits, and the forces that control them. Without that understanding we will not be able to foresee future change accurately as our population grows. Our impact on the planet is now equal to a geological force, such that many geologists now see us as living in a new geological era - the Anthropocene.
Paleoclimatology describes Earth's passage through the greenhouse and icehouse worlds of the past 800 million years, including the glaciations of Snowball Earth in a world that was then free of land plants. It describes the operation of the Earth's thermostat, which keeps the planet fit for life, and its control by interactions between greenhouse gases, land plants, chemical weathering, continental motions, volcanic activity, orbital change and solar variability. It explains how we arrived at our current understanding of the climate system, by reviewing the contributions of scientists since the mid-1700s, showing how their ideas were modified as science progressed. And it includes reflections based on the author's involvement in palaeoclimatic research.
The book will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about future climate change. It will be an invaluable course reference for undergraduate and postgraduate students in geology, climatology, oceanography and the history of science.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Zielgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 273 mm
Breite: 215 mm
Dicke: 25 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-119-59138-2 (9781119591382)
Schweitzer Klassifikation
C.P. Summerhayes is an Emeritus Associate of the Scott Polar Research Institute of Cambridge University. He has carried out research and managed research programmes on aspects of past climate change in academia, in government laboratories, in intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and in industry since obtaining a PhD in Geochemistry from Imperial College, London.
Autor*in
Southampton Oceanography Centre, Empress Dock, UK
Dedication
Author biography
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 What is Palaeoclimatology?
1.2 What Can Palaeoclimatology Tell Us About Future Climate Change?
1.3 Using Numerical Models to Aid Understanding
1.4 The Structure of This Book
1.5 Why is this History Not More Widely Known?
Chapter 2 The Great Cooling
2.1 The Founding Fathers
2.2 Charles Lyell - 'Father of Palaeoclimatology'
2.3 Agassiz Discovers The Ice Age
2.4 Lyell Defends Icebergs
Chapter 3: Ice Age Cycles
3.1 The Astronomical Theory of Climate Change
3.2 James Croll Develops The Theory
3.3 Lyell Responds
3.4 Croll Defends His Position
3.5 Even More Ancient Ice Ages
3.6 Not Everyone Agrees
Chapter 4: Trace Gases Warm The Planet
4.1 De Saussure's Hot Box
4.2 William Herschel's Accidental Discovery
4.3 Discovering Carbon Dioxide
4.4 Fourier, The 'Newton of Heat' Discovers The 'Greenhouse Effect'
4.5 Tyndall Shows How The 'Greenhouse Effect' Works
4.6 Arrhenius Calculates How CO2 Affects Air Temperature
4.7 Chamberlin's Theory of Gases and Ice Ages
Chapter 5: Changing Geography Through Time
5.1 The Continents Drift
5.2 The Sea Floor Spreads
5.3 The Dating Game
5.4 Base Maps for Palaeoclimatology
5.5 The Evolution of The Modern World
Chapter 6: Mapping Past Climates
6.1 Climate Indicators
6.2 Palaeoclimatologists Get To Work
6.3 Refining Palaeolatitudes
6.4 Oxygen Isotopes To The Rescue
6.5 Cycles and Astronomy
6.6 Pangaean Palaeoclimates (Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic)
6.7 Post-Break Up Palaeoclimates (Jurassic, Cretaceous)
6.8 Numerical Models Make Their Appearance
6.9 From Wegener to Barron
Chapter 7: Into the Icehouse
7.1 Climate Clues from the Deep Ocean
7.2 Palaeoceanography
7.3 The World's Freezer
7.4 The Drill Bit Turns
7.5 Global Cooling
7.6 Arctic Glaciation
Chapter 8: Greenhouse Gas Theory Matures
8.1 CO2 in the Atmosphere and Ocean (1930-1955)
8.2 CO2 in the Atmosphere and Ocean (1955-1979)
8.3 CO2 in the Atmosphere and Ocean (1979-1983)
8.4 Biogeochemistry - the Merging of Physics and Biology
8.5 The Carbon Cycle
8.6 Ocean Carbon
8.7 A Growing International Emphasis
8.8 Reflection on Developments
Chapter 9: Measuring and Modelling CO2 Back Through Time
9.1 CO2 - the Palaeoclimate Perspective
9.2 Modeling CO2 Back Through Time
9.3 The Critics Gather
9.4 Fossil CO2
9.5 Measuring CO2 Back Through Time
9.6 CO2, temperature, solar luminosity and the Ordovician glaciation
9.7 Some Summary Remarks
Chapter 10: The Pulse of the Earth
10.1 Climate Cycles and Tectonic Forces,
10.2 Ocean Chemistry,
10.3 Black Shales,
10.4 Sea Level,
10.5 Biogeochemical Cycles, Gaia and Cybertectonic Earth,
10.6 Meteorite Impacts,
10.7 Massive Volcanic Eruptions and Biological Extinctions
10.8 An Outrageous Hypothesis: Snowball Earth
Chapter 11: Numerical Climate Models and Case Histories
11.1 CO2 and General Circulation Models
11.2 Climate Sensitivity
11.3 CO2 and Climate in the Early Cenozoic
11.4 The First Great Ice Sheet
11.5 Hyperthermal Events
11.6 Case History -The Palaeocene-Eocene Boundary
11.7 Case History - the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum
11.8 Case History - The Pliocene
Chapter 12: Solving the Ice Age Mystery - The Deep Ocean Solution
12.1 Astronomical Drivers
12.2 An Ice Age Climate Signal Emerges from the Deep Ocean
12.3 Ice Age CO2 Signal Hidden on Deep Sea Floor
12.4 Flip-Flops in the Conveyor
12.5 A Surprise Millennial Signal Emerges
12.6 Ice Age Productivity
12.7 Observations on Deglaciation and Past Interglacials
12.8 Sea Level
12.9 Natural Climatic Envelopes
Chapter 13: Solving the Ice Age Mystery - The Ice Core Tale
13.1 The Great Ice Sheets
13.2 The Greenland Story
13.3 Antarctic Ice
13.4 Seesaws
13.5 CO2 in the Ice Age Atmosphere
13.6 The Ultimate Climate Flicker - The Younger Dryas Event
13.7 Problems in the Milankovitch Garden
13.8 The Mechanics of Change
Chapter 14: The Holocene Interglacial
14.1 Holocene Climate Change
14.2 The Role of Greenhouse Gases - Carbon Dioxide and Methane
14.3 Climate Variability
Chapter 15: The Late Holocene and the Anthropocene
15.1 The Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age
15.2 Solar Activity and Cosmic Rays
15.3 Volcanoes and Climate
15.4 Sea Level
15.5 The End of the Little Ice Age
15.6 The Anthropocene
Chapter 16: Putting It All Together
16.1 A Fast Evolving Subject
16.2 Natural Envelopes of Climate Change - Earth's Thermostat
16.3 Evolving Knowledge
16.4 Where is Climate Headed?
16.5 Some Final Remarks
16.6 What Can Be Done?
Appendix
Further Reading
Index
