Global Changes in the Perspective of the Past

Global Changes in the Perspective of the Past Edited by J. A. Eddy and H. Oeschger To identify the marks of humans on the planet we must know the natural background on which they were imposed. To determine their importance we need to know the range of variability of the natural system. To be able to predict the ultimate impact of human intervention on the Earth system it is necessary to understand how the system works, including the chemical interactions that link the living and nonliving parts. Such answers will come, in part if not completely, from what is known of past changes on the Earth, derived from the history and written records held in natural archives, e. g. tree rings, ice, ocean and lake sediments, coral deposits, and in the strata of soils and rock. On this basis, leading experts from the broad spectrum of science met in Berlin to discuss the use of paleoclimatic data for analyzing climatic processes and for modeling the future evolution of climate.
It is hoped that this volume, which contains the background papers and summary group reports of the workshop, will illuminate some of the burning questions yet unanswered in the field of paleostudies and accelerate the pace of progress in this field. It should be of interest to climatologists, atmospheric scientists, biogeochemists, oceanographers, ecologists, glaciologists, and numerical modelers. Goal of this Dahlem Workshop: to discuss the use of paleoclimatic data for analyzing climatic processes and for modeling the future evolution of the climate.