Earth's Climate - Past and Future (Broché)

At a time when the evidence is stronger than ever that human activity is the primary cause for global climate change, William Ruddiman's breakthrough text returns in a thoroughly updated new edition. It offers a clear, engaging, objective portrait of the current state of climate science, including compelling recent findings on anthropogenic global warming and important advances in understanding past climates.
Major Themes include : The causes (forcing) of climate change. The natural response times of the many components of Earth. Interactions and feedbacks among these numerous components. The role of carbon as it moves within the climate system at each time scale. New to this edition features : Chapter 2. Earth's Climate System Today This chapter gives students a valuable foundation for understanding the basic operation of the climate system.
Formerly available only online, this chapter has been integrated into the main text. Important Recent Advances The new edition discusses a wide range of new research throughout, including the latest on : Cyclic orbital-scale changes in ice sheet size (Chapter 11). Millennial-scale changes in climate (Chapter 14). Responses of components of the climate system to global warming (Chapter 17).