Earth's Climate

Past and Future

Third Edition

Publication Date: July 17, 2017

Paperback ISBN: 9781319154004

Pages: 464

Understanding the earth’s climate system has never been more crucial.

At a time when the evidence is stronger than ever that human activity is the primary cause for global climate change, Ruddimans breakthrough text provides a thorough and multi-disciplinary introduction to the earth’s climate. It offers a clear, engaging, objective portrait of the current state of...

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PART I: FRAMEWORK OF CLIMATE SCIENCE

1. Overview of Climate Science

2. Earths Climate System Today

3. Climatic Archives, Data and Models

PART II: TECTONIC-SCALE CLIMATE CHANGE

4. CO2 and Long-Term Climate

5. Plate Tectonics and Long-Term Climate

6. Greenhouse Climate From Greenhouse to Icehouse: The Last 50 Million Years

PART III: ORBITAL-SCALE CLIMATE CHANGE

8. Astronomical Control of Solar Radiation

9. Insolation Control of Monsoons

10. Insolation Control of Ice Sheets

11. Orbital-Scale Changes in Carbon Dioxide and Methane

12. Orbital-Scale Interactions, Feedbacks, and Unsolved Problems

PART IV: GLACIAL/DEGLACIAL CLIMATE CHANGE

13. The Last Glacial Maximum

14. Climate During and Since the Last Deglaciation

15. Millennial Oscillations of Climate

PART V: HISTORICAL AND FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE

16. Humans and Pre-Industrial Climate

17. Climate Changes During the Last 1000 Years

18. Climate Changes Since 1850

19. Causes of Warming over the Last 125 Years

20. Future Climatic Change.

Bill Ruddiman is widely recognized in the science community as possessing the interdisciplinary qualifications to write an authoritative textbook on Earth.
The text synthesizes material from many disciplines including geology, ecology, paleobotany and oceanography into a coherent, step-by-step presentation that is accessible for students.
A coherent structure allows students to focus the major themes including the causes of climate change, the natural response times of the many components of Earth, the interactions and feedbacks among these numerous components and the role of carbon as it moves within the climate system at each time scale.
Each chapter explores the climatic responses of Earths major systems as they developed through Earths history, moving from the earliest known climate history to historical, modern, and future changes providing students with a clear and chronological introduction to the topic.

Features boxes include discussions of climate feedbacks and interactions, tools and techniques used by climate scientists, and ongoing debates about the Earth helps students connect the theory with the real-world application.
A full chapter on the earth’s climate system today provides students a valuable foundation for understanding the basic operation of the earth’s climate system.
This edition discusses a wide range of new research throughout, including the latest on cyclic and millennial-scale changes in climate, keeping students engaged in contemporary field research.

William F. Ruddiman

William F.  Ruddiman was initially trained as a marine geologist. His subsequent work over many years has explored several different aspects of the field of paleoclimate. His earliest research was on orbital-scale changes in North Atlantic sediments to reconstruct past sea-surface temperatures and to quantify the deposition of ice-rafted debris. He also studied the way that vertical mixing by sea-floor organisms smoothes deep-sea climatic records. Later, his interests turned to the cause of long-term cooling over the last 50 million years. This research led to a new hypothesis that uplift of the Tibetan Plateau has been a major driver of that cooling, with Maureen Raymos work on chemical weathering a central part of that hypothesis. That research also demonstrated that Tibetan uplift created much of the seasonally alternating monsoon climate that dominates eastern Asia today. Since entering semi-retirement in 2001, Ruddimans research has concentrated on the climatic role farmers played during the last several thousand years by clearing land, raising livestock, and irrigating rice padis. This research produced the early anthropogenic hypothesis --- the idea that early agriculturalists caused an anomalous reversal in natural declines of atmospheric CO2 7000 years ago and CH4 5000 years ago. His research on this issue has been NSF-funded for several years. Because this hypothesis has been very controversial, it has provoked many studies seeking ways to test it.

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Answers to End of Chapter Questions

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: All Chapters

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 01

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 02

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 03

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 04

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 05

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 06

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 07

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 08

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 09

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 10

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 11

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 12

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 13

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 14

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 15

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 16

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 17

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 18

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 19

Answers to End of Chapter Questions: Chapter 20

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Earth's Climate

Past and Future

Third Edition

Publication Date: July 17, 2017

Paperback ISBN: 9781319154004

Pages: 464

Understanding the earth’s climate system has never been more crucial.