Climate Process and Change

This undergraduate textbook encompasses the true complexity of climate change.

Edward Bryant (Author)

9780521484404, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 October 1997

228 pages, 72 b/w illus. 23 tables
27.9 x 21 x 1.2 cm, 0.52 kg

'Edward Bryant has produced a fascinating book, which is targeted at both the general reader and also students studying climatology in university geography and environmental science courses.' Progress in Physical Geography

This is the first major textbook to encompass the true complexity of climate change. Whilst 'greenhouse' warming dominates most of the literature, Ted Bryant presents numerous reasons for the observed climate change of the past century. He argues that changes in climate, more dramatic than those of the last 150 years, have been a predominant aspect of the Earth's climate over the past two million years. Bryant highlights human impacts on climate other than 'greenhouse' gases, including sulphate air pollutants, dust and urban heat islands. He also explains the natural components forcing climate change. Bryant presents, in simple terms, the processes that drive the Earth's present climate system. He outlines the nature and reasons for temperature fluctuations over millennia, including recent human-induced climate change. Finally, he discusses the impact of climate change upon human health and the world's ecosystems.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Climate history of the Earth and background concepts
Part I. Processes: 2. Climatic processes
3. Scales of heat and mass transfers in the atmosphere
4. The role of oceans
Part II. Change: 5. Scales of climate change: Pleistocene to modern
6. Causes of climate change
7. Human effects on climate
Part III. Impacts: 8. Health impacts of climate change
9. Ecosystem impacts of climate change
10. Epilogue
Index.

Subject Areas: Physical geography & topography [RGB], Meteorology & climatology [RBP]