Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• 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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Bryant has prepared an excellent encyclopedia on all aspects of climate determination and change. The table of contents, index, and references make it possible for a reader to acquire considerable knowledge and an unbiased discussion of current climatic topics, including global warming, El Ni~no and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO), ozone depletion, and causes of climatic change, including those due to changes in Earth's orbit and in solar output and volcanism, and to human effects on climate. The chapters on health and ecosystem impacts of climatic change are particularly unique and worthwhile. Naturally there is a focus on the last half of the 20th century, but a good history of climate includes the ice ages and more recently, climate-induced natural hazards--droughts, and floods such as that in China in 1332 when seven million died. The role of dust, clouds, and oceans are other aspects in this all-inclusive discussion. Bryant warns that chaos and other factors lead to a lack of consensus on many points. Recommended for all levels. A. E. Staver; emeritus, Northern Illinois University