Earth's Climate

William F. Ruddiman, University of Virginia.

Part I: Framework of Climate Science; Overview of Climate Science; Earth's Climate System Today; Climatic Archives, Data and Models; Part II: Tectonic-Scale Climate Change; CO2 and Long-Term Climate; Plate Tectonics and Climate; Greenhouse Earth; Back into the Icehouse; Part III: Orbital-Scale Climate Change; Astronomical Control of Insolation; Insolation Control of Monsoons; Insolation Control of Ice Sheets; Orbital-Scale Changes in CO2 and Methane; Orbital-Scale Interactions in the Climate System; Part IV: Deglacial and Millennial Climate Change; The Last Glacial Maximum; From the Last Deglaciation to the Present; Millennial Climatic Oscillations; Part V: Historical and Future Climate Change; Historical Changes in Climate; Humans and Climate Change; Twentieth-Century Climate: The Greenhouse Debate; Climate Change in the Next 100 to 1000 Years