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Experimenting on a small planet : a history of scientific discoveries, a future of climate change and global warming / William W. Hay ; [illustrated by Greg Wray].

Author
Hay, William W., 1934-2022
Published
Switzerland : Springer, [2016]
Copyright Date
©2016
Edition
Second edition.
Physical Description
xxxvii, 819 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 29 cm
Additional Creators
Wray, Greg

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Contents
1. Introduction -- Leningrad : 1982 -- Global warming -- 2. The language of science -- Numbers and symbols -- Arithmetic, algebra, and calculus -- Orders of magnitude and exponents -- Logarithms -- Logarithms and scales with bases other than 10 -- Earthquake scales -- The Beaufort Wind Force Scale -- Extending the Beaufort Scale to cyclonic storms -- Calendars and time -- 3. Applying mathematics to problems -- Measures and weights -- The nautical mile -- The metric system -- Temperature -- Precisely defining some words you already know -- Locating things -- Latitude and longitude -- Map projections -- Trigonometry -- Circles and angular velocity -- Centripetal and centrifugal forces -- Exponential growth and decay -- The logistic equation -- Graphs -- Statistics -- 4. Geologic time -- Age of the Earth -- Discovery of the depths of time : eternity -- Geologic time punctuated by revolutions -- Catastrophism replaced by imperceptible slow gradual change -- Development of the geological time scale -- Discovery of the Ice Age -- Discovery of past war polar regions -- Explaining climate change -- "Crustal mobility" -- Return of catastrophism and the idea of rapid change -- The nature of the geologic record -- The great extinctions and their causes -- 5. Putting numbers on geologic ages -- Atomic weight, atomic mass, isotopes, relative atomic mass, standard atomic weight -- Henri Becquerel and the Curies -- Discovery of electrons, alpha-rays, and beta-rays -- Discovery of radioactive decay series, exponential decay rates, and secular equilibrium -- Discovery of stable isotopes -- Discovery of protons and neutrons -- Arthur Holmes and the age of the Earth -- Development of a numerical geological timescale -- 6. Documenting past climate change -- Brief overview of Earth's climate history -- Cenozoic climate "deterioration" -- Radiometric age dating -- Potassium-Argon dating -- Reversals of Earth's magnetic field -- Fission track dating -- Astronomical dating -- Tritium, carbon-14 and beryllium-10 -- Human acceleration of natural process rates -- Present climate in its geologic context -- Steady state versus non-steady state --, 7. The nature of energy received from the Sun : the analogies with water waves and sound -- Special water waves : tides and tsunamis -- Wave energy, refraction and reflection -- Sound waves and music -- Measuring the speed of sound in air -- Measuring the speed of sound in water -- Practical use of sound in water -- 8. The nature of energy received from the Sun : figuring out what light really is -- Early ideas about light -- Refraction of light -- Measuring the speed of light -- The discovery of double refraction or "birefringence" -- Investigating the dispersion of light -- Figuring out the wavelengths of different colors of light -- Diffraction -- Polarization of light -- Eureka! : light is electromagnetic waves -- A review of the discovery of the invisible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum -- The demise of the : luminiferous aether" -- 9. Exploring the electromagnetic spectrum -- Spectra and spectral lines -- The discovery of helium : first in the Sun, then on the Earth -- Heinrich Hertz -- Marconi makes the electromagnetic spectrum a tool for civilization -- Human use of the electromagnetic spectrum for communication, locating objects, and cooking -- 10. The origins of climate science : the idea of energy balance -- What is heat? -- Thermodynamics -- The Laws of Thermodynamics -- Discovery of greenhouse gases -- Kirchhoff's "black body" -- Stefan's Fourth Power Law -- Black body radiation -- 11. The climate system -- Insolation : incoming energy form the Sun -- Albedo : the reflection of incoming energy back into space -- Reradiation :how the Earth radiates energy back into space -- Chaotic nature of the weather -- The earthly components of the climate system : air, Earth, ice, and water -- The atmosphere -- The Hydrosphere -- The cryosphere -- The land -- Classifying climate regions -- Uncertainties in the climate scheme -- 12. What's at the bottom of Alice's rabbit hole -- Max Planck and the solution to the Black Body Problem -- The photoelectric effect -- The Bohr atom -- Implications of the Bohr model for the Periodic Table of the Elements -- The Zeeman effect --0 Trying to make sense of the Periodic Table -- The second quantum revolution -- Discovery of nuclear fission -- Molecular motions -- 13. Energy from the Sun : long-term variations -- The Faint Young Sun Paradox -- The energy flux from the Sun -- The orbital cycles -- Rise and fall of the Orbital Theory of climate change -- Correcting the age scale -- Discovery that Milankovitch orbital cycles have affected much of Earth history -- 14. Solar variability and cosmic rays -- The solar wind -- Solar storms and space weather -- The solar neutrino problem -- The ultraviolet radiation -- Cosmic rays -- Digression into the world of particle physics -- Carbon-14 -- Beryllium-1 -- Cosmic rays and climate -- 15. Albedo -- Clouds -- Could cloudiness be a global thermostat? -- Volcanic ash and climate change -- Aerosols -- Albedo during the last glacial maximum -- Changing the planetary albedo to counteract greenhouse warming --, 16. Air -- Nature of air -- Velocity of air molecules -- Photons -- Ionization -- The scattering of light -- Absorption of the infrared wavelengths -- Subatomic particles -- 17. HOH : the Keystone of Earth's Climate -- The hydrologic cycle -- Vapor -- Pure water -- Natural water -- Water : density and specific volume -- Water : surface tension -- Ice -- Earth's ice -- How ice forms from fresh water and from seawater -- Snow and ice on land -- Ice cores -- Ice as Earth's climate stabilizer -- 18. The Atmosphere -- Atmospheric pressure -- The troposphere -- The stratosphere -- The mesosphere -- The thermosphere -- The exosphere -- The magnetosphere -- The ionosphere -- The Atmospheric Greenhouse Effect -- Distribution of gases in the atmosphere -- Overall effect of the atmosphere on solar irradiance -- Effects of anthropogenic atmospheric pollution -- 19. Oxygen and ozone : products and protectors of life -- Diatomic oxygen -- Triatomic oxygen -- Oxygen-ozone-ultraviolet connection -- Human interference with ozone -- Ozone : the greenhouse gas -- 20. Water vapor : the major greenhouse gas -- Dry air -- Wet air -- What controls atmospheric water vapor? -- 21. Carbon dioxide -- Carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas -- The carbon cycle -- Carbon dioxide during the Phanerozoic -- The ice core record -- Carbon dioxide catastrophes -- 22. Other greenhouse gases -- Methane -- Methane clathrates -- Methane trapped in permafrost -- Nitrous oxide -- 23. The Coriolis Force -- Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton, 1674-1686 -- Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, 1829-1835 -- The Foucault Pendulum, 1851 -- Inertial circles -- William Ferrel, 1856-1858 -- Buys-Ballot's discovery, 1857 -- Use of "coriolis" in meteorology -- 24. The circulation of Earth's atmosphere -- The circulation of Earth's oceans -- Geographically uneven radiation balance -- "Modern" atmospheric circulation -- The Indian and Southeast Asian monsoons -- Cyclonic storms -- 25. Circulation of Earth's oceans -- Modern ocean's general circulation -- Global ocean's great conveyor -- El Niño, La Niña : the southern oscillation and the North Atlantic oscillation -- Kelvin waves --, and 26. The biological interactions -- Life on land -- Response of land-based life to climate change -- Life in the ocean and seas -- Life in the open ocean -- Life along coasts and in shallow seas -- Marine life and the CO2 connection -- The acidification of the ocean -- Effects of acidification on marine animals and plants -- Atmospheric and oceanic circulation, nutrients and the carbon cycle in other climate states -- 27. Sea level -- Changing the volume of water in the ocean -- Changes in groundwater reservoirs -- Conversion of ice to ocean water -- Storage in lakes -- Effects of changing the salinity of the ocean -- Effects of warming or cooling the ocean -- Motion of the Earth's solid surface -- Gravitational attraction of ice sheets -- Changing the speed of Earth's rotation -- effect of winds and atmospheric pressure systems -- Effect of the evaporation-precipitation balance -- Sea level change during the deglaciation -- Sea level during the Holocene -- The global sea level record -- 28. Global climate change : the (geologically) immediate past -- Climate changes during the last deglaciation -- Sudden changes recorded in ice cores : Dansgaard-Oeschger events -- Record of massive iceberg discharges in North Atlantic deep-sea and Greenland ice cores : the Heinrich events -- Holocene climate cycles -- The Hockey Stick Controversy -- 29. Is there an analog for the future climate? -- The Eemian, the last interglacial -- Sea level during interglacials -- Arctic sea-ice during interglacials -- The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum -- 30. The instrumental temperature record -- Development of the thermometer -- Keeping records -- 20th Century pattern of temperature change -- Local temperature records -- Regional temperature compilations for the United States -- Larger regional and global compilations -- 31. The future -- Predictions of the future : models -- What is expected : human population -- Environmental variability and tipping points -- The anthropogenic factors causing the Earth's climate -- Reports of the Club of Rome -- The intergovernmental panel on climate change (future increases in greenhouse gas concentrations) -- Comparison of climate models based on SRES and RCP scenarios -- The Kyoto Protocol --- A critique of the IPCC reports -- 32. Global and regional aspects of climate change -- Milankovitch insolation -- Decline in Arctic summer sea ice -- Arctic permafrost -- Arctic tundra and boreal forest -- Polar ice sheets -- The Greenland ice sheet -- The Antarctic ice sheets -- Temperature -- Sea level -- The thermohaline circulation -- El Niño and the southern oscillation -- Ocean acidification -- Anoxia in the ocean -- The Sahara Sahel -- Amazonia -- Methane clathrates -- Critical tipping points -- Mother Nature's remedy.
Summary
This book is a thorough introduction to climate science and global change. The author is a geologist who has spent much of his life investigating the climate of Earth from a time when it was warm and dinosaurs roamed the land, to today's changing climate. Bill Hay takes you on a journey to understand how the climate system works. He explores how humans are unintentionally conducting a grand uncontrolled experiment which is leading to unanticipated changes. We follow the twisting path of seemingly unrelated discoveries in physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and even mathematics to learn how they led to our present knowledge of how our planet works. He explains why the weather is becoming increasingly chaotic as our planet warms at a rate far faster than at any time in its geologic past. He speculates on possible future outcomes, and suggests that nature itself may make some unexpected course corrections. Although the book is written for the layman with little knowledge of science or mathematics, it includes information from many diverse fields to provide even those actively working in the field of climatology with a broader view of this developing drama. Experimenting on a Small Planet is a must read for anyone having more than a casual interest in global warming and climate change - one of the most important and challenging issues of our time. This new edition includes actual data from climate science into 2014. Numerous powerpoint slides allow lecturers and teachers to more effectively use the book as a basis for climate change education.
Subject(s)
ISBN
3319274023
9783319274027
9783319801339
Note
"Greg and Bill at work on the new edition."
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
View MARC record | catkey: 19178741