Earth's climate has undergone dramatic changes over the geologic
timescale. At one extreme, Earth has been glaciated from the poles to
the equator for periods that may have lasted millions of years. At
another, temperatures were once so warm that the Canadian Arctic was
heavily forested and large dinosaurs lived on Antarctica.
Paleoclimatology is the study of such changes and their causes. Studying
Earth's long-term climate history gives scientists vital clues about
anthropogenic global warming and how climate is affected by human
endeavor.
In this book, Michael Bender, an internationally recognized authority on
paleoclimate, provides a concise, comprehensive, and sophisticated
introduction to the subject. After briefly describing the major periods
in Earth history to provide geologic context, he discusses controls on
climate and how the record of past climate is determined. The heart of
the book then proceeds chronologically, introducing the history of
climate changes over millions of years--its patterns and major
transitions, and why average global temperature has varied so much. The
book ends with a discussion of the Holocene (the past 10,000 years) and
by putting manmade climate change in the context of paleoclimate.
The most up-to-date overview on the subject, Paleoclimate provides an
ideal introduction to undergraduates, nonspecialist scientists, and
general readers with a scientific background.
