Ebook: Climate and Geo-Sciences: A Challenge for Science and Society in the 21st Century

It has been widely recognized recently that in order to make scientific progress on large and important problems (eg, carbon dioxide effects on climate, viability of various sites for nuclear waste disposal etc.), it is necessary to integrate knowledge from wide ranging sets of disciplines. This is certainly true in the climate sciences, for progress in understanding the cause of the ice ages or the effects of industrial pollution on the future climate or even the likelihood of severe climatic consequences in the aftermath of nuclear war. All require state-of -the -art input from many geoscience disci­ plines climatology, oceanography, meteorology, chemistry, ecology, glaciology, geology, astronomy, space technology, computer technology, mathematics etc. Major international meetings have called for interaction of such geo-science disciplines to solve real world problems. To move beyond the rhetorical level, the NATO Special Programme on Global Transport Mechanisms in the Geo-Sciences whose activities started in 1983, deci­ ded to organise his closing symposium on such a topic which focus on the relationship between climate and geo-sciences. This symposium was held at the end of May 1988 at the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-Ia-Neuve, Belgium. One hundred-and-thirty participants from the 16 NATO countries and a number of non-NATO countries assembled for the Symposium. Another feature was the attendance by special invitation of 16 pro­ mising young scientists who might well become leading scientists on climate and geo-sciences in their respective countries in the next century.

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxv
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Pre-Pleistocene Climates: Data and Models....Pages 3-19
Archaean Atmosphere-Biosphere Interactions....Pages 21-38
Dating Proxy Data....Pages 39-45
The Spectral Characteristics of Pre-Quaternary Climatic Records, an Example of the Relationship between the Astronomical Theory and Geo-Sciences....Pages 47-76
Polar Ice Cores and Climate....Pages 77-103
Intermediate and Deep Water Characteristics during the Last Glacial Maximum....Pages 105-120
Oceanic Response to Orbital Forcing in the Late Quaternary: Observational and Experimental Strategies....Pages 121-164
Recent Developments in Quaternary Paleoclimatology....Pages 165-171
Paleoclimate Data for Studies of Global Climate Change and Earth System Science....Pages 173-177
Paleoclimate Perspectives on a Greenhouse Warming....Pages 179-207
Front Matter....Pages 209-209
Deceptively-Simple Models of Climatic Change....Pages 211-240
Climate Predictability: A Dynamical View....Pages 241-251
Coupled Ocean and Sea-Ice Models: Review and Perspectives....Pages 253-277
Atmospheric Chemistry-Climate Interactions....Pages 279-302
Ice and Climate Studies....Pages 303-307
Volcanoes and Climate....Pages 309-314
Global Climatic Effects of a Nuclear War: An Interdisciplinary Problem....Pages 315-319
Land Surface Processes in Climate Models: Status and Prospects....Pages 321-340
Tropical Deforestation and Climatic Change....Pages 341-353
The Role of the Hydrological Cycle in Climate....Pages 355-366
Front Matter....Pages 209-209
Changes in Ocean Temperature and the Scientific Strategy for International Climate Research....Pages 367-372
Front Matter....Pages 373-373
Climate Sensitivity: Model dependence of results....Pages 375-415
Climate Response to Greenhouse Warming: The Role of the Ocean....Pages 417-433
Unresolved issues and research needs pertaining to the transient climatic response to a CO2 increase....Pages 435-446
Global Biogeochemical Cycles and Climate....Pages 447-451
Anthropogenic and Natural Perturbations of the Carbon Cycle....Pages 453-473
Modelling biospheric control of carbon fluxes between atmosphere, ocean and land in view of climatic change....Pages 475-480
Front Matter....Pages 481-499
Supercomputing and Massive Parallelism....Pages 501-501
Data Management Methods; Data for Europe....Pages 503-511
Satellites and Climate....Pages 513-524
Radiation Budget and Clouds....Pages 525-545
Front Matter....Pages 547-549
The Global Commons and National Security....Pages 551-551
The Global Environmental Issues — An Approach to their Solution....Pages 553-562
Human Impact on the Environment....Pages 563-575
Society and Future Climate Change....Pages 577-582
Global Climatic Changes and Geopolitics: Pressures on Developed and Developing Countries....Pages 583-602
Climate Change in the Context of Multiple Threats....Pages 603-621
Climate and Public Policy in the United States Congress....Pages 623-631
Climatic Changes and Water Resources Development....Pages 633-637
Front Matter....Pages 639-660
Hydrological Impacts — What If We are Right?....Pages 551-551
Climate Change: Effects on Biological Systems....Pages 661-665
Forest Productivity and Health in a Changing Atmospheric Environment....Pages 667-679
Climate Environment in International Security: The Case of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon....Pages 681-688
Front Matter....Pages 689-694
Where is Climate Research Going ?....Pages 695-695
Back Matter....Pages 697-701
....Pages 703-724