Global Warming: Global warming and climate change
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Abstract
THE PHRASE ‘global warming’ has become familiar to many people as one of the most important issues of our day. Many opinions have been expressed concerning it, from the doom-laden to the dismissive. This book aims to state the current scientific position on global warming clearly, so that we can make informed decisions on the facts. Is the climate changing? In the year 2060 my grandchildren will be approaching 70 years old; what will their world be like? Indeed, what will it be like during the 70 years or so of their normal lifespan? Many new things have happened in the last 70 years that could not have been predicted in the 1930s. The pace of change is such that even more novelty can be expected in the next 70. It seems certain that the world will be even more crowded and more connected. Will the increasing scale of human activities affect the environment? In particular, will the world be warmer? How is its climate likely to change? Before addressing future climate changes, what can be said about climate changes in the past? In the more distant past there have been very large changes. The last million years has seen a succession of major ice ages interspersed with warmer periods.