Research Catalog

Title

Experimenting on a small planet : a scholarly entertainment / William W. Hay.

Author

Hay, William W., 1934-2022

Publication

Heidelberg [Germany] ; New York : Springer, ©2013.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Found In

Springer eBooks

Description

xxix, 983 pages : illustrations, maps, graphs, tables; 24 cm

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. -- Book cover.

Series Statement

[Springer ebooks]

Uniform Title

[Springer ebooks].

Subject

• Climatology
• Climatic changes
• Earth sciences
• Climate Change
• climate change
• earth sciences
• NATURE > Weather
• SCIENCE > Earth Sciences > Meteorology & Climatology
• Klimatologie
• Klimaänderung

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Contents

Introduction -- The language of science -- Geologic time -- Putting numbers on geologic ages -- Documenting past climate change -- The nature of energy received from the sun : the analogies with water waves and sound -- The nature of energy received from the sun : figuring out what light really is -- Exploring the electromagnetic spectrum -- The origins of climate science : the idea of energy balance -- The climate system -- What's at the bottom of Alice's rabbit hole -- Energy from the sun : long-term variations -- Solar variability and cosmic rays -- Albedo -- Air -- HOH : the keystone of earth's climate -- The atmosphere -- Oxygen and ozone : products and protectors of life -- Water vapor : the major greenhouse gas -- Carbon dioxide -- Other greenhouse gases -- The circulation of earth's atmosphere and ocean -- The biological interactions -- Sea level -- Global climate change : the (geologically) immediate past -- Is there an analog for the future climate? -- The instrumental temperature record -- The future.

ISBN

• 9783642285592
• 3642285597
• 9783642285608 (canceled/invalid)
• 3642285600 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

• 2012950325
• 10.1007/978-3-642-28560-8

OCLC

• ocn828869598
• 828869598
• SCSB-1765155

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library