Fundraising

3.1. Introduction To both understand the present climate and to predict future climate change, it is necessary to have both theory (chapters 1 and 2) and empirical observation. Any study of climate change involves the construction (or reconstruction) of time series of climate data. How these climate data vary across […]

The ultimate purpose of a model is to identify the likely response of the climate system to a change in any of the parameters and processes which control the state of the system. The climate response occurs in order to restore equilibrium within the climate system. For example, the climate […]

Non-climatic influences – inhomogeneities – can and do affect climatic observations. Any analyst using instrumental climate data must first assess the quality of the observations. A numerical series representing the variations of a climatological element is called homogeneous if the variations are caused only by fluctuations in weather and climate […]

The most vulnerable populations to the impacts of climate change will be those already under pressure from social, economic and existing climate stresses. These will include those in developing countries, in the lower income groups, residents of coastal lowlands and islands, populations in semi-arid grasslands, and the urban poor (Tickell, […]

Chapter 3 has reviewed the various methods and techniques used both to construct contemporary climate from instrumental records, and to reconstruct palaeoclimates from proxy data sources. Whenever an indicator, whether instrumental or proxy, is chosen to represent some aspect of the climate, one must be sure that there exists a […]

Billions of tonnes of sediment accumulate in the ocean basins every year, and this may be indicative of climate conditions near the ocean surface or on the adjacent continents. Sediments are composed of both biogenic (organic) and terrigenous (inorganic) materials. The biogenic component includes the remnants of planktonic (surface ocean-dwelling) […]

Fully halogenated halocarbons are destroyed primarily by photodissociation and photo-oxidation in the stratosphere (section 1.2.1.5), but because of their relative inertness, remain in the atmosphere for long periods of time (section 6.4.7). Hydrogen-bearing halocarbons, such as the methylhalides and HCFCs are removed from the troposphere mainly by reaction with OH, […]