Global Issues

The concept of feedback is related to the climate sensitivity or climate stability. It is useful to have a measure of the strength of various feedback processes which determine the ultimate response of the climate system to any change in radiative forcing. In general terms, an initial change in temperature […]

6.1. Introduction The last chapter examined episodes of past (palaeo) climate change reconstructed from proxy indicators. Since the late seventeenth century, and more commonly since the nineteenth century, instrumental records (section 3.2) have been kept that document more recent climate changes. Typically, this is labelled the study of contemporary climate […]

The CFCs and HCFCs are wholly anthropogenic and do not exist naturally. They have been widely used as propellants in aerosols, as blowing agents in foam manufacture, in air conditioning units and refrigerants (CDIAC, 1991, 1993). The Montreal Protocol has recently cut emissions of many species by over 90%. Methylhalides […]