Experimenting on a small planet: a history of scientific discoveries, a future of climate change and global warming

1. Introduction Leningrad : 1982 Global warming 2. The language of science Numbers and symbols Arithmetic, algebra, and calculus Orders of magnitude and exponents Logarithms Logarithms and scales with bases other than 10 Earthquake scales The Beaufort Wind Force Scale Extending the Beaufort Scale to cyclonic storms Calendars and time 3. Applying mathematics to problems Measures and weights The nautical mile The metric system Temperature Precisely defining some words you already know Locating things Latitude and longitude Map projections Trigonometry Circles and angular velocity Centripetal and centrifugal forces Exponential growth and decay The logistic equation Graphs Statistics 4. Geologic time Age of the Earth Discovery of the depths of time : eternity Geologic time punctuated by revolutions Catastrophism replaced by imperceptible slow gradual change Development of the geological time scale Discovery of the Ice Age Discovery of past war polar regions Explaining climate change "Crustal mobility" Return of catastrophism and the idea of rapid change The nature of the geologic record The great extinctions and their causes 5. Putting numbers on geologic ages Atomic weight, atomic mass, isotopes, relative atomic mass, standard atomic weight Henri Becquerel and the Curies Discovery of electrons, alpha-rays, and beta-rays Discovery of radioactive decay series, exponential decay rates, and secular equilibrium Discovery of stable isotopes Discovery of protons and neutrons Arthur Holmes and the age of the Earth Development of a numerical geological timescale 6. Documenting past climate change Brief overview of Earth's climate history Cenozoic climate "deterioration" Radiometric age dating Potassium-Argon dating Reversals of Earth's magnetic field Fission track dating Astronomical dating Tritium, carbon-14 and beryllium-10 Human acceleration of natural process rates Present climate in its geologic context Steady state versus non-steady state

7. The nature of energy received from the Sun : the analogies with water waves and sound Special water waves : tides and tsunamis Wave energy, refraction and reflection Sound waves and music Measuring the speed of sound in air Measuring the speed of sound in water Practical use of sound in water 8. The nature of energy received from the Sun : figuring out what light really is Early ideas about light Refraction of light Measuring the speed of light The discovery of double refraction or "birefringence" Investigating the dispersion of light Figuring out the wavelengths of different colors of light Diffraction Polarization of light Eureka! : light is electromagnetic waves A review of the discovery of the invisible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum The demise of the : luminiferous aether" 9. Exploring the electromagnetic spectrum Spectra and spectral lines The discovery of helium : first in the Sun, then on the Earth Heinrich Hertz Marconi makes the electromagnetic spectrum a tool for civilization Human use of the electromagnetic spectrum for communication, locating objects, and cooking 10. The origins of climate science : the idea of energy balance What is heat? Thermodynamics The Laws of Thermodynamics Discovery of greenhouse gases Kirchhoff's "black body" Stefan's Fourth Power Law Black body radiation 11. The climate system Insolation : incoming energy form the Sun Albedo : the reflection of incoming energy back into space Reradiation :how the Earth radiates energy back into space Chaotic nature of the weather The earthly components of the climate system : air, Earth, ice, and water The atmosphere The Hydrosphere The cryosphere The land Classifying climate regions Uncertainties in the climate scheme 12. What's at the bottom of Alice's rabbit hole Max Planck and the solution to the Black Body Problem The photoelectric effect The Bohr atom Implications of the Bohr model for the Periodic Table of the Elements The Zeeman effect 0 Trying to make sense of the Periodic Table The second quantum revolution Discovery of nuclear fission Molecular motions 13. Energy from the Sun : long-term variations The Faint Young Sun Paradox The energy flux from the Sun The orbital cycles Rise and fall of the Orbital Theory of climate change Correcting the age scale Discovery that Milankovitch orbital cycles have affected much of Earth history 14. Solar variability and cosmic rays The solar wind Solar storms and space weather The solar neutrino problem The ultraviolet radiation Cosmic rays Digression into the world of particle physics Carbon-14 Beryllium-1 Cosmic rays and climate 15. Albedo Clouds Could cloudiness be a global thermostat? Volcanic ash and climate change Aerosols Albedo during the last glacial maximum Changing the planetary albedo to counteract greenhouse warming

16. Air Nature of air Velocity of air molecules Photons Ionization The scattering of light Absorption of the infrared wavelengths Subatomic particles 17. HOH : the Keystone of Earth's Climate The hydrologic cycle Vapor Pure water Natural water Water : density and specific volume Water : surface tension Ice Earth's ice How ice forms from fresh water and from seawater Snow and ice on land Ice cores Ice as Earth's climate stabilizer 18. The Atmosphere Atmospheric pressure The troposphere The stratosphere The mesosphere The thermosphere The exosphere The magnetosphere The ionosphere The Atmospheric Greenhouse Effect Distribution of gases in the atmosphere Overall effect of the atmosphere on solar irradiance Effects of anthropogenic atmospheric pollution 19. Oxygen and ozone : products and protectors of life Diatomic oxygen Triatomic oxygen Oxygen-ozone-ultraviolet connection Human interference with ozone Ozone : the greenhouse gas 20. Water vapor : the major greenhouse gas Dry air Wet air What controls atmospheric water vapor? 21. Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas The carbon cycle Carbon dioxide during the Phanerozoic The ice core record Carbon dioxide catastrophes 22. Other greenhouse gases Methane Methane clathrates Methane trapped in permafrost Nitrous oxide 23. The Coriolis Force Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton, 1674-1686 Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, 1829-1835 The Foucault Pendulum, 1851 Inertial circles William Ferrel, 1856-1858 Buys-Ballot's discovery, 1857 Use of "coriolis" in meteorology 24. The circulation of Earth's atmosphere The circulation of Earth's oceans Geographically uneven radiation balance "Modern" atmospheric circulation The Indian and Southeast Asian monsoons Cyclonic storms 25. Circulation of Earth's oceans Modern ocean's general circulation Global ocean's great conveyor El Niño, La Niña : the southern oscillation and the North Atlantic oscillation Kelvin waves

26. The biological interactions

Life on land

Response of land-based life to climate change

Life in the ocean and seas

Life in the open ocean

Life along coasts and in shallow seas

Marine life and the CO2 connection

The acidification of the ocean

Effects of acidification on marine animals and plants

Atmospheric and oceanic circulation, nutrients and the carbon cycle in other climate states

27. Sea level

Changing the volume of water in the ocean

Changes in groundwater reservoirs

Conversion of ice to ocean water

Storage in lakes

Effects of changing the salinity of the ocean

Effects of warming or cooling the ocean

Motion of the Earth's solid surface

Gravitational attraction of ice sheets

Changing the speed of Earth's rotation

effect of winds and atmospheric pressure systems

Effect of the evaporation-precipitation balance

Sea level change during the deglaciation

Sea level during the Holocene

The global sea level record

28. Global climate change : the (geologically) immediate past

Climate changes during the last deglaciation

Sudden changes recorded in ice cores : Dansgaard-Oeschger events

Record of massive iceberg discharges in North Atlantic deep-sea and Greenland ice cores : the Heinrich events

Holocene climate cycles

The Hockey Stick Controversy

29. Is there an analog for the future climate?

The Eemian, the last interglacial

Sea level during interglacials

Arctic sea-ice during interglacials

The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum

30. The instrumental temperature record

Development of the thermometer

Keeping records

20th Century pattern of temperature change

Local temperature records

Regional temperature compilations for the United States

Larger regional and global compilations

31. The future

Predictions of the future : models

What is expected : human population

Environmental variability and tipping points

The anthropogenic factors causing the Earth's climate

Reports of the Club of Rome

The intergovernmental panel on climate change (future increases in greenhouse gas concentrations)

Comparison of climate models based on SRES and RCP scenarios

The Kyoto Protocol

- A critique of the IPCC reports

32. Global and regional aspects of climate change

Milankovitch insolation

Decline in Arctic summer sea ice

Arctic permafrost

Arctic tundra and boreal forest

Polar ice sheets

The Greenland ice sheet

The Antarctic ice sheets

Temperature

Sea level

The thermohaline circulation

El Niño and the southern oscillation

Ocean acidification

Anoxia in the ocean

The Sahara Sahel

Amazonia

Methane clathrates

Critical tipping points

Mother Nature's remedy.