Climate - 9780199641130

The threat of global warming--the danger of melting ice caps, rising ocean levels, lost coast lines, and increasingly volatile weather--has made climate an integral aspect of one of the great hot-button issues of our time. It has certainly never been more important for all of us to understand the nature of climate than now. In this wide-ranging look at all aspects of the global climate system, geographer Mark Maslinsheds light on the vast array of factors that control climate on Earth. He explains the process of how energy reaches the Earth and is redistributed around the planet by the ocean's interaction with the atmosphere; the relationship and differences between climate and the weather; how climate has affected life on Earth and human settlements; and the cyclic and quasi-cyclic features of climate such as the Milankovitch cycles (where changes in Earth's orbit affect small changes in climate) and El Niño. The book concludes by looking at the issue of climate change, outlining some of the approaches that are being taken to deal with it.

About the Series:

Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.