Our Warming Planet

The processes and consequences of climate change are extremely heterogeneous, encompassing many different fields of study. Dr David Rind in his career at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and as a professor at Columbia University has had the opportunity to explore many of these subjects with colleagues from these diverse disciplines. It was therefore natural for the Lectures in Climate Change series to begin with his colleagues contributing lectures on their specific areas of expertise. This first volume, entitled Our Warming Planet: Topics in Climate Dynamics, encompasses topics such as natural and anthropogenic climate forcing, climate modeling, radiation, clouds, atmospheric dynamics/storms, hydrology, clouds, the cryosphere, paleoclimate, sea level rise, agriculture, atmospheric chemistry, and climate change education. Included with this publication are downloadable PowerPoint slides of each lecture for students and teachers around the world to be better able to understand various aspects of climate change. The lectures on climate change processes and consequences provide snapshots of the cutting-edge work being done to understand what may well be the greatest challenge of our time, in a form suitable for classroom presentation. Contents: Understanding Climate Change: Explaining Climate (Andrew Lacis) Global Change in Earth's Atmosphere: Natural and Anthropogenic Factors (Judith L Lean) Building a Climate Model (Gary Russell) Radiative Processes: Atmospheric Radiation (Valdar Oinas) The Role of Clouds in Climate (Anthony D Del Genio) Dynamical Responses: How Will Storms and the Storm Track Change: Extratropical Cyclones on a Warmer Earth (Walter A Robinson and James F Booth) The Relationship Between Recent Arctic Amplification and Extreme Mid-Latitude Weather (Judah Cohen) The Role of Global Warming in Altering the Frequency and Intensity of Tropical and Non-Tropical Cyclones (Timothy Eichler) Hydrologic Responses: Wisdom, Climate, and Water Resources (Robert Webb) Soil Moisture in the Climate System (Randal Koster) Projections of Future Drought (Jennifer Aminzade) Lightning and Climate Change (Colin Price) Polar Responses: Polar Sea Ice Coverage, Its Changes, and Its Broader Climate Impacts (Claire L Parkinson) Arctic Sea Ice and Its Role in Global Change (Jiping Liu and Radley M Horton) Antarctic Sea Ice and Global Warming (Douglas G Martinson) Paleocimate Perspective: The Importance of Understanding the Last Glacial Maximum for Climate Change (Dorothy Peteet) Climate Change Impacts: Impacts of Sea level Rise on Coastal Urban Areas (Vivien Gornitz) Climate Change Challenges to Agriculture, Food Security, and Health (Cynthia Rosenzweig and Daniel Hillel) Chemistry–Climate Interactions in a Changing Environment: Wildfire in the West and the US Warming Hole (Loretta J Mickley) Educational Perspective: The Educational Global Climate Model (EdGCM) (Mark A Chandler) Readership: Students, professionals, general public. Keywords:Climate Change;Education;Climatology;Environmental Education;Earth Science;Global ChangeReview:Key Features: Unique format Subject of paramount interest Leading specialists presenting their fields