Introduction -- SETTING THE STAGE FOR OUR MODERN UNDERSTANDING OF CLIMATE CHANGE: Adventure feature: the Wright stuff -- The ice core connection -- Initiation -- Adventure feature: polar reflections -- Unfinished business -- A heated discussion -- Technical feature: global warming, global warning -- THE MAKING OF AN ICE CORE "TIME MACHINE": Sleepless in Seattle -- Debating in Durham -- Waiting for Washington -- Detour to Antarctica -- Getting ready for Greenland -- Adventure feature: lost! -- Technical feature: drill site selection -- Bringing back the ice chronicles -- Adventure feature: camping out -- Life on the ice -- Technical feature: drilling details -- Technical feature: the core processing line (CPL) -- Core issues -- Hitting rock bottom -- THE DISCOVERY OF RAPID CLIMATE CHANGE EVENTS (RCCEs) AND THE REALIZATION THAT CLIMATE HAS MULTIPLE CONTROLS: Technical feature: end-to-end science -- The role of RCCEs -- Technical feature: stable isotope measurements of water in ice cores -- Technical feature: chemical measurements in ice cores -- The younger dryas as a classic example of a RCCE -- Multiple controls on climate -- Technical feature: the astronomical theory of climate change -- Technical feature: the ocean's conveyor belt -- Moving toward a more complete understanding of climate change -- CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RISE AND FALL OF CIVILIZATIONS: Adventure feature: climbing glaciers barefoot (with a beagle) -- Rapid climate change events (RCCEs) during the Holocene -- The complexity of the Holocene climate -- Climate and the development of human civilization -- The collapse of civilization in Western Asia around 2200 B.C. -- Disappearance of the Norse colonies in Greenland around A.D. 1400 -- Disappearance of the Maya civilization A.D. 750 to 900 -- Lessons learned from past civilizations.
THE LAST THOUSAND YEARS OF CLIMATE CHANGE: Adventure feature: peak experiences -- Technical feature: how could the atmosphere cool if greenhouse gases are on the rise? -- Technical feature: stormy weather: the Medieval warm period and the little Ice Age -- Technical feature: politics, history, and climate change -- Multiple forcing factors revisited -- Technical feature: record performances -- Technical feature: how did our understanding of the ozone hole evolve? -- CLIMATE CHANGE: THE REAL IMPACT: Adventure feature: the danger of dancing snow -- Technical feature: ice storms and hurricanes: dramatic damage at local to regional scales -- Technical feature: from urban heat islands to nuclear winter -- An example of a global view of climate variability -- Land use and climate change -- An example of a regional scale prediction for the United States -- Technical feature: from greenhouse gas warming to cooling in the North Atlantic: surprises in the climate system -- Technical feature: the impact of instability in the atmosphere and ocean: El Nino and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO) -- CONFRONTING THE CHOICES: SCIENTISTS, POLITICIANS, AND PUBLIC POLICY: Technical feature: seeing clearly -- A closer look at the 1995 intergovernmental panel on climate change -- Confronting the choices -- Adventure feature: the function of fear -- LEARNING TO LIVE IN A CHANGING WORLD: Adventure feature: the endurance of Sir Ernest Shackleton -- Immediate versus long-term effects -- Technical feature: twenty-first century science -- Principles for a positive future.
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