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| Introduction | |
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| Climate | |
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| Carbon dioxide and pollution | |
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| The science of climate | |
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| Why the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? | |
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| Climate change | |
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| A retreat to the good old days | |
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| Acknowledgements | |
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| History | |
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| Are the speed and amount of modern climate change unprecedented? | |
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| Is dangerous warming occurring? | |
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| Is the temperature range observed in the 20th Century outside the range of normal variability? | |
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| Our changing climates | |
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| The last great warming | |
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| The last big freeze | |
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| The end of the freeze | |
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| The Roman Warming (250 BC-450 AD) | |
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| The Dark Ages (535-900 AD) | |
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| The Medieval Warming (900-1300 AD) | |
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| The Little Ice Age (1280-1850 AD) | |
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| The Late 20th Century Warming (1850 AD to the present) | |
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| The long tale of the lone pine | |
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| The Sun | |
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| Does the Sun influence the Earth's climate? | |
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| The bringer of life, heat and cold | |
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| Dirt in the air | |
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| Snowballs and spiral arms | |
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| Galactic time travel | |
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| Galactic bullets | |
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| The engine of weather | |
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| That big ball of heat in the sky | |
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| Angry solar emissions | |
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| Inner turbulence of the Sun | |
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| Shock, horror. The solar constant is not constant | |
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| Blemishes on her beauty | |
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| Water, carbon dioxide, temperature and the Sun | |
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| Ancient signals of solar activity | |
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| The Sun and climate | |
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| Earth | |
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| Do volcanoes change climate? | |
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| Do wobbles in the Earth's orbit change climate? | |
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| Have past climate changes driven extinctions? | |
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| Life on Earth | |
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| Single celled life | |
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| What are the chances of multicellular life on Earth? | |
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| The biggest climate change of all time | |
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| The first multicellular life | |
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| The explosion of life | |
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| Extinction | |
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| Minor and major mass extinctions of life | |
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| Recent macrofauna extinction | |
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| Modern climate change and extinction | |
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| Global warming and infectious diseases | |
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| Desertification | |
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| One volcano can ruin your whole day | |
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| Supervolcanoes | |
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| Volcanic gases | |
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| Ice, volcanoes and earthquakes | |
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| Milankovitch wobble theory wobbles | |
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| Ice | |
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| Is global warming melting the polar ice caps and alpine valley glaciers? | |
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| Ice | |
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| Ice ages | |
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| Ice advance and retreat | |
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| The Arctic | |
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| The Antarctic | |
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| Alpine valley glaciers | |
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| Sea ice | |
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| Water | |
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| Do human emissions of carbon dioxide create a rise in the sea level? | |
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| Will the seas become acid? | |
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| Does sea level rise kill coral atolls? | |
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| Are humans forcing changes in ocean currents? | |
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| Weird water | |
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| The great flood | |
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| Sea level | |
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| Coral atolls | |
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| Dissolved carbon dioxide in seawater | |
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| Acid oceans | |
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| Sea surface temperature | |
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| El Nino | |
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| Water cycle | |
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| The rock that made a fool out of humans | |
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| Air | |
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| Do thermometer measurements show the planet is warming? | |
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| Do other temperature measurements show the planet is warming? | |
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| Is atmospheric carbon dioxide increasing? | |
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| Is atmospheric carbon dioxide approaching a dangerous level? | |
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| Do higher sea temperatures cause more hurricanes? | |
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| Do clouds influence climate? | |
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| The greenhouse effect | |
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| The measurement of temperature | |
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| Measurement and order of accuracy | |
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| Treatment of data | |
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| Urban heat island effect | |
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| Temperature proxies | |
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| Hurricanes | |
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| Carbon dioxide | |
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| The global carbon cycle | |
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| Measurement of CO<sub>2</sub> | |
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| Methane and other greenhouse gases | |
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| Clouds | |
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| Et moi | |
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| Ubi dubium ibi libertas | |
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| The vernalisation of science | |
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| Tip of the iceberg | |
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| Scientific consensus | |
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| The end is nigh | |
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| Religion, environmentalism and romanticism | |
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| The Kyoto Protocol | |
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| Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear | |
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| What if I'm wrong? | |
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| Index | |