Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Climate scientists are currently studying the causes of these past climate
changes and weather extremes. Some of these causes are truly remote, such
as variations in solar output, and others are close at hand, such as the coal-
i red power plants that generate much of our electricity. Needless to say, the
so-called anthropogenic, or human-caused, changers of climate are most
readily modii ed—but are also controversial and incompletely understood.
To comprehend the full range of climate variability and to better prepare
ourselves for an uncertain climatic future, we need to use all the knowledge
and tools at our disposal. In the next chapter, a review of some known cycles
and oscillations of climate change in the past may suggest the scale on which
we can expect such changes to recur.
