Radiative Forcing of Climate Change: Expanding the Concept and Addressing Uncertainties

Changes in climate are driven by natural and human-induced interruptions of the Earth’s energy balance. These climate drivers or ‘forcings’ include variations in greenhouse gases, aerosols, land use, and the amount of energy the Earth receives from the Sun. Although the climate throughout the Earth’s history has varied from ‘snowball’ conditions with global ice cover to ‘hothouse’ conditions when glaciers all but disappeared, the climate during the past 10,000 years has been remarkably stable and favourable to human civilization. Increasing evidence points to a large human impact on global climate change during the past century. Radiative Forcing of Climate Change reviews current knowledge of climate forcings and recommends critical research needed to improve understanding. Whereas emphasis to date has been on how these climate forcings affect global mean temperature, the book finds that regional variation and climate impacts, other than temperature, deserve increased attention.