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The Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age are widely
considered to have been the major features of the Earth's climate
over the past 1000 years. In this volume the issue of whether there
really was a Medieval Warm Period, and if so, where and when, is
addressed. The types of evidence examined include historical
documents, tree rings, ice cores, glacial-geological records,
borehole temperatures, paleoecological data and records of solar
receipts inferred from cosmogenic isotopes. Growth in the
availability of several of these types of data in recent years, and
technical advances in their derivation and use, warrant this
state-of-the-art re-examination of the Medieval Warm Period. The
book will be of value to all those with an interest in the natural
variability of the climate system, for example those concerned with
anticipating and detecting human-produced climate change.
The impact of climatic change on human affairs has been
demonstrated dramatically in past years. Climatic extremes have
placed increasing pressure on world food supplies leading to a
doubling, then trebling, of grain prices during the 1970s.
Moreover, there is mounting concern that society itself may soon
bring about an unparalleled climatic shift by atmospheric pollution
and changing land use. In order to deal wisely with the Earth's
limited natural resources and to assess society's potential to
alter future climate, more information is needed about the course
of past climatic change. Climate from Tree Rings brings together
basic accounts of the methodology, techniques, available data and
potential of dendroclimatology, the reconstruction of past climates
from tree rings. The material presented in this volume, first
published in 1982, represents a major step in the reconstruction of
the past climatic record. It will be of particular interest to
research workers, postgraduates, and advanced graduates in many
branches of the atmospheric, earth and life sciences, especially
those with an interest in climatic change and palaeoenviornments.
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