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 The types of evidence examined include historical documents, tree rings, ice cores, glacial-geological records, borehole temperatures, paleoecological data and records of solar receipts inferred from cosmogenic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.