Time is a major factor in Quaternary science. Without a trustworthy chronometer any interpretation of changes in proxy data of stratigraphical origin is on weak ground. In fact, any attempt at a sound reconstruction of timing and rates of past climatic change as well as the response of the biosphere can only be achieved on the basis of a reliable chronology. Moreover, all correlations and comparisons through time on a continental or global scale depend heavily on the reliability of the time-scale used. Therefore the establishment of an absolute time-scale is a fundamental goal. In this contribution we refer to the term "absolute time-scale" as a time-scale consisting of ages determined on the basis of sidereal years. Traditional stratigraphical methods of absolute dating include the Swedish glacial varve chronology, already developed early in this century by De Geer (1912) and since then continuously improved (e.g. Stromberg 1985; Cato 1987). Unfortunately, however, a spatial correlation with other stratigraphies outside Fennoscandia is difficult.

Labor Erde ist eine brillante Einfuhrung in das Studium des Planeten Erde, von den kosmischen Ursprungen ihrer Elemente bis hin zu der Beeinflussung der Atmosphare durch die Menschheit und den klimatischen Anderungen, die uns bevorstehen. Das Buch ist ebenso eine Beschreibung der Prozesse, die zur Entwicklung der Erde beigetragen haben, wie eine Darstellung der Art, in der Wissenschaftler denken und Probleme losen. Der Autor ist Professor an der Columbia University in New York und Mitglied der National Academy of Sciences. Er forscht dort seit 1953 und hat mehr als 200 wissenschaftliche Artikel verfasst. Broecker gilt als "Grandmaster of Global Thinking," der so unterschiedliche Dinge wie Geochemie, Ozeanographie und Paleoklimatologie miteinander verbindet und zu einem grossen Gemalde vereinigt."

Labor Erde ist eine brillante Einfuhrung in das Studium des Planeten Erde, von den kosmischen Ursprungen ihrer Elemente bis hin zu der Beeinflussung der Atmosphare durch die Menschheit und den klimatischen Anderungen, die uns bevorstehen. Das Buch ist ebenso eine Beschreibung der Prozesse, die zur Entwicklung der Erde beigetragen haben, wie eine Darstellung der Art, in der Wissenschaftler denken und Probleme losen. Der Autor ist Professor an der Columbia University in New York und Mitglied der National Academy of Sciences. Er forscht dort seit 1953 und hat mehr als 200 wissenschaftliche Artikel verfasst. Broecker gilt als "Grandmaster of Global Thinking," der so unterschiedliche Dinge wie Geochemie, Ozeanographie und Paleoklimatologie miteinander verbindet und zu einem grossen Gemalde vereinigt."

The product of a unique collaboration between a pioneering earth scientist and an award-winning science writer, "Fixing Climate "takes an unconventional approach to the problem of global warming--and offers a possible solution. Hailed by his colleagues as "one of the our greatest living geoscientists," Wallace S. Broecker, a longtime researcher at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, warned about the possible consequences of global warming decades before it became a compelling public issue. Hooked on climate studies since his student days, he has learned, largely through his own findings, that climate does change--naturally, dramatically, and rarely benignly. He also knows from experience that when mankind pushes nature as we are currently doing by dumping some sixty to seventy million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day, climate will change even more dramatically and less benignly. As Broecker points out, if a well-meaning fairy godmother were to turn us all into energy-saving paragons at the stroke of midnight tonight, the resulting reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide might lessen but could not turn aside the great warming tide now headed our way. There is, nonetheless, a glimmer of hope in the development of new technologies that are directed not only at the reduction of carbon dioxide output but also at its harmless disposal.