Climate change 1995: the science of climate change. Contribution of Working Group I to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Abstract

This volume, a companion to two other volumes produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) under the umbrella title `Climate change 1995`, enlarges and updates information contained in its 1990 assessment and also in the interim reports produced by WGI in 1992 and 1994. The assessment forms the standard scientific reference for all those concerned with climate change and its consequences. The report includes: an overview of the factors governing climate and climate change; quantification of the sources of the globally important greenhouse gases and other pollutants arising from human activities, and a review of the chemical and biological processes governing their removal from the atmosphere; analyses of data on climates of the distant past, and an assessment of recent trends in climate during the industrial era, which has witnessed the ever-growing impact of human activities on the global environment; assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the various mathematical models of climate used by today`s researchers for understanding past and present climate, and for calculating possible future climates; discussion of recent research aimed at the detection of a human influence on the climate of the last century; projections of possible future changes in global climate and sea-level, based on a range of scenarios of future emissions of pollutants from human activity; a list of research and observational priorities needed to further improve scientific understanding in key areas. 7 apps.