Page 18 - Earth's Climate Past and Future

xvi PREFACE

scale: tectonic-scale and earlier changes in Part II, Finally, this edition makes greater use of Web site
orbital-scale changes in Part III, deglacial and millennial resources (sites that are likely to be supported over the
changes in Part IV, and historical, recent, and future lifetime of this edition).
changes in Part V. Progressively more recent intervals
receive increasingly detailed treatment of climate A Growing Audience for Earth’s Climate
changes that can be resolved in finer detail.
Over the last seven years, the first edition of Earth’s
Climate has grown to be a popular choice for upper-
New to This Edition undergraduate courses in many earth science depart-
ments, often replacing or supplementing classical sub-
This edition differs from the first edition in two key jects like historical geology or sedimentology and
respects.
stratigraphy. Adoptions of the first edition have also
Streamlined Text. The major change is a shortening occurred in a wide range of other departments, such as
of 15%. Material from the first edition judged redun- environmental sciences, geography, ecology, botany,
dant or unnecessary has been removed. Now, all the and oceanic and atmospheric sciences.
chapters move from the introductory material to the At the same time, many instructors have realized that
final conclusions along a clearer path of logical devel- this book can fill a need in courses taught at the intro-
opment. At or near the end of each chapter or major ductory level to students who do not plan to major in
section, “In summary” statements in the text are science but who need to satisfy a science requirement.
marked by tan shading to make them easier to locate. Because climate change is in the news every week, stu-
Students should find the revised chapters easier to dent interest in such courses is running at a very high
understand. level and these courses are growing. Introductory cli-
mate courses at several universities that have used the
Restructuring and Updating. The basic structure first edition of Earth’s Climate have attracted hundreds of
remains similar to the first edition, except for the fol- students, with enrollments increasing year by year.
lowing changes. Chapter 2 from the first edition What students learn about the climate system in these
(“Earth’s Climate System Today”) has been removed courses will be put to use for the rest of their lives as they
and posted on the W. H. Freeman and Company Web follow the news about the future of our planet.
site: www.whfreeman.com/ruddiman2e. This change Using a book like this at the introductory level
keeps the material readily available to instructors and requires lecturing and testing at an appropriately gen-
students.
eralized (conceptual) level and deemphasizing some of
For many students, the sections that introduced the quantitative material. I think of students in intro-
oxygen and carbon isotopes were particularly difficult. ductory courses as analogous to members of an atten-
In this edition, the full formal treatment of these two tive jury: even without prior knowledge of a subject,
topics is moved to Appendices 1 and 2, where they do they can be expected to follow the lines of argument
not break the “flow” of the text. Within the text, more carefully, understand the issues at hand, and draw basic
functional definitions are given (for example, “More conclusions from what they learn.
positive oxygen isotope ratios represent some combina- Instructors who are considering teaching an intro-
tion of more ice and colder temperatures”). Another ductory course should find the second edition helpful.
point of difficulty for most students was the in-depth The shorter chapter lengths and improved logical flow
treatment of orbital precession, which is not attempted should make this book easier for beginning students to
in other texts. Despite its difficulty, this section has grasp. As before, instructors can bypass the more
been retained, with the most difficult material set off in advanced material set off in boxes titled Looking
a box. Deeper into Climate Science. The three other kinds of
Other major structural changes have been made in boxes (Climate Interactions and Feedbacks, Climate
the chapters in Part V. A new chapter has been added Debate, Tools of Climate Science) are part of the basic
and others have been reordered so that the revised text and should not be a major problem for students in
structure follows more clearly the path of time’s arrow introductory courses.
from older to younger time scales. In addition, new Given my experience teaching this course at the
material covers the extensive new research on climatic introductory level, I’ve written a short guide for
changes spanning the last few centuries and millennia. instructors, which can be found at www.whfreeman
This interest has largely been driven by the goal of .com/ruddiman2e. And, Kristin St. John at James
assessing whether or not the warming of the last centu- Madison University has written test questions to
ry has been unusual compared to natural variations dur- accompany this edition. Information on obtaining these
ing previous centuries and millennia. questions can also be found at the Web site.