Concluding Remarks

Abstract

The wide range of geophysical phenomena brought into consideration in the pages of this monograph reveals the investigation of climatic change for what it is: a broadly interdisciplinary enterprise in which the atmospheric scientist plays a central but by no means self-sufficient role. In coming to grips with the problem of climatic change, the first objective of the atmospheric scientist is to define the problem in terms of atmospheric behavior. To do this, he must begin by acquiring a feel for the diverse nature of the evidence for paleoclimates that is being pieced together in ever richer and more quantified detail by his colleagues in geology, oceanography, archaeology, various branches of the biological sciences, geomagnetism and radiochemistry. Then he must collate this evidence into a meteorologically sensible chronology. The second objective of the atmospheric scientist is to comprehend this chronology. To that end, his knowledge of the manifold nature of climatic controls requires him to keep attuned to developments in such other fields as solar physics, celestial mechanics, volcanology, tectonophysics, geochemistry, and dynamic and chemical oceanography.