Table Of ContentGlobal Warming: A Very Short Introduction
Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating
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Very Short Introductions available now:
ANARCHISM Colin Ward CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead
ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw CLASSICS Mary Beard and
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY John Henderson
Julia Annas CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard
ANCIENT WARFARE THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon
Harry Sidebottom Continental Philosophy
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE Simon Critchley
John Blair COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
ANIMAL RIGHTS CRYPTOGRAPHY
David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM
ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins
Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard
ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell
ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen
THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern
ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch
Atheism Julian Baggini EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
Augustine Henry Chadwick BRITAIN Paul Langford
BARTHES Jonathan Culler EMOTION Dylan Evans
THE BIBLE John Riches EMPIRE Stephen Howe
BRITISH POLITICS ENGELS Terrell Carver
Anthony Wright Ethics Simon Blackburn
Buddha Michael Carrithers The European Union
BUDDHISM Damien Keown John Pinder
CAPITALISM James Fulcher EVOLUTION
THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
CHOICE THEORY FASCISM Kevin Passmore
Michael Allingham THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson William Doyle
FREE WILL Thomas Pink NORTHERN IRELAND
Freud Anthony Storr Marc Mulholland
Galileo Stillman Drake PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close
Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh paul E. P. Sanders
GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger Philosophy Edward Craig
GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
HEGEL Peter Singer Samir Okasha
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood PLATO Julia Annas
HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
HINDUISM Kim Knott POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
HISTORY John H. Arnold David Miller
HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTCOLONIALISM
HUME A. J. Ayer Robert Young
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTMODERNISM
Indian Philosophy Christopher Butler
Sue Hamilton POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Intelligence Ian J. Deary Catherine Belsey
ISLAM Malise Ruthven PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
JUDAISM Norman Solomon PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
Jung Anthony Stevens Catherine Osborne
KAFKA Ritchie Robertson Psychology Gillian Butler and
KANT Roger Scruton Freda McManus
KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner QUANTUM THEORY
THE KORAN Michael Cook John Polkinghorne
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROMAN BRITAIN
LITERARY THEORY Peter Salway
Jonathan Culler ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
LOCKE John Dunn RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
LOGIC Graham Priest RUSSIAN LITERATURE
MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner Catriona Kelly
MARX Peter Singer THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
MATHEMATICS S. A. Smith
Timothy Gowers SCHIZOPHRENIA
MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER
John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths Christopher Janaway
MODERN IRELAND Senia Pasˇeta SHAKESPEARE
MOLECULES Philip Ball Germaine Greer
MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
Myth Robert A. Segal ANTHROPOLOGY
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner John Monaghan and Peter Just
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and Socrates C. C. W. Taylor
H. C. G. Matthew SPINOZA Roger Scruton
STUART BRITAIN John Morrill TWENTIETH-CENTURY
TERRORISM Charles Townshend BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan
THEOLOGY David F. Ford Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling
THE TUDORS John Guy WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman
Available soon:
AFRICAN HISTORY Habermas Gordon Finlayson
John Parker and Richard Rathbone HIROSHIMA
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea B. R. Tomlinson
BUDDHIST ETHICS HUMAN EVOLUTION
Damien Keown Bernard Wood
CHAOS Leonard Smith INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy Paul Wilkinson
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE JAZZ Brian Morton
Robert Tavernor MANDELA Tom Lodge
CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko THE MIND Martin Davies
CONSCIOUSNESS Sue Blackmore MODERN ART David Cottington
CONTEMPORARY ART NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
Julian Stallabrass PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
THE CRUSADES PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Christopher Tyerman Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot
Derrida Simon Glendinning PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards
DESIGN John Heskett THE RAJ Denis Judd
Dinosaurs David Norman THE RENAISSANCE
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson Jerry Brotton
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta RENAISSANCE ART
THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball Geraldine Johnson
THE END OF THE WORLD ROMAN EMPIRE
Bill McGuire Christopher Kelly
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn SARTRE Christina Howells
FEMINISM Margaret Walters THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
THE FIRST WORLD WAR Helen Graham
Michael Howard TIME Leofranc Holford-Strevens
FOUCAULT Garry Gutting TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
FUNDAMENTALISM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Malise Ruthven Martin Conway
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Mark Maslin
GLOBAL
WARMING
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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© Mark Maslin 2004
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First published as a Very Short Introduction 2004
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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ISBN 0–19–284097–5
1357910864 2
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xi
List of illustrations xiii
Introduction 1
1
What is global warming? 4
2
A brief history of the global warming hypothesis 23
3
Your viewpoint determines the future 36
4
What is the evidence for climate change? 43
5
How do you model the future? 67
6
What are the possible future impacts of global
warming? 83
7
Surprises 102
8
Politics 118
9
What are the alternatives? 134
10
Conclusion 146
Further reading 151
Index 153
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the following people: Johanna and
Alexandra Maslin for being there; Emma Simmons and Marsha Filion
for their excellent editing and skill of finally extracting the book
from me; Catherine D’Alton and Elanor McBay of the Department of
Geography Drawing Office UCL; John Adams for helping me develop
my critical view of this debate; Richard Betts and Eric Wolff for their
insightful and extremely helpful reviews; and all my colleagues in
climatology, palaeoclimatology, social science, and economics who
continue to strive to understand and predict our influence on climate.
