Note: Intro -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Leningrad-1982 -- 1.2 'Global Warming' or 'Global Weirding' -- 1.3 My Background -- 1.4 What Is Science? -- 1.5 The Observational Sciences -- 1.6 The Compexity of Nature -- 1.7 Summary -- 2 Discovering Climate -- 2.1 Defining 'Climate' -- 2.2 Numerical Descriptions of Climate -- 2.3 How Science Works -- 2.4 Summary -- 3 The Language of Science -- 3.1 Numbers and Symbols -- 3.2 Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus -- 3.3 Shapes -- 3.4 Orders of Magnitude and Exponents -- 3.5 Logarithms -- 3.6 Logarithms and Scales with Bases Other Than 10 -- 3.7 Earthquake Scales -- 3.8 The Beaufort Wind Force Scale -- 3.9 Extending the Beaufort Scale to Cyclonic Storms -- 3.10 Calendars and Time -- 3.11 Summary -- 4 Applying Mathematics to Problems -- 4.1 Measures and Weights -- 4.2 The Nautical Mile -- 4.3 The Metric System -- 4.4 Temperature -- 4.5 Precisely Defining Some Words You Already Know -- 4.6 Locating Things -- 4.7 Latitude and Longitude -- 4.8 Map Projections -- 4.9 Trigonometry -- 4.10 Circles, Ellipses, and Angular Velocity -- 4.11 Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces -- 4.12 Graphs -- 4.13 Exponential Growth and Decay -- 4.14 The Logistic Equation -- 4.15 Statistics -- 4.16 Summary -- 5 Geologic Time -- Abstract -- 5.1 Age of the Earth-4004 BCE, or Older? -- 5.2 The Discovery of the Depths of Time-Eternity -- 5.3 Geologic Time Punctuated by Revolutions -- 5.4 Catastrophism Replaced by Imperceptibly Slow Gradual Change -- 5.5 The Development of the Geological Timescale -- 5.6 The Discovery of the Ice Age -- 5.7 The Discovery of Past Warm Polar Regions -- 5.8 Throwing a Monkey Wrench into Explaining Climate Change -- 5.9 Crustal Mobility' to the Rescue -- 5.10 The Return of Catastrophism and the Idea of Rapid Change -- 5.11 The Nature of the Geologic Record -- 5.12 The Great Extinctions and Their Causes. , 5.13 Summary-A History with No Dates -- 6 Putting Numbers on Geologic Ages -- 6.1 1788-An Abyss of Time of Unknown Dimensions -- 6.2 1863-Physics Comes to the Rescue-Earth Is Not More than 100 Million Years Old -- 6.3 What We Now Know About Heat from Earth's Interior -- 6.4 Some Helpful Background in Understanding Nineteenth-Century Chemistry -- 6.5 Atomic Weight, Atomic Mass, Isotopes, Relative Atomic Mass, Standard Atomic Weight-A Confusing Plethora of Terms -- 6.6 1895-1913-The Worlds of Physics and Chemistry Turned Upside Down -- 6.7 Henri Becquerel and the Curies -- 6.8 Nonconformists and the British Universities Open to All -- 6.9 The Discovery of Electrons, Alpha-Rays, and Beta-Rays -- 6.10 The Discovery of Radioactive Decay Series, Exponential Decay Rates, and Secular Equilibrium -- 6.11 The Mystery of the Decay Series Explained by Isotopes -- 6.12 The Discovery That Radioactive Decay Series Might Be Used to Determine the Age of Rocks -- 6.13 The Discovery of Stable Isotopes -- 6.14 Rethinking the Structure of the Atom -- 6.15 From Science to Science Fiction -- 6.16 The Discovery of Protons and Neutrons -- 6.17 Arthur Holmes and the Age of the Earth -- 6.18 The Development of a Numerical Geological Timescale -- 6.19 Summary -- 7 Documenting Past Climate Change -- 7.1 What Is 'Climate'? -- 7.2 A Brief Overview of Earth's Climate History -- 7.3 The Cenozoic Climate 'Deterioration' -- 7.4 From Ages to Process Rates -- 7.5 Radiometric Age Dating in the Mid-Twentieth Century -- 7.6 Potassium-Argon Dating -- 7.7 Reversals of Earth's Magnetic Field -- 7.8 Fission Track Dating -- 7.9 Astronomical Dating -- 7.10 Tritium, Carbon-14, and Beryllium-10 -- 7.11 The Human Acceleration of Natural Process Rates -- 7.12 The Present Climate in Its Geologic Context -- 7.13 Steady State Versus Non-steady State -- 7.14 Feedbacks -- 7.15 Summary. , 8 The Nature of Energy Received from the Sun-The Analogies with Water Waves and Sound -- 8.1 Water Waves -- 8.2 Special Water Waves-Tides and Tsunamis -- 8.3 Wave Energy, Refraction, and Reflection -- 8.4 Sound Waves -- 8.5 Sound Waves and Music -- 8.6 Measuring the Speed of Sound in Air -- 8.7 Measuring the Speed of Sound in Water -- 8.8 The Practical Use of Sound in Water -- 8.9 Summary -- 9 The Nature of Energy Received from the Sun-Figuring Out What Light Really Is -- 9.1 Early Ideas About Light -- 9.2 Refraction of Light -- 9.3 Measuring the Speed of Light -- 9.4 The Discovery of Double Refraction or 'Birefringence' -- 9.5 Investigating the Dispersion of Light -- 9.6 Figuring Out the Wavelengths of Different Colors of Light -- 9.7 Diffraction -- 9.8 Polarization of Light -- 9.9 Eureka!-Light Is Electromagnetic Waves -- 9.10 A Review of the Discovery of the Invisible Parts of the Electromagnetic Spectrum -- 9.11 The Demise of the 'Luminiferous Æther' -- 9.12 Summary -- 10 Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum -- 10.1 Spectra and Spectral Lines -- 10.2 The Discovery of Helium-First in the Sun, Then on Earth -- 10.3 The Discovery That Spectral Lines Are Mathematically Related -- 10.4 Heinrich Hertz's Confirmation of Maxwell's Ideas -- 10.5 Marconi Makes the Electromagnetic Spectrum a Tool for Civilization -- 10.6 Human Use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum for Communication, Locating Objects, and Cooking -- 10.7 Summary -- 11 The Origins of Climate Science-The Idea of Energy Balance -- 11.1 What Is Heat? -- 11.2 Thermodynamics -- 11.3 The Laws of Thermodynamics -- 11.4 The Discovery of Greenhouse Gases -- 11.5 Kirchhoff's 'Black Body' -- 11.6 Stefan's Fourth Power Law -- 11.7 Black Body Radiation -- 11.8 Summary -- 12 The Climate System -- 12.1 Insolation-The Incoming Energy from the Sun. , 12.2 Albedo-The Reflection of Incoming Energy Back into Space -- 12.3 Reradiation-How the Earth Radiates Energy Back into Space -- 12.4 The Chaotic Nature of the Weather -- 12.5 The Earthly Components of the Climate System: Air, Earth, Ice, and Water -- 12.6 The Atmosphere -- 12.7 The Hydrosphere -- 12.8 The Cryosphere -- 12.9 The Land -- 12.10 Classifying Climatic Regions -- 12.11 Uncertainties in the Climate Scheme -- 12.12 Summary -- 13 What Is at the Bottom of Alice's Rabbit Hole? -- 13.1 Max Planck and the Solution to the Black Body Problem -- 13.2 The Photoelectric Effect -- 13.3 The Bohr Atom -- 13.4 Implications of the Bohr Model for the Periodic Table of the Elements -- 13.5 The Zeeman Effect -- 13.6 Trying to Make Sense of the Periodic Table -- 13.7 The Second Quantum Revolution -- 13.8 The Discovery of Nuclear Fission -- 13.9 Molecular Motions -- 13.10 Summary -- 14 Energy from the Sun-Long-Term Variations -- 14.1 The Faint Young Sun Paradox -- 14.2 The Energy Flux from the Sun -- 14.3 The Orbital Cycles -- 14.4 The Rise and Fall of the Orbital Theory of Climate Change -- 14.5 The Resurrection of the Orbital Theory -- 14.6 Correcting the Age Scale: Filling in the Details to Prove the Theory -- 14.7 The Discovery that Milankovitch Orbital Cycles Have Affected Much of Earth History -- 14.8 Summary -- 15 Solar Variability and Cosmic Rays -- 15.1 Solar Variability -- 15.2 The Solar Wind -- 15.3 Solar Storms and Space Weather -- 15.4 The Solar Neutrino Problem -- 15.5 The Ultraviolet Radiation -- 15.6 Cosmic Rays -- 15.7 A Digression into the World of Particle Physics -- 15.8 How Cosmic Rays Interact with Earth's Atmosphere -- 15.9 Carbon-14 -- 15.10 Beryllium-10 -- 15.11 Cosmic Rays and Climate -- 15.12 Summary -- 16 Albedo -- 16.1 Albedo of Planet Earth -- 16.2 Clouds -- 16.3 Could Cloudiness Be a Global Thermostat?. , 16.4 Volcanic Ash and Climate Change -- 16.5 Aerosols -- 16.6 Albedo During the Last Glacial Maximum -- 16.7 Changing the Planetary Albedo to Counteract Greenhouse Warming -- 16.8 Summary -- 17 Air -- 17.1 The Nature of Air -- 17.2 The Velocity of Air Molecules -- 17.3 Other Molecular Motions -- 17.4 The Other Major Component of Air-Photons -- 17.5 Ionization -- 17.6 The Scattering of Light -- 17.7 Absorption of the Infrared Wavelengths -- 17.8 Other Components of Air: Subatomic Particles -- 17.9 Summary -- 18 HoH-The Keystone of Earth's Climate -- 18.1 Some History -- 18.2 Why Is HOH So Strange? -- 18.3 The Hydrologic Cycle -- 18.4 Vapor -- 18.4.1 Pure Water -- 18.5 Natural Water -- 18.6 Water-Density and Specific Volume -- 18.7 Water-Surface Tension -- 18.8 Ice -- 18.9 Earth's Ice -- 18.10 How Ice Forms from Freshwater and from Seawater -- 18.11 Snow and ICE on Land -- 18.12 Ice Cores -- 18.13 Ice as Earth's Climate Stabilizer -- 19 The Atmosphere -- 19.1 Atmospheric Pressure -- 19.2 The Structure of the Atmosphere -- 19.3 The Troposphere -- 19.4 The Stratosphere -- 19.5 The Mesosphere -- 19.6 The Thermosphere -- 19.7 The Exosphere -- 19.8 The Magnetosphere -- 19.9 The Ionosphere -- 19.10 The Atmospheric Greenhouse Effect -- 19.11 The Distribution of Gases in the Atmosphere -- 19.12 The Overall Effect of the Atmosphere on Solar Irradiance -- 19.13 The Effects of Anthropogenic Atmospheric Pollution -- 19.14 Summary -- 20 Oxygen and Ozone-Products and Protectors of Life -- 20.1 Diatomic Oxygen-O2-'Oxygen' -- 20.2 Triatomic Oxygen-O3-Ozone -- 20.3 The Oxygen-Ozone-Ultraviolet Connection -- 20.4 The Oxygen-Ozone-Ultraviolet Conundrum -- 20.5 The Human Interference with Ozone -- 20.6 Ozone-The Greenhouse Gas -- 20.7 Summary -- 21 Water Vapor-The Major Greenhouse Gas -- 21.1 H2O ('Water') on Earth -- 21.2 The Behavior of Dry Air. , 21.3 The Behavior of Wet Air.