It has been widely recognized recently that in order to make scientific progress on large and important problems (eg, carbon dioxide effects on climate, viability of various sites for nuclear waste disposal etc.), it is necessary to integrate knowledge from wide ranging sets of disciplines. This is certainly true in the climate sciences, for progress in understanding the cause of the ice ages or the effects of industrial pollution on the future climate or even the likelihood of severe climatic consequences in the aftermath of nuclear war. All require state-of -the -art input from many geoscience disci­ plines climatology, oceanography, meteorology, chemistry, ecology, glaciology, geology, astronomy, space technology, computer technology, mathematics etc. Major international meetings have called for interaction of such geo-science disciplines to solve real world problems. To move beyond the rhetorical level, the NATO Special Programme on Global Transport Mechanisms in the Geo-Sciences whose activities started in 1983, deci­ ded to organise his closing symposium on such a topic which focus on the relationship between climate and geo-sciences. This symposium was held at the end of May 1988 at the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-Ia-Neuve, Belgium. One hundred-and-thirty participants from the 16 NATO countries and a number of non-NATO countries assembled for the Symposium. Another feature was the attendance by special invitation of 16 pro­ mising young scientists who might well become leading scientists on climate and geo-sciences in their respective countries in the next century.

Inhalt

Section 1 - Climate Record / What can We Learn from Data ?.- Pre-Pleistocene climates : data and models.- Archaean atmosphere-biosphere interactions.- Dating proxy data.- The spectral characteristics of pre-Quaternary climatic records, an example of the relationship between the astronomical theory and Geo-Sciences.- Polar ice cores and climate.- Intermediate and deep water characteristics during the last glacial maximum.- Oceanic response to orbital forcing in the late Quaternary : observational and experimental strategies.- Recent developments in Quaternary paleoclimatology.- Paleoclimate data for studies of global climate change and earth system science.- Paleoclimate perspectives on a greenhouse warming.- Section 2 - Understanding Climate and Climatic Changes.- Deceptively-simple models of climatic change.- Climate predictability : a dynamical view.- Coupled ocean and sea-ice models : review and perspectives.- Atmospheric chemistry - climate interactions.- Ice and climate studies.- Volcanoes and climate.- Global climatic effects of a nuclear war: an interdisciplinary problem.- Land surface processes in climate models : status and prospects.- Tropical deforestation and climatic change.- The role of the hydrological cycle in climate.- Changes in ocean temperature and the scientific strategy for international climate research.- Section 3 - Simulation of the Greenhouse Warming.- Model projections of the climatic changes induced by increased atmospheric CO2.- Climate sensitivity : model dependence of results.- Climate response to greenhouse warming : the role of the ocean.- Unresolved issues and research needs pertaining to the transient climatic response to a CO2 increase.- Global biogeochemical cycles and climate.- Anthropogenic and natural perturbations of the carbon cycle.- Modelling biospheric control of carbon fluxes between atmosphere, ocean and land in view of climatic change.- Section 4 - Technology for Climate Studies.- Supercomputing and massive parallelism.- Data management methods; data for Europe.- Satellites and climate.- Radiation budget and clouds.- Section 5 - Climate Environment and International Security.- The global commons and national security.- The global environmental issues - an approach to their solution.- Human impact on the environment.- Society and future climate change.- Global climatic changes and geopolitics: pressures on developed and developing countries.- Climate change in the context of multiple threats.- Climate and public policy in the United States Congress.- Climatic changes and water resources development.- Hydrological impacts - What if we are right ?.- Climate change : effects on biological systems.- Forest productivity and health in a changing atmospheric environment.- Climate environment in international security: the case of deforestation in the brazilian amazon.- Section 6 - Conference Overview and Recommendations.- Where is climate research going ?.- Authors Index.- Subjects Index.