Anthropogenic Climate Change

The present volume contains lectures given at the First GKSS School of Environmental Research in April 1997. The School dealt with the prototypical problem of Anthropogenic Climate Change and addressed a wide spectrum of questions, ranging from purely dynamic aspects to the socioscientific construction of the climate problem . Three lectures deal with the functioning and modeling of the climate system and the dynamics behind natural and anthropogenic climate change. An up-to-date discussion of the detection problem is given. For comparison, the case of anthropogenic rain-making is addressed which attracted considerable interest in the 1960s. Three lectures deal with the social dimension of Anthropogenic Climate Change, namely with the interaction of climate and economy and the design of optimal policies; a comparison of the present public views with the concept of climatic determinism; and the views held within the scientific community about the role of science.