Description
Global change is one of the challenging issues passed on to us from the old millennium. It is subject to debate in the scientific community, in the political arena and in the public domain. One thing is clear from the information gathered in recent years: this problem will stay with us for a number of years to come. There is substantial agreement on the nature and potential solutions of the problem amongst scientists and policy makers involved in the IPCC process. However, the uncertainty of our knowledge of the underlying processes is substantial as well. This situation has led to scepticism about the true nature of global change and hampers willingness of policy makers to take neccesary and sometimes expensive measures.;These results from the National Research Programme on Climate Change of the Netherlands offer a synthesis of present knowledge in the fields of: source and sinks of greenhouse gases and aerosols; land-atmosphere interactions; the global energy balance; and radiative forcing and climate variability.;The book aims to provide a valuable tool for increasing our knowledge on the processes and their interactions that influence the climate system of the earth. It has been written in the context of the functioning of the climate system as a whole. Therefore, it should be a useful addition to the scientific literature used by scientists and policy makers working in this field.
