Elegant, novel explanation of climate change, emphasizing physical understanding and concepts, while avoiding complex mathematics, supported by excellent color illustrations.

Energy flows all around you. It warms the air and powers our machines. In this book, readers in grades 4-9 will discover how power from the sun journeys to Earth’s surface and back out to space. The sun’s energy can be reflected, absorbed, used by plants and animals, given off, or trapped to warm the atmosphere. Learn how heat in the atmosphere is rising and what people can do about it. Earth’s energy flow affects every living creature on the planet—including you! This series features a variety of science topics aligned to NGSS standards. From mixing matter to the study of sound waves, each informative book includes a glossary, comprehension questions, and an activity for home or the classroom.

This book provides a comprehensive presentation of Earth’s energy flows and their consequences for the climate. The Earth’s climate as well as planetary climates in general, are broadly controlled by three fundamental parameters: the solar irradiance, the planetary albedo and the planetary emissivity. Space measurements indicate that these three quantities are remarkably stable. A minor decrease in planetary emissivity is consistent with theoretical calculations. This is due to the ongoing increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases making the atmosphere more opaque to long wave terrestrial radiation. As a consequence radiation processes are slightly out of balance as less heat is leaving the Earth in the form of thermal radiation than the incoming amount of heat from the sun. Present space-based systems cannot yet satisfactorily measure this imbalance, but the effect can be inferred from the measurements of the increase of heat in the oceans. Minor amounts of heat are also used to melt ice and to warm the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. The book brings to fore the complexity of feedback processes of the Earth’s climate system and in particular the way clouds and aerosols affect the energy balance both directly and indirectly through feed-back loops driven by the dynamics of atmospheric, ocean and land surface processes. The book highlights recent scientific progress as well as remaining challenges. Previously published in Surveys in Geophysics, Volume 33, Nos. 3-4, 2012

Energy flows all around you. It warms the air and powers our machines. In this book, readers in grades 4-9 will discover how power from the sun journeys to Earth’s surface and back out to space. The sun’s energy can be reflected, absorbed, used by plants and animals, given off, or trapped to warm the atmosphere. Learn how heat in the atmosphere is rising and what people can do about it. Earth’s energy flow affects every living creature on the planet—including you! This series features a variety of science topics aligned to NGSS standards. From mixing matter to the study of sound waves, each informative book includes a glossary, comprehension questions, and an activity for home or the classroom.

This book starts by discussing the global flows of energy and materials and changes caused by human activities. It then examines the limitations of anthropogenic energy and material flows and the consequences for the development of human society. Different scenarios for lifestyle patterns are correlated with the future development of the global energy supply and climate. As it provides a process engineering approach to the Earth system and global development, readers should have a basic understanding of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. This second edition also reflects new developments since the original publication: increases in anthropogenic energy and material flows due to significant economic growth in certain parts of the world, and recent changes in energy policy and technological development countries, such as Germany (the Energiewende, or transition to renewable energy sources), where goals have been defined and measures initiated for a future energy supply without fossil and nuclear sources. As such, it offers a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate students as well as practicing experts alike.

A comprehensive and unified introduction to the science of energy sources, uses, and systems for students, scientists, engineers, and professionals.

The authors look to the laws of thermodynamics for answers to the questions of evolution, ecology, economics, and even life's origin.