This book provides an integrated assessment of issues related to climate variability and change, predictability and risks. It details both the technical aspects of variability and abrupt climate change and the agricultural and economical impacts and consequences.

The book deals with natural climate variations during the last 600,000 years. Among the topics astronomical influence on paleoclimates, climate and environment, natural CO2-variants based on investigations of ice curves and climatic information from wood density are the most important. This long and short term variability is the base for modelling and prediction of anthropogenically induced climatic changes.