The Great Ice Age is also our age. The four and a half billion year evolution of the Earth and its biota culminated in the appearance of a life form capable of studying and manipulating the planetary systems. With human consciousness focusing as never before on the world around us, we are now beginning to realize the enormity of the global experiment we are conducting as the conscious forcing function in the evolution of the Earth System. This text documents and explains the natural climatic and palaeoecologic changes that have occurred during the past 2.6 million years, outlining the...

This series of topic books is suitable for students studying a wide range of biological subjects at advanced level, or as part of a vocational course. The series brings together topics that are now part of A-level courses, but which are seldom covered in sufficient depth in traditional textbooks. Biodiversity, first published in 1997, studies the great diversity of organisms which occur on Earth. It addresses how global diversity has evolved and how it is monitored. The text also considers how biodiversity can be maintained under present day threats such as global climate change, pollution...