Twenty thousand years ago our planet was an icehouse. Temperatures were down six degrees; ice sheets kilometres thick buried much of Europe and North America and sea levels were 130m lower. The following 15 millennia saw an astonishing transformation as our planet metamorphosed into the temperate world upon which our civilisation has grown and thrived. One of the most dynamic periods in Earth history saw rocketing temperatures melt the great ice sheets like butter on a hot summer's day; feeding torrents of freshwater into ocean basins that rapidly filled to present levels. The removal of the...

This book addresses a wide range of issues relating to the ways in which climate change may force geological and geomorphological hazards. The Chapters reflect an interdisciplinary field of research that is only now becoming recognized as important in the context of the likely impacts and implications of anthropogenic climate change. We hope that the book will provide a marker that reinforces the idea that anthropogenic climate change does not simply involve the atmosphere and hydrosphere, but can also elicit a response from the Earth's crust and mantle. In this regard, we hope that it will...