The Daily Telegraph Book of the Weather: Past and Future Climate Changes Explained

The three interwoven strands which mark the progress of the weather/climate story throughout the past, during the present, and into the future are: its effect on everyday life; our desire and ability to predict its fluctuations; and our inability to control it at the same time as inadvertently changing it. Eden traces these strands through history, and offers some ideas where they may go in the next 100 years. He looks at the world's weather since the end of the last glaciation eleven thousand years ago and mankind's ever increasing competence in predicting it. He describes and analyses the science of meteorology, from its origins in folk wisdom and proverbs right up to the latest supercomputers and satellites, showing how technological breakthroughs let us see the increasing instability of our climate.This point is forcefully made by a series of mock forecasts for the period 2000-2100. These at once credible yet horrific scenarios show Britain in the grip of Arctic weather in 2008, record temperatures of 120|F in Sacremento in 2034, and balmy winters in Moscow in 2050.The last chapter deals with the kind of changing climate in 2100 and beyond.