Is the temperature rising?

by S. George Philander

In simple, nontechnical language, Philander describes how the interplay between familiar yet endlessly fascinating phenomena - winds and clouds, light and air, land and seamaintains climates that permit a glorious diversity of fauna and flora to flourish on Earth. That interplay also creates such potent weather disrupters as El Nino and La Nina, translates modest fluctuations in sunlight into global climate changes as dramatic as the Ice Age, and determines Earth's response to the gases we are discharging into the atmosphere, such as those that led to the ozone hole over Antarctica and those that are likely to cause global warming. In his discussion of these matters, Philander emphasizes that our planet is so complex that the scientific results will always have uncertainties. To continue to defer action on environmental problems, on the grounds that more accurate scientific results will soon be available, could lead to a crisis. To make wise decisions, it will help if the public is fam