21st Century Climate Blueprints: Perspectives From The Recent History of the Atmosphere

The Earth surface temperature reflects the net balance between incoming solar shortwave radiation and outgoing terrestrial long wave radiation Kiehl and Trenberth, 1997 [1]. The severe disturbance of the energy balance of the atmosphere ensuing from the emission of over 320 billion tons of carbon since 1750 threatens a shift in the state of the atmosphere/ocean system to ice free greenhouse Earth conditions.