Foreword; Introduction L. O. Bengtsson and C. U. Hammer; 1. The Antarctic ozone hole: a man-caused chemical instability in the stratosphere - what should we learn from it? P. J. Crutzen; 2. Feedbacks and interactions between global change, atmospheric chemistry, and the biosphere M. O. Andraea; 3. Atmospheric CO2 variations: response to natural and anthropogenic earth system forcings I. Fung; 4. Modelling and evaluating terrestrial biospheric exchanges of water, carbon dioxide and oxygen in the global climate system M. Heimann; 5. Carbon futures W. S. Broecker; 6. Global climate change in the human perspective S. H. Schneider; 7. Earth system models and the global biogeochemical cycles D. Schimel; 8. The role of CO2, sea-level and vegetation during the Milankovitch-forced glacial-interglacial cycles A. Berger; 9. Non-linearities in the earth system: the ocean's role T. F. Stocker; 10. Simulations of the climate of the Holocene: perspectives gained with models of different complexity J. E. Kutzbach; 11. Interactions of climate change and the terrestrial biosphere I. C. Prentice; 12. The record of paleoclimatic change and its greenhouse implications W. R. Peltier; 13. Long-term stability of earth's climate: the faint young sun problem revisited J. F. Kasting; 14. Physical and chemical properties of the glacial ocean J. C. Duplessy; 15. Ice core records and relevance for future climate variations J. Jouzel; 16. Towards a new approach to climate impact studies W. Steffen; 17. Future research objectives M. Heimann; 18. Research objectives of the World Climate Research Programme H. Grassl; Index.