Editing Hubert Lamb (section)

===Abrupt climate change and global warming===
Lamb's 1977 book ''Climatic History and the Future'' described studies of [[Paleobotany|fossil pollen]] showing an abrupt change from a glacial era of pinewoods to oak trees,<ref>{{Citation
 |date= February 2013
 |last1= Weart
 |first1= Spencer R.
 |author-link= Spencer R. Weart
 |chapter= The Carbon Dioxide Greenhouse Effect
 |chapter-url= http://www.aip.org/history/climate/rapid.htm#M_20_
 |title= The Discovery of Global Warming
 |url= http://www.aip.org/history/climate/index.htm
 |access-date= 2013-04-05
 |archive-date= 21 May 2012
 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120521121128/http://www.aip.org/history/climate/index.htm
 |url-status= dead
 }}</ref> pointing to "great rapidity of climate change". He discussed research on the complex effects of human caused pollution, and suggested that "On balance, the effects of increased carbon dioxide on climate is almost certainly in the direction of warming but is probably much smaller than the estimates which have commonly been accepted."<ref name="Lamb77 84">{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jOwOAAAAQAAJ&q=lamb+%22an+abrupt+warming+due+to+the+effect+of+increasing+carbon+dioxide%22&pg=PR32 |title=Climatic History and the Future  |author=H. H. Lamb |pages=xxxi–xxxii, 80, 666 |year=1977|edition=1984 |publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691023878 }}</ref>

In the preface to his 1984 edition of the book, Lamb noted studies of the "carbon dioxide problem" and called for more investigation of past climate, particularly "evidence that some major climatic changes took place surprisingly quickly." He outlined recent research suggesting that the next glaciation would begin in 3,000 to 7,000 years, and wrote "It is to be noted here that there is no necessary contradiction between forecast expectations of (a) some renewed (or continuation of) slight cooling of world climate for some years to come, e.g. from volcanic or solar activity variations; (b) an abrupt warming due to the effect of increasing carbon dioxide, lasting some centuries until fossil fuels are exhausted and a while thereafter; and this followed in turn by (c) a glaciation lasting (like the previous ones) for many thousands of years.”<ref name="Lamb77 84" />