No abstract

James Croll (1821-1890) was a Scottish scientist who made major, although still largely unrecognised, contributions to the theory of the effects of variations in the Earth's orbit on the global climate. He was the first to identify the importance of positive feedbacks in the climate system, especially the ice-albedo feedback, and he placed the astrochronological method on a sound footing. Croll's theory was the first to predict multiple ice ages. However, it was unable to place the end of the most recent glaciation more recently than 80,000 years ago, and as evidence accumulated throughout the 19th century for a much more recent date than this Croll's theory fell into neglect. We argue that this was particularly unfortunate since several of his key ideas were forgotten, and that this has delayed the development of the orbital theory of paleoclimate.

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This paper describes some of the very severe problems of pollution found in the industrialised regions of Kol 'skiy Poluostrov (Kola Peninsula) in the European Russian Arctic. Information concerning this area, as is the case for other parts of the former Soviet Union, has tended in the past to be inaccessible, or highly fragmented. By assembling information from a variety of sources, including discussion with local experts, the authors have produced a coherent picture of the background to and current extent of industrial pollution in this area. The problems are shown to be quite as severe as western scientists have feared.