Climate change has become one of the most visible phenomena in the world today, recognized through the changes occurring to physical climates, natural and managed environments and social organizations, and also through deliberations about ethical responsibility and public policy. WIREs Climate Change offers a unique platform for exploring current and emerging knowledge from the many disciplines that contribute to our understanding of this phenomenon – environmental history, the humanities, physical and life sciences, social sciences, engineering and economics. This publication has been developed in association with the Royal Meteorological Society and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in the UK and provides an important new encyclopedic reference for climate change scholarship and research. It also acts as a forum for gaining a wider set of perspectives about how climate change is understood, analyzed and contested around the world.