I'm going to try to keep a log of what I do in hunting for information in these realms during the coming weeks.
A search in Science is a good beginning. You'll need to resort to bound paper to read the articles, but the search interface easy enough to use (you can also find a link to Science via 'Electronic Journals' on the Science Library's web page). A search for the phrase "global climate change" (enclosing the words in quotes) in the last two years of Science gets 54 hits --which is to say that there's something directly on the general topic just about every two weeks. Many of the articles are news and comment, but some are primary scientific literature --reports of research findings. Science tracks 'Climate Change' as a subject (the phrase occurred in title/abstract 96 times in 1998-1999).
Nature is another 'general science' magazine that tracks climate change, with a somewhat more European slant. The search interface is clumsier, but it's possible to get online full text for recent articles (the Science Library also has Nature in paper, of course). This link will take a W&L user to login instructions for Nature.
Another essential resource is Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, which we have both on paper (TJ163.2 .A55) and in electronic full text (the same search interface as Science). Articles are secondary literature --review articles with extensive bibliographies of materials from primary literatures, and hence enormously useful in guiding you through the complexities of past research.
You might find this encyclopedia useful:
TITLE Encyclopedia of climate and weather / Stephen H. Schneider,
editor in chief.
PUBLISHER New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
SUBJECT Climatology -- Encyclopedias.
Weather -- Encyclopedias.
1 > Leyburn-Reference QC854 .E523 1996 v. 1 LIB USE ONLY
2 > Leyburn-Reference QC854 .E523 1996 v. 2 LIB USE ONLY
3 > Science-Reference QC854 .E523 1996 v. 1 LIB USE ONLY
4 > Science-Reference QC854 .E523 1996 v. 2 LIB USE ONLY
Here's a cache of 20-some books we have that might be worth a look for data on paleoclimates --just a selection, but lovingly gathered!
I did a quick ANNIE search for 'global climate change' and found 37 items from the last 3 years. Many are government and policy documents, but the following books in the Science Library might be useful:
AUTHOR Fleming, James Rodger.
TITLE Historical perspectives on climate change / James Rodger Fleming.
PUBLISHER New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.
SUBJECT Climatic changes -- Europe -- History.
Climatic changes -- United States -- History.
Global environmental change -- History.
Science Library QC981.8.C5 F45 1998
TITLE The impact of climate change on the United States economy /
edited by Robert Mendelsohn, James E. Neumann.
PUBLISHER Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Science Library QC981.8.C5 I449 1999
TITLE Mechanisms of global climate change at millennial time scales /
PUBLISHER Washington, DC : American Geophysical Union, c1999.
SUBJECT Climatic changes.
Science Library QC981.8.C5 M427 199
AUTHOR Wrigley, Tom M. L.
TITLE The science of climate change : global and U.S. perspectives
PUBLISHER [Arlington, VA : Pew Center on Global Climate Change, 1999]
SUBJECT Climatic change -- Forecasting.
Climatic change -- United States -- Forecasting.
Global warming.
Greenhouse gases.
Science Library TD885.5.G73 W74 1999