Chapter A. Introduction

The presentation seeks to demonstrate that the industrialized world contributed toat least two significant climatic changesduring the 20th century. Large-scale anthropogenic weather modification and climatic changes resultedfrom two destructive sea wars. This became particularly obvious when an arctic winter befell Northern Europe only four months after World War II had started. To establish a definite connection between war at sea and climate change, climatic data forfirst few months of WWII are analyzed in fourteen chapters. Climatic data are analyzed in respect oftwo war winters of 1940-41 and 1941-42, insix supplementarypapers. It can be seen that record cold winters occurred in Europe only.

 This elaboration is to establish further that two major climatic changes during the last century,viz. two decades of warming before WWII and four decades of cooling from 1940-80, are also closelylinked to war at sea. WWI presumably initiatedthe warming process; and WWII definitely transformedthe world into a cooler state. A total of nine chapters cover various findingsin this respect.

 Ona preliminary overview,following topics, viz. North Sea cooling (2_16), Three-year-package (3_31); Ocean system affected (4_12); Spitsbergen heats up (5_12); and Climate changes (6_11), provide a basic picture of scope,method and contents of this research.

 The book contains the written material on www.seaclimate.de. Only few changes have been made. Numbers formatted as follows, e.g. 2_16; 5_12, correspond with numbering of material on web site. 

 The mainaim of this researchis to support interest in oceanic affairs and awareness that oceans are the principal source of worldclimate. Such awareness together with a commitment towardsprotection of the oceans is necessary to prevent anthropogenic climatic changesin the future.

Contents of all papers presented arebriefly dealt within the following five sections.