Definition of "paleoclimatology" [paleoclimatology]

• The study of climatic conditions, and their causes and effects, in the geologic past, using evidence found in glacial deposits, fossils, and sediments. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One fact about which general public is not aware: there are two climate sciences, the one called paleoclimatology, and the one more known due media hype - computer modelling of the present climate system."
• "Fritts 2003, it has not been addressed in long-term paleoclimatology reconstructions."
• "People make extravagant claims -- "As certain as gravity," says Al Gore -- about a branch of science, paleoclimatology, that is only 25 years old (the first textbook on paleoclimate came out in 1980)."