Showing posts with label climate science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate science. Show all posts

What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate Review

What's the Worst That Could Happen: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate
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What's the Worst That Could Happen: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate ReviewI cannot recommend this book enough; it's based on a wildly popular and critically acclaimed set of videos originally aired on YouTube which garnered many millions of hits on various websites.How It All Ends (Single Disc Edition)
Greg Craven has the spark of genius in the way he cuts through all the confusing "it will, it won't, it will too!". On the one hand we have clever wordy scientists and on the other, crafty manipulative, articulate global warming deniers (Ok, I'm a little biased on this one!) and the poor ordinary bloke doesn't know who to believe in the shouting match. He/she just wants to know what's the best bet to protect their loved family and friends. They don't want to risk damaging the economy but they also don't want to risk ruining the planet that their kids will grow up in. How on earth can they decide what's best?
This book will show how you don't need to be an expert to make your own sensible decisions using the sort of ordinary risk assessment techniques that we all use when we cross the road or buy house or car insurance.
Craven basically looks at what each side in the debate is claiming and looks at what will happen if they are wrong and then shows what the consequences would be for us all. Instead of trying to work out definitively who is right, which is very difficult as shown by the many complicated books available that try to, Craven clearly shows that asking what happens if one or the other side is wrong gives a very simple, yet brilliant, way of deciding what the best bet is when deciding what to do, or not do, about it.
This "risk assessment" method might sound dry and dull but Greg is often very funny and he is a natural communicator (he's a science teacher with the gift of humour). It's rather like Carl Sagan meets Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy! You won't see the chemical explosions special effects or the funny hats featured in the videos but the book has other fun stuff too. Not to mention loads of "Dohhh!! why didn't I (or the government!) think of that?" moments.
Greg got to write this book based on the success of the "How It All Ends" videos which were in turn based on his original 10 minute YouTube video "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See". A firestorm of critics descended on that one but Craven didn't give up - he used every helpful or savage critical comment to make his argument stronger. By using the power of the critical Internet crowds he is now pretty sure that EVERY counter-argument has been addressed and answered... This book goes beyond even his original "bulletproof" argument.
This just might be the very first time that "crowd sourcing" (A.K.A the wisdom of crowds) has been utilised to this extent to refine and polish an argument. The result has been called brilliant.
This is not just another global warming book. This is for everyone. It's funny and entertaining and, above all else, wise - you will say "YES!, why didn't I think of that - that is so obvious now!" as Greg cuts though the confusion and finds the light switch to clarify matters so clearly that anyone can understand them.
A valuable side effect of the risk assessment system that Craven sketches out is that the very same methods can be used in all sorts of other situations in life to make decisions where the outcome is uncertain, or if there is not quite enough info to give a 100% definite answer based on the known facts.
This book is deeper than the videos but seeing Greg in full flow is a joy that you will want to pass on to others, so I recommend you take a look at the videos too.How It All Ends (Single Disc Edition)
What's the Worst That Could Happen: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate Overview

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Earth's Climate: Past and Future Review

Earth's Climate: Past and Future
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Earth's Climate: Past and Future ReviewI read this book twice, and wished I had had something like this available to me a few years ago, when I started venturing out into the unnumbered feedback loops, geochemical vagaries and regional idiosyncracies of Quaternary paleoclimatology, trying to form a general picture of it all. But this text isn't just about the Quaternary, mind you, this is a complete introduction to the main issues in Earth's climatology.
That it's mainly PALEOclimatology is unavoidable, since in my opinion "present climatology" is like a nonsense... Climate is an averaged evaluation of regional or global meteorological parameters through time, and the "present" is always too short for such an evaluation. Insight on climate evolution is only gained looking back in time, and projecting our analyses to an immediate future, so it's a science strictly dependent on timescales and perspectives... What we can tentatively tell about our climatic future is still too uncertain, but what was in the past is still available to inform and inspire us to further research, that's why Ruddiman's work is mainly about understanding what happened in the past...
My cheap philosophy aside, I think the author's aim was to introduce the subject from the basics, at a simplified level, in order to teach what kind of processes and interactions are involved in determining Earth's climate and its variability, without having inexperienced readers bogged down into technicalities of all sorts and all together (the necessary way of scientific articles delving deeper into any one very specific topic!). Hypotheses, problems and events are introduced gradually, with a captivating detective-like style, and the telescopic time-perspective (from longer geotectonic time-scales all the way down to centennial and decadal patterns and phenomena, dutifully lingering upon the Milankovic pacemaker) is just what's needed to have the right feeling brought home to students of how the Earth system evolves..
Details of this and that research threads are omitted to aid understanding of the general picture. Bibliographic references provide other information sources for those interested in more..
My own perplexity is on the second chapter: I doubt that such a quick overview of the workings of atmosphere and oceans is enough for those students that never touched any textbooks of meteorology or oceanography. A chapter twice as long would be more informative, I guess making those processes clearer at the outset of the journey would make several students more confident and help them grasp more of what will follow. I know the book is bulky enough already, but more pages and explanations need to be added to the second chapter for teaching's sake...
I have to disagree with the previous reviewer's negativity.. This is an introductory textbook, if any (paleo)climatologist's views had to be included, an encyclopedia would hardly be enough room for all of them!! The last two chapters, on global warming and future climate variability, are the best example of Ruddiman's balance and caution in explaining hypotheses, alternatives, possible fallacies and biases of sorts. As to the reviewer's question, "Who couldn't get a five-star rating discussing climate change and global warming with such a leitmotif?", I invite him to read my review of W.J.Burroughs' "Climate Change: a Multidisciplinary Approach" on the Amazon.co.uk website...
I really hope to see a second edition of Ruddiman's work in the next years, when times will be ripe for exciting updates and more hypotheses to tell...Earth's Climate: Past and Future OverviewWritten from a multidisciplinary perspective by one of the field's preeminent researcher/instructors, Earth's Climate: Past and Future became a classroom favorite by providing an expert summary of climate change past, present, and future. The text worked equally well as either a nonmajors introduction to Earth system science or climate change, or as an upper-undergraduate-level overview of the processes and techniques in climate science.

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The Rough Guide to Climate Change, 2nd Edition Review

The Rough Guide to Climate Change, 2nd Edition
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The Rough Guide to Climate Change, 2nd Edition ReviewI am using the Rough Guide to Climate change in a college course that I am currently taking about global warming and climate change. The second edition wasn't out when I started the class, so I started with the first edition and then switched when this edition did come out.
The book is a perfect example of how to write a science book for nonscientists. I have a degree in environmental science, but climate science involves so many disciplines that it is hard for even a trained professional to keep up and digest the information from all the various fields. Henson has done a remarkable job of taking the science and laying it out in an easy to understand way and in a very logical sequence.
The book is broken into parts in a flow that works well. The first section is about the basics of climate change, the second is about the symptoms we are or will be seeing as a result of climate change, the third is about the actual science behind climate change and the fourth presents a nicely balanced set of solutions and some of the detractors from those solutions. There is also a very comprehensive further exploration section at the rear.
The book is up to date and is, by far, the best source of scientific information available to the general reader about global warming. Buy it now...it might change your mind!
The Rough Guide to Climate Change, 2nd Edition OverviewThe Rough Guide to Climate Change gives the complete picture of the single biggest issue facing the planet. Cutting a swathe through scientific research and political debate, this completely updated 2nd edition lays out the facts and assesses the options- global and personal- for dealing with the threat of a warming world. The guide looks at the evolution of our atmosphere over the last 4.5 billion years and what computer simulations of climate change reveal about our past, present, and future. This updated edition includes new information from the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and an updated politics section to reflect post-Kyoto developments. Discover how rising temperatures and sea levels, plus changes to extreme weather patterns, are already affecting life around the world. The guide unravels how governments, scientists and engineers plan to tackle the problem and includes in-depth information and lifestyle tips about what you can do to help.

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What We Know About Climate Change (Boston Review Books) Review

What We Know About Climate Change (Boston Review Books)
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What We Know About Climate Change (Boston Review Books) ReviewDr. Emanuel does a superb job of separating the wheat from the chaff in this little gem. It's virtually impossible for the average layman to separate conspiracy theory nonsense from fear-mongering reading most books and popular press articles on global warming. But Emanuel presents a sound authoritative analysis of what we really do and don't know.
Unlike many other books on global warming, which bury the reader with a plethora of out-of-context quotes, tables of data, and cherry-picked charts, Emanuel presents just enough solid data for the reader to understand the whole issue.
He covers the philosophic underpinnings of different views, the history of global warming, the science, and finally the politics. When put together in this fashion, readers will educate themselves properly.
Before reading this book, I spent months and months reading peer reviewed scientific journal articles, web-site after web-site, and many popular press articles. Had I read Dr. Emanuel's book sooner I could have obtained the same final position with much less work and time invested.What We Know About Climate Change (Boston Review Books) OverviewAn introduction to the scientific consensus on the human role in globalwarming.

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From Observations to Simulations: A Conceptual Introduction to Weather And Climate Modeling Review

From Observations to Simulations: A Conceptual Introduction to Weather And Climate Modeling
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From Observations to Simulations: A Conceptual Introduction to Weather And Climate Modeling ReviewThis book explains why we cannot rely on observations and experiments to understand and predict weather and climate. It discusses how models and ensembles are necessary in atmospheric science. The book is written for non-scientists and is well done. As an atmospheric science student, I found this analysis very useful in an environment where model use is presumed rather than justified. It is translated from Italian so there are some translation problems. It is also wordy and repetitious in some sections. Overall, it is a useful summary of numerical weather and climate modeling.From Observations to Simulations: A Conceptual Introduction to Weather And Climate Modeling OverviewFrom Observations to Simulations leads us on a fascinating journey through the methods used for the scientific analysis of complex systems such as the atmosphere and the Earth system: from meteorology and climatology, as observational sciences, to the development of models and the use of computers as virtual laboratories. In plain, accessible language, avoiding technicalities, but highlighting the conceptually meaningful aspects, the book describes this "Copernican revolution" in meteorology and climatology, a change in methodological paradigm that rigorously tests the definition of some classical concepts, such as "causality" and "prediction." This is the first book that guides the general public (and sets the specialists thinking) through research on complex systems which is contributing to a change in our outlook on nature.

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The Rough Guide to Weather 2 (Rough Guide Reference) Review

The Rough Guide to Weather 2 (Rough Guide Reference)
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The Rough Guide to Weather 2 (Rough Guide Reference) ReviewThis book was a real disappointment. I very much enjoyed the Rough Guide to Climate Change, and I fully expected this book to be just as well written.
I suppose the book works for some intended audience: those afraid of science and with no patience for trying to figure things out. It presents only a very superficial overview of the why and wherefore of weather, glossing over things like why the jet stream is where it is and flows as it does, or the significance of say a 500mb contour chart, or even something as basic as the relationship between fronts and low pressure centers. We get brief mentions of such things in the context of a very cursory summary of the science behind the weather.
The book does have a strength though. The second half of the book is a survey of weather by geographic region. This part of the book does provide some good insights into the weather patterns that affect a given region. It isn't just a compendium of average temperatures and such.
So for the traveler who wants a brief introduction to weather science and some good descriptions of regional weather trends, this is probably a good resource. It isn't really a very good introduction to meteorology though.The Rough Guide to Weather 2 (Rough Guide Reference) OverviewWhether you're an adventurer who enjoys wild weather, a traveller seeking climate details for Madagascar or Mumbai, or simply curious about those charts on the evening news, The Rough Guide to Weather is precisely what you need. From world climates and weather science to tips on how to read the sky and make sense of a forecast. Illustrated throughout with photographs and climate charts and useful links to hundreds of Internet resources for every continent, this guide is will help you stay a head of the storm.

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