To Open The Sky

The original, monolithic list was growing too unwieldy. I've kept it, however, in case anyone might need to search it for a given title without knowing which category it falls into (a somewhat arbitrary decision on my part) or to find all titles by a certain author in have on file. That link is at the very bottom of this page.

Here are descriptions of the nine categories.

1. Economic Impacts: Includes drought, flood impacts, as well as impacts on health due to heat waves, the spread of diseases and pests, conflicts and refugees, and depression. Books discussing the costs of carbon taxes and other political measures also appear here.
2. Energy Generation: Discussion of nuclear, fossil-fuel, and renewable sources of energy as well as the "smart grid."
3. Legality & Ethics: Issues such as lawsuits against fossil-fuel companies for sowing confusion, the children's case, endangered species act...
4. Mitigation Measures: Ways to conserve energy (insulating homes, recycling) and reduce emissions (carbon capture, driving electric vehicles, pulling CO₂ out of the air, revised agricultural methods).
5. Panic Mode: Geoengineering and its discontents — those who point out that these are the last-ditch options, to be used only if the GHGs drown the FANs.
6. Political Responsibility: History of the Kyoto Protocol and other national and international measures, as well as allegations of deceit and fraud.
7. Regional Aspects: Anything that deals with a part of the globe, whether Shismarek, Alaska, Bangladesh, or somewhere else.
8. Scientific Basis: Anything about climate science — and the bogus science (clearly identified as such.)
9. Societal Acceptance: Analyses of why people deny and how to break through. What's often called "cli-fi" — climate fiction — also goes here.

The entries in the tables linked above are sorted by last name of principal author, and then by title (if applicable.) Most of the titles are shown in green to indicate factual content. Any books by "skeptics" are marked by a red title rather than a green one, while the fictional works dealing with climate change (a relative handful) have titles in blue. Recently (spring 2018), I've begun adding titles for young readers. These are shown in orange.

I try to feature data for the hardcover version, if there is one. If I have done a review, I include a link to it.

The score given by customers of Amazon.com is generally a good indicator of a product's quality. In my experience, this is true for the great majority of books. However, there are cases of a controversial book being downrated simply because it is controversial, often by people who haven't read it. (The reverse also occurs, of course; a book may get fulsome praise from uncritical people.) If, in my opinion, either sort of rating distortion occurs, I indicate it by a red background. In following the reviews of climate change books on Amazon, I have encountered a few individuals who seek out mainstream books and give them derogatory reviews. Reviews by such campaigners are often brief and general (e.g. "This book is worthless!"), making it likely that they didn't read the book and are just reacting to its title, author, or description.

The publisher is often a clue to the quality of the book. Mainstream publishers try not to produce nonfiction books which present unfounded information. You will see in this list that the majority of the red titles come from obscure publishers, or from self-publishing operations. (The exception is Regnery, long known to specialize in right-wing, often bogus, tracts.) This is not to say every self-published book is suspect; but the ones on climate change generally are.

In the Library Call Number field (right-most in the blue-bordered box), "SJn" denotes the floor on which the book is shelved at San Jose's Martin Luther King Public Library (shared with SJSU.) Most books on climate are found on the topmost floor, SJ8. In some cases, books are found only at one of the branch libraries. This is designated by an "SJBr" label. "SJ0" indicates the King Library system did not have a copy when I checked. A call number with a strike-through line means the book is in the library's database but the copy is listed as missing. (Many are simply misplaced; I have recovered 24 such.)