| GLOBAL WEIRDNESS Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas, and The Weather of the Future Emily Elert Michael D. Lemonick New York: Pantheon Books, August 2012 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-307-90730-1 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-307-90730-9 | 214pp. | HC/GSI | $22.95 | |
Global warming means that since Earth is taking in more energy than it radiates back into space, the temperature of the planet as a whole is going up. That does not mean, however, that every place on the surface will get steadily hotter. Indeed, the extra heat energy that is accumulating will have a variety of effects on Earth's climate system.
That is why the authors of this book chose to call it Global Weirdness. It was put together by the respected organization Climate Central, whose mission is to explain the current and projected changes in climate to policy makers and the public.
The principal authors of the book are journalists Emily Elert and Michael D. Lemonick. Five staff scientists at Climate Central reviewed their work; then it was submitted to 22 outside experts for further review. The result is a series of chapters that clearly explain the state of the climate. These sixty chapters are divided into four sections:
These are followed by an Epilogue describing what the IPCC is and what it does. There is a bibliography of 99 references, organized by topic, and a list of the 22 outside reviewers.
All those reviewers missed a few minor errors, detailed as usual on my Errata page. But in the main this is a very accurate and readable book, and it fulfills its mission of being an easily understood sourcebook on climate change. Recommended with full marks.
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