Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change Review

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Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change Review
One never ceases to marvel at the consistent way in which we humans seem to be lunging headlong into the ecological abyss. In this wonderful new book by former New York Times reporter Elizabeth Kolbert, the reader is whisked away into a series of field trips into the myriad of places across the globe where the increasing evidence of approaching disaster is being observed, discussed, and reacted to in ways that has to give the reader pause. Eskimos are abandoning a small island in the Artic Ocean even as the surrounding ice cap that once protected from wind and storm damage melts into oblivion as a direct result of the Greenhouse Effect.
Kolbert offer us poignant glimpses at humans forced to confront ugly truths about the nature of the Anthropocene era, that is, that so-far limited expanse of time that humans have inhabited the earth. Presented with the bulk of the evidence, it is hard for an objective intellect to escape the distinct possibility that as a species we seem to be hell-bent on self-destruction. Indeed, the breadth and scope of the manifest effects of climate change on human habitation is breath-taking, affecting societies as far-flung as Netherlands to Siberia, from South Africa to the Great Barrier Reef. She writes wryly about stepping through the looking glass in a conversation with a Washington wonk who attempted to justify the Bush administration's active opposition to both the Kyoto Treaty and any attempt to rework it into a manageable tool to effectively combat the effects of global warming.
It is in such encounters that she discovers her voice and her poignant sense of urgency; if the best educated among us choose to stand in active opposition, what chance is thereto turn this catastrophic change in climate around? Furthermore, in interviewing climate specialists, we discover that the environment is moving rapidly toward disaster, and while there are reasons to hope, there is also reason to view our inaction and our opposition to meaningful global action with alarm. As the former Third World countries like India and China become both more industrial and more consumptive societies, the environment's ability to overcome the cumulative injuries to the earth's biosphere becomes even more difficult to imagine. This book is an easy read, is quite informative, delivered in a reporter's style of succinct and yet comprehensive prose. It does yeoman's service in informing citizens of just how dangerous and calamitous this developing ecological, social, and economic catastrophe truly is. This is a great book, and one I can heartily recommend. Enjoy!
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The Resilient Earth: Science, Global Warming and the Fate of Humanity Review

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The Resilient Earth: Science, Global Warming and the Fate of Humanity ReviewUntil I read the "The Resilient Earth" by coauthors Hoffman and Simmons, I did not spend much time thinking about the issue of human-caused global warming. I knew there were those who claimed humans were destroying our planet and there were others who did not agree, and challenged that principle. Now, after reading this wonderful book, I do care about our planet, but I have become somewhat skeptical of the idea that humans can change the climate to the point that we are doomed. In Chapter 1, the first lines in the book read: "Scientists observe nature, then develop theories that describe their observations. Science is driven by nature itself, and nature gives us no choice. It is what it is." How beautiful those words are, and they set the tone of the entire book. I have learned how resilient our Earth is - from its very beginning to its present day. The book is a journey of science and scientific discovery. I was amazed how many scientists made discoveries outside their disciplines. As an example, a man named Joseph Fourier discovered that certain gases could trap heat. Fourier, a mathematician and physicist, made that discovery in 1829. The book describes just how complex Earth's atmosphere is, and that it takes almost all scientific disciplines to try and unravel nature's mysteries. I learned how important the roles of geology, paleontology, glaciology, oceanography, physics, chemistry, and many more disciplines play in understanding, not only the complex puzzle called our atmosphere, but also the history of our planet. Most importantly, I learned how Earth warmed and cooled in cycles, long before modern man arrived. Best told was the story of Otzi the Iceman, who died in 3300 BC and his perfectly preserved body was found in 1991, buried in ice on the Italian Alps. Otzi laid in peace during the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, WW II, and the rise of the United States. What I learned from Otzi, made me think of Greenland. Why was that place, now covered in ice, called "Greenland?" This book influenced my life. I now recycle plastic and paper. I raised my thermostat for summer and lowered it for winter. I use less water. But I learned, reading this treasure of information, that it takes 226 million years for our solar system to make one orbit around the center of our galaxy. That puts the whole climate issue in perspective. Who can imagine what we might run into as we porpoise and sashay on our 226 million year journey. The easy style and anecdotes of "The Resilient Earth" are gems. I recommend this book for everyone. It will open the mind and make one think of things never thought of before. Such as, how lucky we humans are to have survived the ebb and flow of ice on this resilient Earth. Imagine New York City buried under ice, a mile high. I wonder how many times that happened, and could it happen again. Nature, with its infinite reach, will decide that for us. Kudos for the authors of "The Resilient Earth."The Resilient Earth: Science, Global Warming and the Fate of Humanity Overview

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Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Review

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Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming ReviewWhat you are getting from this review is a non-scientific analysis of the book, and a summation of the contents. While I taught a year or two of High School Biology in Cheatham County, TN, that probably isn't going to qualify me to sit on the International Global Warming Council anytime soon. I'll try and avoid the observation that it still probably makes me more qualified than a lot of people suddenly making careers out of Global Warming.
The book was not what I expected. I kind of thought, based on the controversy it had generated, that it would be a global warming denial book espousing the glories of capitalism and a desire to turn North America into the new Sahara. Well it is nothing of the sort. The book, whether you agree with the science or not, never argues that global warming is happening nor even that it results to varying degrees from human produced co2. What is argued is that there has become a political, and even hysterical component that has insinuated itself so in the discussion that it has overwhelmed all other argument. Any attempt at debate is met with howls that those bringing up objections are evil incarnate and should be fired, imprisoned, etc. It is an interesting debate technique, and nice work if you can get it, but I'm not sure it's an accepted debating format.
For all the balance the book brings, it probably won't warm hearts on either side. The need for redistribution of wealth is a recurring theme, and his arguments against Kyoto, etc, are more that they are an inefficient means to accomplish this goal, not that they are idealogically mistaken. Much of his analysis also relies heavily on the projection that the next 100 years will produce great wealth across the board. This strikes me as speculative, but then again what about the whole issue is not?
The book is extremely well documented, footnotes comprising almost as much volume as the treatise itself. And treatise might be the word, much is repeated and reiterated, and it has the feel of a lengthy article that was expanded to meet book-length requirements. It doesn't suffer too badly in spite of this, as the author writes pretty well and so much of the material is so outside media template information that it probably requires several presentations of the same facts.
All in all it struck me as balanced, well written, and very logical. One of his major points, that debate has been stifled unfairly, makes one reluctant to criticise for fear of proving his point, but be that as it may it seems a salient observation. It is a quick read, and I'd certainly recommend it as a work that cuts against the grain.Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Overview

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The Discovery of Global Warming (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine) Review

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The Discovery of Global Warming (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine) ReviewAn excellent short summary of the rise of global climate concerns in the scientific, political and public awareness. Weart details the steps in the discovery of global warming as a concept, including the various transformations that climate theory went through on its way towards adequately explaining what has happened in the past and reliably predicting the general shape of things to come. He explains the science well for the beginner (that is to say, not too deeply) and covers many bases - including solar, atmospheric, oceanic and biomass inputs that shape our climate and the creeping realization that climate change can change (and has changed in the past) much faster than anyone suspected 100 years ago.
While covering the science and history in some detail, he also takes great care to acknowledge the inherent uncertainties of climate science, focusing his attention later in the book on the public and political interplay in the process of discovery and discussion about climatic change. He also leaves room for continued debate, although it's clear that he has been convinced of the potential dangers of global warming by the available evidence. For those who find the book short on scientific material, a link is included to a website maintained by the author which contains much more material and data. The author also lists links to other prominent sites for climate change information, including sites which argue against its existence. Overall, I appreciate both the passion and the evident fairness that the author brings to his subject which leads me to give it 5 stars.The Discovery of Global Warming (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine) Overview

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Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind The Global Warming Hoax Review

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Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind The Global Warming Hoax ReviewThis book is not a simple, quick, easy read. However, if, by the end of it, you still believe in global warming, you have clearly not understood what you have just read.
If you're a global warming believer today, you'll be an informed skeptic after reading this book.Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind The Global Warming Hoax Overview

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