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If there is one book that ticks all the boxes of accessibility, authority and timeliness it is The Rough Guide to Climate Change (The Daily Telegraph )
Product Description
The 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 3rd 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 scientific findings that have emerged since the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as background on recent controversies and an updated politics section that reflects post-Copenhagen developments. Discover how rising temperatures and sea levels, plus changes to extreme weather patterns, are already affecting life around the world. The Rough Guide to Climate Change unravels how governments, scientists and engineers plan to tackle the problem and includes information on what you can do to help.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book was fantastic, it was well written and easy to read. I found the book very interesting and full of really useful facts.
I used the book as pre reading for the IEMA Associate Members exam and it proved to be beneficial preparation.
I used the book as pre reading for the IEMA Associate Members exam and it proved to be beneficial preparation.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The title of this book is misleading: it should read Global Warming, because this is what the author promotes in an unambiguous fashion. He says it is the biggest issue facing Mankind, but I think there are many more pressing problems (poverty, inequality, economic depression, war and terrorism, for example). He follows the dubious advice of the various IPCC reports, but is honest enough to admit their well-known failings. Most serious of all, it is the computer models of world climate which have been criticized for their inbuilt bias and neglect of the very large effects of water vapour and aerosols (or clouds). It is these models which are at the very heart of the poor science used by Henson and the IPCC and others to justify absurd and regressive carbon taxes which will affect energy prices if they are allowed to proceed unchecked. The same or similar computer models are used for weather forecasting and we all know how unreliable they can be. Moreover, misuse of computer models lie at the heart of the ongoing financial crisis for their abuse in derivatives trading and elsewhere in the economy. The Chinese revolution is based on cheap coal, and the warmists allege that C02 is the culprit in warming the planet. The theory is quite unproven and based on a string of unverified assumptions, such as the alleged long residence time of about 100 years of the gas in the atmosphere, and the rates of production of the gas from natural and artificial sources. Other climatologists (Carter for example) argue a much shorter residence time, as one might expect since the gas is very water soluble and washed from the air very quickly. It is a greenhouse gas but much less important than water vapour, as any infra-red spectrum of air shows. On flimsy evidence, the warmists propose a drastic reduction in fossil fuel usage using carbon taxes as the preferred mechanism, despite the fact that there is no worldwide agreement. The largest countries are against it, including his own country the USA as well as most developing countries. Instead he suggest renewable energy, but they are very expensive and produce very costly power. Thus wind power is so costly that it needs vast subsidies to survive at all and is dependent on the wind blowing at specific speeds. The reader should seek help eslewhere such as in the books by Plimer in Heaven And Earth: Global Warming - The Missing Science and Carter in Climate: the Counter-consensus (Independent Minds) if he or she wants a balanced view of climate change.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Great survey of climate change problems
25 Jan 2012
Format:Paperback
This is the most lucid and helpful introduction to climate change that I've encountered--after a lot of looking. Admirably readable, level-headed, and valuable. The book is elegantly organized, sufficiently detailed, and nicely indexed. It is accessible to beginners but never dumbs down the subject. Henson does his vital topic--and the reader--full justice. For someone new to the subject, or wanting to introduce someone else to it, this is the first book to read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Best summary overview of the many dimensions climate change that's out there
25 May 2012
Format:Paperback
Bob Henson's Rough Guide to Climate Change stands out among textbook-style books about climate change on account of the author's meticulous research and a perspective that rises above the din and acrimony that characterizes so much of the climate change debate today. Henson even-handedly considers the best available science, what's known (and what's not) about causes and consequences, and the solutions that have been proposed to address climate change.
What stands out most about the Rough Guide is that Henson goes beyond presenting the science and solutions in a vacuum, like so many other guides do. Rather, in Chapter 4 "Debates & Solutions" Henson acknowledges the societal and political context in which climate change sits, including the highly polarized debates around the issue. He doesn't shy from exploring the contours of the debates, including what's at stake. Rather than take a position, he lends a keen eye to dissecting and trying to get to the roots of those debates and fairly represent all sides. In the end, Henson does not take a position on whether or how climate change should be addressed. Rather he organizes, summarizes, and clarifies the menu of approaches that we could take as individuals and as a society.
Henson's work has been recognized by national leaders, scientific groups, and other groups from all walks of society. The 2nd edition of the same book was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Prizes for Science Books in 2007. And lest global warming naysayers tear apart Henson's work for citing scientific bodies like the IPCC, which remains the most definitive account of the science on climate change we have, I should note that the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal wrote this in it's review of the Rough Guide: "If you want a plain-language book about climate change, this is the book for you."
This is the work of a scholar who is clearly very immersed in and knowledgeable about the multi-faceted intersection of climate and society. If you are trying to understand climate change and what it means for society, this is where you should start.
What stands out most about the Rough Guide is that Henson goes beyond presenting the science and solutions in a vacuum, like so many other guides do. Rather, in Chapter 4 "Debates & Solutions" Henson acknowledges the societal and political context in which climate change sits, including the highly polarized debates around the issue. He doesn't shy from exploring the contours of the debates, including what's at stake. Rather than take a position, he lends a keen eye to dissecting and trying to get to the roots of those debates and fairly represent all sides. In the end, Henson does not take a position on whether or how climate change should be addressed. Rather he organizes, summarizes, and clarifies the menu of approaches that we could take as individuals and as a society.
Henson's work has been recognized by national leaders, scientific groups, and other groups from all walks of society. The 2nd edition of the same book was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Prizes for Science Books in 2007. And lest global warming naysayers tear apart Henson's work for citing scientific bodies like the IPCC, which remains the most definitive account of the science on climate change we have, I should note that the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal wrote this in it's review of the Rough Guide: "If you want a plain-language book about climate change, this is the book for you."
This is the work of a scholar who is clearly very immersed in and knowledgeable about the multi-faceted intersection of climate and society. If you are trying to understand climate change and what it means for society, this is where you should start.
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Uncertain science
12 May 2012
Format:Paperback
The title of this book is misleading: it should read Global Warming, because this is what the author promotes in an unambiguous fashion. He says it is the biggest issue facing Mankind, but I think there are many more pressing problems (poverty, inequality, economic depression, war and terrorism, for example). He follows the dubious advice of the various IPCC reports, but is honest enough to admit their well-known failings. Most serious of all, it is the computer models of world climate which have been criticized for their inbuilt bias and neglect of the very large effects of water vapour and aerosols (or clouds). It is these models which are at the very heart of the poor science used by Henson and the IPCC and others to justify absurd and regressive carbon taxes which will affect energy prices if they are allowed to proceed unchecked. The same or similar computer models are used for weather forecasting and we all know how unreliable they can be. Moreover, misuse of computer models lie at the heart of the ongoing financial crisis for their abuse in derivatives trading and elsewhere in the economy. The Chinese revolution is based on cheap coal, and the warmists allege that C02 is the culprit in warming the planet. The theory is quite unproven and based on a string of unverified assumptions, such as the alleged long residence time of about 100 years of the gas in the atmosphere, and the rates of production of the gas from natural and artificial sources. Other climatologists (Carter for example in Climate: The Counter-Consensus - A Palaeoclimatologist Speaks (Independent Minds)) argue a much shorter residence time, as one might expect since the gas is very water soluble and washed from the air very quickly. It is a greenhouse gas but much less important than water vapour, as any infra-red spectrum of air shows. On flimsy evidence, the warmists propose a drastic reduction in fossil fuel usage using carbon taxes as the preferred mechanism, despite the fact that there is no worldwide agreement. The largest countries are against it, including his own country the USA as well as most developing countries. Instead he suggest renewable energy, but they are very expensive and produce very costly power. Thus wind power is so costly that it needs vast subsidies to survive at all and is dependent on the wind blowing at specific speeds. The reader should seek help eslewhere such as in the books by Plimer (in Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science and Carter if he wants a balanced view of climate change.
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