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Title: Global Warming : The Complete Briefing by John T. Houghton ISBN: 0-521-62932-2 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 18 September, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: confusing
Comment: This is the first book I've read on global warming. I'm writing an argumentative essay for my college english class about global warming, and this book isn't helping me much. I haven't finished reading it, but what I have read just confuses me. It is, however, very informative.
Rating: 1
Summary: Much ado about nothing
Comment: Houghton writes well, of course, but his book misses the actual point of the global warming debate. Global warming is probably not man-made. It matters little how many arguments for this view can be amassed, what matters is that the evidence against anthropogenic climate influence is studiously ignored.
A book should strive to tell the truth. The truth does not come through if it is avoided. The author should have been careful to meet all arguments against belief in anthropogenetic climate alteration, but chose not to. That is cheap and less than honest, intellectually and otherwise.
The book does not even give alternatives a chance to be reviewed, nor does it accept the fact that the minority view normally tends to be the correct one in scientific matters. These are not popularity contests. A majority of scientists believe that...etc. That is horsemanure. The truth matters, not a democratic majority, for in the end truth should be all that matters. Most ground breaking scientists were a woeful minority consisting of themselves. Yet they were often right.
In fact, this book simply misleads rather than educates, which is a shame.
Rating: 5
Summary: Informative and stimulating overview of global warming issue
Comment: This is the first book I have read on global warming. Sir John Houghton has provided a carefully written account, with good explanations, fairly thorough referencing, and informative charts and figures. The subject of global warming is presented from a multifaceted perspective, with both informative factual material as well as elements of a personal perspective, introduced in a non-forceful but persuasive manner.
The book is aimed at those who know little about climatology or global warming. It will help to have some general scientific background. The pertinent facts - how much we have increased the atmosphere's CO2 concentration, in what way this gas effects the earth's energy balance, etc. - are available here, and the information is referenced to primary scientific sources. The prognosis for a warming of the atmosphere is gently asserted in the affirmative, but the uncertainties are also presented. Without being a climatologist, I found most of my qestions of this nature were answered. The only point I was curious about but found missing was what recent changes in glaciers tell us about the present tendency of global temperature.
After presenting the data, the models and arguing gently for a moderate warming tendency, Houghton presents several nice chapters on effects (potentially severe) and responses to the problem, with a particular emphasis on energy. The suggested responses leave one with the sense that Houghton is an optimist. He incites to action, where it is hard to imagine today's politicians asking us to change our habits so fundamentally.
This book is stimulating, both on the subject of global warming (whether or not it is occurring, how much, what is our role), as well as on the potential consequences and suitable responses. Considering that a response is advisable - a point of view which Houghton advances - one is left with a sense of the large scale of the responses which are necessary to reverse the accumulation of CO2: is mankind's ability to improvise its way out of a fix capable of dealing with a problem whose solution would require changes of this magnitude?
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Title: The Discovery of Global Warming : by Spencer R. Weart ISBN: 0674011570 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era by Jeremy K. Leggett ISBN: 0415931029 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Climate Change Impacts on the United States - Overview Report by National Assessment Synthesis Team ISBN: 0521000742 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 11 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Currents of Change : Impacts of El Niño and La Niña on Climate and Society by Michael H. Glantz ISBN: 052178672X Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 15 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $32.00 |
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Title: Climate Change: A Multidisciplinary Approach by William James Burroughs ISBN: 0521567718 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 15 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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