Climate Change: What Everyone Needs To Know® Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Climate change will have a bigger impact on humanity than the Internet has had. The last decade's spate of superstorms, wildfires, heat waves, and droughts has accelerated the public discourse on this topic and lent credence to climatologist Lonnie Thomson's 2010 statement that climate change "represents a clear and present danger to civilization." In June 2015, the Pope declared that action on climate change is a moral issue.This book offers the most up-to-date examination of climate change's foundational science, its implications for our future, and the core clean energy solutions. Alongside detailed but highly accessible descriptions of what is causing climate change, this entry in the What Everyone Needs to Know series answers questions about the practical implications of this growing force on our world: · How will climate change impact you and your family in the coming decades?· What are the future implications for owners of coastal property? · Should you plan on retiring in South Florida or the U.S. Southwest or Southern Europe? · What occupations and fields of study will be most in demand in a globally warmed world? · What impact will climate change have on investments and the global economy?As the world struggles to stem climate change and its effects, everyone will become a part of this story of the century. Here is what you need to know.
Series: What Everyone Needs To Know
Paperback: 328 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (December 3, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0190250178
ISBN-13: 978-0190250171
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 1.2 x 5.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #34,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2 in Books > Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Administration & Policy > Health Risk Assessment #2 in Books > Medical Books > Administration & Medicine Economics > Health Risk Assessment #27 in Books > Science & Math > Earth Sciences > Climatology
Joseph Romm, scientist (PhD, MIT), prolific author, recognized expert on valuable clean energy solutions to deal with climate destabilization, and founder of the highly respected blog, ClimateProgress.org, has performed an admirable public service in his new book, Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know. There is no lack of climate information - most of it accessible on the Web, including the massive, multi-volume, several thousand pages of the InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Fifth Assessment Report (which gets read by very few citizens, and nor totally read by nearly all scientists, scholars, officials, advocates, or media reporters). Yet, because of the dis-information campaigns funded by fossil fuel interests, most people hear misinformation being reported by the media, and equally as bad, most media hardly ever cover climate destabilization, and when they do cover, they frequently report incorrectly. Yet, as Joe Romm emphasizes, "Climate change is now an existential issue for humanity. Since everyone’s family will be affected by climate change— indeed, they already are— everyone needs to know the basics about it, regardless of their politics. Many of the major decisions that you, your family, and friends will have to make in the coming years and decades will be affected by human-caused climate change."Joe wrote this book to help you understand the risks of and resolutions to climate destabilization, while saving you immense time having to track down this knowledge. Within 100 questions Joe covers the gamut.
This is the most up to date examination of climate change science, the effects of climate change on humans, policy related problems, and energy-related solutions. Everyone should read this book, and if you teach earth system sciences you should consider using this book as a guide in your teaching, or in some cases, assigning it in class. The book is written to be read by general audiences, so it would work well in a high school or college setting.As Romm points out, climate change will have more of an impact on humans, including you, than even the Internet. It is an existential issue. Romm acknowledges that some of these impacts are already happening, but that future impacts are likely to be very significant. Over the last 10 years or so, we have seen remarkable superstorms, significant drought, notable wildfires, and killer heat waves. These events have made people sit up and take notice. For this reason, more people want to know more about climate change, and indeed, everyone should know something about this problem. Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know® is an effort to provide that information to the average person.Romm’s book is divided into major sections: Climate Science Basics, Extreme Weather and Climate Change, Projected Climate Impacts, Avoiding the Worse Impacts, Climate Politics and Policies, The Role of Clean Energy, and Climate Change and You. Each of these chapters is divided into a number of bite-sized mini-chapters covering the larger topic in logical sequence, with helpful illustrations.To me, one of the most significant contributions of this book is Romm’s discussion of severe weather and climate change. This is an emerging area of science.
From following Joe Romm's blog since 2010 I was aware that he is on top of the developing research on climate change and able to explain clearly not only the current scientific understanding of global warming but its implications in terms of our future lives. Since I have been following his blog, along with about fourteen other ones, when I had time, I wasn't sure how much I would get from reading the book. But I am impressed by how much ground he covers, backed by references to current research, and how clearly and methodically he answers the questions he poses.I found that, although I was familiar with much of the research in a general sense, it was not only helpful to have all of the information in one place, but that some of the specific details he mentions were new to me. Romm doesn't attempt to answer all of the questions about the history of climate change before humans overrode the natural cycle that moved us in and out of ice ages, a disruption reversing the gradual cooling over the last 7000 years until the Industrial Revolution--and particularly the last forty years--when human emissions of greenhouse gasses abruptly sent temperatures upward and presently are taking into global temperatures higher than any during the 11,000 years of remarkably stable temperatures that first permitted the creation of civilizations, industry, and agriculture. That's because his primary concern is to inform readers what is happening now, what will happen going forward, and what we can and should do about it.
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