Produced by Climate Central--a highly regarded independent, nonprofit journalism and research foundation founded in 2008--and reviewed by scientists at major educational and research institutions the world over, "Global Weirdness" summarizes, in clear and accessible prose, everything we know about the science of climate change; explains what is likely to happen to the climate in the future; and lays out in practical terms what we can and cannot do to avoid further shifts.
Sixty easy-to-read entries tackle such questions as: Is climate ever "normal"? Why and how do fossil-fuel burning and other human practices produce greenhouse gases? What natural forces have caused climate change in the past? What risks does climate change pose for human health? What accounts for the diminishment of mountain glaciers and small ice caps around the world since 1850? What are the economic costs and benefits of reducing carbon emissions?
"Global Weirdness" enlarges our understanding of how climate change affects our daily lives, and arms us with the incontrovertible facts we need to make informed decisions about the future of the planet and of humankind.
"With black-and-white images interspersed throughout."
Folksy and Informative, and sure to delight weather buffs, this delightful entry in the Accidental Scientist series borrows as much from the Farmer's Almanac as it does from meteorological texts. Mary Miller and Tom Murphree show how large-scale weather patterns can be understood on a local basis and teach readers how to anticipate weather based on an understanding of their immediate surroundings. Filled with fascinating sidebars and anecdotes covering topics from folklore to typhoons and tsunamis, as well as illustrations and activities.
One of The New York Times's 10 Best Books of the Year, a Christian Science Monitor Best Nonfiction Book, a Newsday Top 10 Books pick, a People magazine Top 10 pick, a Good Reads Best Book of the Year, and a Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book
A National Book Critics Circle Award finalistIn 2004, at a beach resort on the coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala and her family--parents, husband, sons--were swept away by a tsunami. Only Sonali survived to tell their tale. This is her account of the nearly incomprehensible event and its aftermath.
Originally a self-published sensation by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, 1 Dead in Attic captures the heart and soul of New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor--in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland. They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair. And stories about refrigerators. 1 Dead in Attic freeze-frames New Orleans, caught between an old era and a new, during its most desperate time, as it struggles out of the floodwaters and wills itself back to life.
Teleconnections is a central concept in the scientific search for an improved understanding of potential linkages between weather and climate anomalies that occur over relatively large distances. The editors of this 1991 volume brought together contributions from experts in the field, which together provide a comprehensive review of this important subject. This book will be of importance to all professional scientists and researchers in climatology and meteorology, particularly those concerned with air-sea interactions and their environmental impacts and the physical basis for and societal responses to forecasting. Graduate students in environmental science, meteorology and climate-related impact assessments will also find the book useful.
The impact on climate from 200 years of industrial development is an everyday fact of life, but did humankind's active involvement in climate change really begin with the industrial revolution, as commonly believed? William Ruddiman's provocative new book argues that humans have actually been changing the climate for some 8,000 years--as a result of the earlier discovery of agriculture.
The "Ruddiman Hypothesis" will spark intense debate. We learn that the impact of farming on greenhouse-gas levels, thousands of years before the industrial revolution, kept our planet notably warmer than if natural climate cycles had prevailed--quite possibly forestalling a new ice age.
Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum is the first book to trace the full historical sweep of human interaction with Earth's climate. Ruddiman takes us through three broad stages of human history: when nature was in control; when humans began to take control, discovering agriculture and affecting climate through carbon dioxide and methane emissions; and, finally, the more recent human impact on climate change. Along the way he raises the fascinating possibility that plagues, by depleting human populations, also affected reforestation and thus climate--as suggested by dips in greenhouse gases when major pandemics have occurred. The book concludes by looking to the future and critiquing the impact of special interest money on the global warming debate.
Eminently readable and far-reaching in argument, Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum shows us that even as civilization developed, we were already changing the climate in which we lived.
Year after year science continually proves that global climate change is real. But what does it all really mean and what can or should we do about it?
Climate Change For Beginners is a clear, fluid narrative by a leading scientist and educator who takes a scrupulously balanced approach in explaining the history of global climate monitoring and change, and the whos, hows, whats, whens, wheres and whys of the interaction between human activity and recent trends in the Earth's climate.
Working from the premise that no one can do everything, but everyone can do something, Dean Goodwin challenges readers with experiments they can conduct to gain a better understanding of the science underlying the problems facing our planet and concludes with a list of 50 easy actions readers can choose from to start doing their part in the effort to slow or stop global warming.
Replaces previous edition, ISBN 9781934389270.
