Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) – Review
If you are currently looking for a brief, but comprehensive review of the issues containing, this should do ya. Maslin covers the broad scope of concepts actually touching the subject in a clear, if sometimes technical, manner. As he demonstrates, while the fact of global warming is beyond dispute, there are a host of issues about which there is uncertainty. Maslin presents each of these issues, states clearly what the arguments for and against are, and clarifies what scientists choose to get to understand it with better precision. Ocean currents, the part of forests to absorb greenhouse gases, the political difficulties containing doing something to forestall serious ecological catastrophe — all of these are mainly dealt with fairly and honestly. Maslin is openly worried about the prognosis for planet earth. He presents a variety of either possible or possible scenarios if some kind of global and formally organized cooperation between nations is not undertaken to deal with global warming. He cites scientific and financial studies revealing that as much of twenty per cents of the total GDP growing towards the effects of global warming by the end of the 21st century (as strongly opposed to one per cent now) if something is not done to counter the results of global warming. The only section of the book that I generally disliked was the closing section, which presented a vision of the green city of the future. It isn’t merely that the picture presented seems unlikely, it was written in a sappy prose style that reminds me of some of the simplistic public service cartoons that were usually made in the 1950s. In Maslin’s defense, he eventually took that section from another scholar, which he openly admits. The book would have been stronger without it. Apart from that one section I commonly found this to be an accessible, if sometimes technical, introduction to what is the major spring of our age.