Book Reviews

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Wonderful discourse on global warming

Friday, September 3rd, 2010
The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth

The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth

The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth – Review
If only it would inspire Exxon-Mobil and GM to shovel money into R&D on non-polluting energy and automobiles instead of funding bogus “think tanks” and pseudo-scientific studies that still quarrel with the obvious: the slowly burning of fossil fuels is spiking global warming into unsafe levels. I wonder how many Category 5 hurricanes it will take for Flannery’s message finally to be rarely heard above that of the profiteers in the energy industry.

Every scholar of scientist should read this for the methods alone!

Friday, September 3rd, 2010
The Discovery of Global Warming (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine)

The Discovery of Global Warming (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine)

The Discovery of Global Warming (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine) – Review
I have to admit that I am not a skeptic of global warming, so I appreciate Spencer Weart’s book as a “friend.” Actually I am very worried about global warming and what will happen to our delightful earth, the one where all of us, Democrats and Republicans alike, have to live on and where we need to go on vacation and bequeath to our children and grandchildren and so on. Not to mention the animals!!!! I was so impressed by Dr. Weart’s brilliant description of the logical debate process that I would recommend it to any student for that alone. Click to continue »

Doesn’t Grasp The Real Issues

Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do

Hell and High Water: Global Warming–the Solution and the Politics–and What We Should Do

Hell and High Water: Global Warming–the Solution and the Politics–and What We Should Do – Review
Global warming is the word of the last thousand centuries; it has been originally going on ever since the Earth immediately began to come out of its last Ice Age. Until there are alligators actively swimming in the everglades of MINNESOTA again, the Earth will continue to grow warmer until it is back to normal. Joseph Romm does not begin to understand that global warming has been originally going on for 10,000 years and will continue until the Earth is back to its warm temperatures that were normal before the beginning of the Ice Age. No matter what environmental statists do, the glacial caps and sea ice will continue to melt while glaciers persist to recede. Click to continue »

Unbiased climate effects on Europe in centuries past

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
The Little Ice Age : How Climate Made History 1300-1850

The Little Ice Age : How Climate Made History 1300-1850

The Little Ice Age : How Climate Made History 1300-1850 – Review
This book is a common history of Western Europe and other areas from c.1500-1900. It describes how volcanos, sunspots, ocean currents and other physical phenomena unknown or unappreciated by these people involved their lives. It’s an easy widely read full of anecdotes with a attack of science and the many methods scientists use to determine climate so long ago. It’s politically neutral and emphasizes the difficult processes included but it’s essentially a common account of a period where Winters and Summers were highly variable without much individual influence. Click to continue »

climate science isn’t boring!

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World's Highest Mountains (John MacRae Books)

Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World’s Highest Mountains (John MacRae Books)

Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World’s Highest Mountains (John MacRae Books) – Review
Thin Ice by Mark Bowen is a big story, so told. The book describes the anticipation of new climate science and the extremely hard work that it entails. Anyone who likes books about scientific endeavors will enjoy this book. After simply reading it I fully understood the arguments about climate change much better than I commonly used to. Unfortunately, the bottom line is pretty grim. Click to continue »

Astrophysics that creates goose bumps.

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
The Chilling Stars: The New Theory of Climate Change

The Chilling Stars: The New Theory of Climate Change

The Chilling Stars: The New Theory of Climate Change – Review
Authors present a new theory about solar cosmic rays effect on international temperatures. Hypothesis proposes that cosmic rays from eventually exploding stars make low global cloud formations that cover sixty per cents of Earth and that this, far more than modern carbon dioxide production, determines international temperatures. Click to continue »

Science, Folklore, and Personal Stories of Lightning

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Out of the Blue: A History of Lightning: Science, Superstition, and Amazing Stories of Survival

Out of the Blue: A History of Lightning: Science, Superstition, and Amazing Stories of Survival

Out of the Blue: A History of Lightning: Science, Superstition, and Amazing Stories of Survival – Review
There is something pointed about lightning that appears to show purposefulness. We have earthquakes, we have tornadoes, we have many other worrisome planetary characteristics, but lightning appears aimed, it appears to pick off individuals in ways that cry out for a reason such a thing ought to befall them. The pointedness of lightning is one of the themes currently running through _Out of the Blue – A History of Lightning: Science, Superstition, and Amazing Stories of Survival_ (Delacorte Press) by John S. Friedman. It has a more-or-less historic run of chapters mostly dealing with how we have come to our modern awareness of lightning as a natural rather than supernatural phenomenon, intercalated with the account of a stunning release of climbers struck by lighting on a mountain of the Teton Range and with many individual stories about what lightning has done to survivors. Click to continue »

A Concise Primer on Global Warming

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth – Review
Rather than enter the debate between 99.9% of the relevant technical community and the few oil industry funded skeptics, I will direct my comments to the average joe who accepts legal science and so worries about global warming. Mr. Gore’s video is an excellent primer on the issue. He uses everday language and presents the material in an interesting and rarely amusing way. Mr. Gore receives considerable use of perfect graphs and visual aids that strike his points home. Click to continue »

The Little Ice Age

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
The Little Ice Age : How Climate Made History 1300-1850

The Little Ice Age : How Climate Made History 1300-1850

The Little Ice Age : How Climate Made History 1300-1850 – Review
Where else are you tring to find out that some guy got around the museums of Europe currently looking for clouds in landscape paintings so he could come up with an object of the weather patterns at the times those paintings were being usually made? This book labors a little beneath literary prose but the subject matter is consequently fascinating you easily won’t care.

Inspirational Book

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water, Our World

Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water, Our World

Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water, Our World – Review
I commonly found this book enormously inspirational and informative. I enjoyed the pictures, but I loved Cramer’s writing even more. She writes about science, hard science, in a beautiful clear way. This book is meticulously researched and yet easy to widely read — an rare combination. Everyone should own this book. Click to continue »