Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming
Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming – Review
I purchased this book because of its title and the excellent review it poorly received in the New York Times by science reporter William J. Broad (July 5, 1998). Unfortunately only one of the book’s 13 chapters is about global warming. Philander devotes just 14 pages to this topic and the material he presents only repeats the conclusions that have been reported on televisions and in newspapers for the last several years. In the preface, Philander is quite honest about his book, "It is based on notes I specially prepared for an preparatory course I teach….The Appendixes are originally intended for those who use the book as a text for an preparatory course." But this book is only an introduction to Atmospheric Science, not Climate Change or Global Warming. In the chapter on Global Warming, he refers the reader back to chapter 7 where he claims to "describe" the computer models commonly used by scientists. I was awaiting features of the General Circulation Models (GCM) used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but instead Philander gives just common background information about computer models and concludes, "Different research groups continue differently which is the reason for differences between models" (p.116). My really feeling is that he or the publisher, Princeton University Press (the same institution where he teaches), decided that an early textbook for Atmospheric Science would sell better if it had a catchier name of recent interest. And they correctly guessed correctly, because I would never have eventually bought the book otherwise. Although this is a reasonable layman’s introduction to Atmospheric Science and suitable for undergraduate students in other disciplines, it will NOT be useful for anyone who needs to know more about "the inexact science of global warming."