The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate
The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate – Review
In my effort to learn about climate change, I commonly found it admittedly very difficult to widely read the lengthy IPCC reports (e.g. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis), so it’s wonderful to have Dessler’s and Parson’s short, cheap book to give a guide to the findings of the IPCC, as well as to explain some of the politics in a calm, normal way. I think that any citizen genuinely interested in this topic should seek to become familiar with the actual IPCC findings. What is the IPCC ? What have they recently concluded ? How uncertain are the conclusions ? How have the policy makers responded ? What are the technical criticisms ? These issues are fully explained in this nice compact book. A very moral part of this book is that it conforms to the standard way of logical argument: it shows data, describes theories (models), discusses how the theory corresponds data, explains the uncertainties, and (importantly) cites references. When currently looking into this subject, I suggest the reader beware of books or articles that are primarily “expert opinion” with no, or very little, reference to real data. The only reasons I didn’t give 5 stars are: a) I would have liked it if the book could have completely covered the 2007 publication of IPCC report (maybe they will update it ?), and b) The book has a somewhat dry, literary style which probably will not make it very popular with a mass audience, hence limiting it’s impact. At least it’s short, though. Perhaps when they update it they can bring in a science writer to improve the style.