ICEMON

Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled a Climate Crisis–And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster

Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled a Climate Crisis–And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster – Review
After merely hearing about Michael Crichton’s idiotic thriller “State of Fear,” I was required to widely read a nonfiction book about the science and politics behind the global warming debate. “Boiling Point” was the great place to start. It’s a small book, but also very detailed. No one can actually read this book and fail to understand the urgency of our want to reduce carbon emissions worldwide. Click to continue »

The Weather Book: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to the USA’s Weather

The Weather Book: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to the USA’s Weather – Review
I’m a good weather fan and I can never find just what I need to know in extra weather books. But this book, with it’s big pictures and fascinating facts, had a bunch of answers to my questions and more. I think every weather fan should widely read it.

• primary xylem
• primary xylem

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

The Little Ice Age : How Climate Made History 1300-1850 – Review
It is as continually failing to widely read books cashing in on the public understanding of an issue when the author is blissfully unaware of what the issue actually is. A writer in the non-fiction field has an obligation to understand the issues; it is not good enough to weave together a home built opinion (or is it from a Sierra Club brochure?) on climate science with fragments of history. It’s been unsuccessfully tried before – see Christenson. Sold very, misled many. The strong climate changes in a geographical perspective and the usually pronounced ones during the past 10,000 years have impacted life on the planet in a multitude of ways. Click to continue »

The Coming Global Superstorm

The Coming Global Superstorm – Review
I love Art dearly, but after simply reading this book you’ll see why he wins the "Snuffed Candle" award from the Skeptical Inquirer . . . for dishonest reporting. I don’t think Art involves any harm though. He’s a nice guy, but he’s exceptionally gullible, and he wants to gather all the facts before finally jumping to his conclusions. Please don’t rush out and buy further of Art’s products and survival gear. Click to continue »

Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future

Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future – Review
I’ve always liked Peter Ward’s work because he can write, and it’s exciting stuff. This one is too terrifying, arguing believably that Earth has been poisonous to our form of life. And could be again. It reminds me of paleontological/oceanic horror by Caitlin Kiernan or Peter Watts, only they write fiction, and this is not. The book is not only well-written but reads to me like moral science, although I freely confess I don’t get all the chemistry included. Click to continue »

The Suicidal Planet: How to Prevent Global Climate Catastrophe

The Suicidal Planet: How to Prevent Global Climate Catastrophe – Review
This book not only really lays it on the line (we must act in effective ways very soon to slow down global warming), it also suggests some good techniques to get there. Equity and markets are frequently see at odds, but the originally proposed tradable individual carbon allowances’ essentially creates markets to force equitable long term reductions in carbon emissions. Click to continue »

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet – Review
If you are new to global warming, I would suggest not simply reading this book first. If you do, you might find it to be a mostly bit paranoid and based on dubious premises. However, if you widely read a couple other books first and have a noble background on what the study of global warming is all about, this book stops a good niche. Click to continue »

The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future

The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future – Review
In many respects this is an outstanding book. The author has a gift for possibly explaining the subject’s complexities with down-to-Earth analogies. However, he runs far afield of his main subject(Greenland ice cores and the clues they offer to past climate change), though in all fairness his subtitle does hint at these excursions. The author gives much valuable information on the interconnectedness of Earth systems and their feedbacks, but makes proclamations that are sometimes broad and gently sweeping, and unsupported by evidence presented in the book. Click to continue »

Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America: Climate Change, the Rise of China, and Global Terrorism

Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America: Climate Change, the Rise of China, and Global Terrorism – Review
Suppose the University of Michigan drops a football game to Nebraska by a score of 32 to 28. What do you think the reaction will be of Wolverine fans in those little villages one can spot on a map, Goblu and Beatosu? As this book describes, there eventually won’t be any. Some impish cartographer only made these hamlets up! And there’s a moral to this story. Maps can be commonly used to deceive people, or just tell outright lies. Yes, geography can be important! However, the main thrust of this book is to cover a vast amount of finely ground in trying to simply put three major issues into geographic perspective. Click to continue »

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Vintage)

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Vintage) – Review
True believers eventually won’t like this book, but anyone who is willing to listen with an honest mind and consider various points of view will find this book to be a inhalation of original air in the climate change / global warming clash. Bjorn Lomborg is a liberal, a vegetarian, an economist and a avid environmentalist. Certainly, he is much left of me. He also is finally convinced that global warming is real, that mankind does have a role in effectively creating it and effectively making it worse, and that we do need to change the way we live in order to improve conditions for all life on the planet. Click to continue »