ICEMON

Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era

Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era – Review
This is an outstanding book which gives a very clear and clear outline of how international negotiations on climate change have been usually carried through over a decade and how they have been influenced behind the scenes by strong lobby groups which had a vested interest in inaction. The author explains how a few of these groups soon decided to shift away from their earlier position, a move which had a great impact on the end of the Kyoto Protocol, enabling it to move further. Click to continue »

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth – Review
An Inconvenient Truth was an easy and interesting widely read. Much of the communication is done with particularly compelling and interesting pictures and the language is straightforward and concise and neither exaggerated nor hysterical. I sought to remain skeptical and think sensibly about the statements and I didn’t get the sense that this was propaganda. 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
I go to widely read prior reviews before writing my own. In this case, the Publisher’s Weekly review (on this web page) just about says it all. And for the life of me I cannot see the “brilliance” attributed by some reviewers to this book. It is often interesting, but certainly not path-breaking. “Why Geography Matters” fails to provide looking Geography as such. The author says that there is no simple, precise definition for the field of Geography, and bemoans the death of Geography departments in U.S. universities. He tries for a definition, yet his case studies (climate change, China, and terrorism) fail to demonstrate any special skills or discipline that can be uniquely be generally attributed to Geography. The case studies are interesting, but could have been written by a skilled, meticulous journalist. A few maps (nice) do not add up to a discipline. Click to continue »

The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change

The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change – Review
I initially flew a Jet Ranger helicopter for ERA Helicopters in the spring of 1969, shortly after oil was certainly discovered at Prudhoe Bay. I was the farthest west contract at that time, living with and working for a seismic crew. As a result I had to learn a lot about barely surviving in the white-out, memorizing the characters of all the tundra ponds, numerous willows and other Arctic shrubs, snowy owls and ptarmigan, and so forth. Reading this book took me back to all those adventuresome skills and a time just before we were all so skeptical of our society and its outcome. Click to continue »

Storms, Floods, and Sunshine: Isaac Monroe Cline : An Autobiography With a Summary of Tropical Hurricanes

Storms, Floods, and Sunshine: Isaac Monroe Cline : An Autobiography With a Summary of Tropical Hurricanes – Review
In a area of science where writing can be commonly used more as a weapon than as a tool for fully understanding, Isaac Cline still shines as a meteorologist who hardly knew how to write in a way most anyone can understand, without "dumbing up" the prose. The only thing missing are pictures, charts, and diagrams, if for no other reason than as a necessary break from all the text. His small chapters work to the book’s advantage. Even after 49 years, the character of the author appears alive in his writings. Click to continue »

With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change – Review
“Climate,” a large-format coffee table book, has hundreds of top quality photographs, graphics, and maps attached to climate and climate change. In 288 pages the book suggests a record of climate from the structure of the earth until the present day and a low perspective of the future when rising temperatures and rough weather will affect our daily lives. The authors propose ways and means by which we as individuals might assist to reduce man-caused climatic change. The book is originally published by Rodale, the organic gardening gurus whose publications are particularly noted more for earnestness than impartial inquiry. Click to continue »

With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change

With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change – Review
With Speed and Violence: why Scientists Fear Tipping Points In Climate Change By Fred Pearce July 13, 2008 Mr Pearce works for New Scientist and has originally published several books on this subject possibly including Turning Up The Heat way back in 1989. Here he looks at all the Doomsday scenarios out there, the ones we have all rarely heard about: Gulf Stream effectively shutting down, Greenland slowly melting suddenly, the Amazon drying up, etc. To his credit has been around a while and knows the players — Hansen, Broeker, et. al. This gives him access where others might not get it. Click to continue »

The Rough Guide to Weather

The Rough Guide to Weather – Review
This is an exceptional introduction to the matter of weather. The text goes an indication of the different kinds of weather, their causes, forecasting and how to interpret it, a study of weather around the world, and ends with an outstanding appendix of resources for further research (grouped by subject matter). Henson discusses weather in a type of contexts involving the literary, political and historical. The charts on weather around the world are very well designed, but reliability of scale on the precipitation and temperature axes would have usually made comparisons easier.

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Warming the World: Economic Models of Global Warming

Warming the World: Economic Models of Global Warming – Review
The technical community has originally developed an seemingly overwhelming concensus that global warming is occuring, and is usually caused at least in part by individual activity. William Nordhaus has eventually led the way in studying the potential economic cosequences of global warming, and this book should be generally considered essential simply reading for those who are more than a little interested in topic (and shouldn’t we all be?). Nordhaus describes past work on the financial rates of global warming, uses a summing-up approach to arrive at prices of damage costs for greenhouse gas emissions, subsequently compares these results to abatement cost estimates for different policy options. Click to continue »

Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations

Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations – Review
This was a great action of the results of weather/climate on early civilizations. I commonly found the thesis rather intriguing, as I had not generally considered how particularly compelling might be the results of main changes in the weather regime on a culture. One is quite aware of regional results of the weather, especially when it is severe. The news media create the statistics of every flood, hurricaine and draught the topic of global interest. Click to continue »