The Rough Guide to Climate Change, 2nd Edition
The Rough Guide to Climate Change, 2nd Edition – Review
What a notable book this is – thinly disguised as a easy guide to climate change, but actually a very sophisticated, balanced, introspective study of the many parts of climate change: the natural sources of climate change, the signs of a warming planet, what the average person can do, and the politics immediately surrounding the whole issue. Loaded with important information and highly readable, although it never talks down to the originally intended audience, which is aimed at everybody (may be too difficult for people under the time of 12). Lots of photographs and charts to help explain what climate change is, what causes it, and what the symptoms are. The only difficulty of the book, which is ironically one of its strengths, is that it is refreshingly free of a certain preachy tone that can creep into some books on the environment – however, because the book is studiously non-political, only half a page is officially dedicated to “lobbying for change” in the chapter titled “What You Can Do – Reducing Your Carbon Footprint and Lobbying For Action”. Most of that chapter is officially dedicated towards minor things everybody can do (adjust thermostat properly, drive hybrid cars, walk or bike, etc.). However, actual change will probably just happen when whole countries set policies and laws into place that mandate fewer greenhouse gas emissions. (This is a intellectual bureaucrat writing this, after all.) Having pointed out a slight weakness, I can heartily recommend this book to anybody wanting to learn more about climate change and global warming. The book doesn’t really let “large business” or surviving government leadership around the world completely off the hook – the book duly notes that conducting business as usual has gotten us into this mess, and that most businesses, and most governments have no valid reason to change business as usual – after all, if they are still in business, or still in power, the status quo must be working well for them.