What We Know About Climate Change (Boston Review Books) [Hardcover]

Kerry Emanuel (Author), Judith A. Layzer (Afterword), William R. Moomaw (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0262050897 | ISBN-13: 978-0262050890 | Edition: 1

The vast majority of scientists agree that human activity has significantly increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere--most dramatically since the 1970s. In February 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that global warming is "unequivocal" and that human-produced carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are chiefly to blame, to a certainty of more than 90 percent. Yet global warming skeptics and ill-informed elected officials continue to dismiss this broad scientific consensus. In What We Know About Climate Change, MIT atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel outlines the basic science of global warming and how the current consensus has emerged. Although it is impossible to predict exactly when the most dramatic effects of global warming will be felt, he argues, we can be confident that we face real dangers. Emanuel, whose work was widely cited in media coverage of Hurricane Katrina, warns that global warming will contribute to an increase in the intensity and power of hurricanes and flooding and more rapidly advancing deserts. But just as our actions have created the looming crisis, so too might they avert it. Emanuel calls for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gases and criticizes the media for playing down the dangers of global warming (and, in search of "balance," quoting extremists who deny its existence). An afterword by environmental policy experts Judith Layzer and William Moomaw discusses how the United States could lead the way in the policy changes required to deal with global warming. Kerry Emanuel is Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science at MIT. He is the author of Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes and Atmospheric Convection. In May 2006 he was named one of Time magazine's "Time 100: The People Who Shape Our World."

Editorial Reviews

From Bookforum

At just 128 pages, Emanuel's book clearly and succinctly explains the current state of the science of climate change. —Coral Davenport --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

"Emanuel"s words are measured and authoritative. His book should help reduce the huge gap between what is understood by the scientific community and what is known by the people who need to know, the public and policymakers."James Hansen , NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

"Kerry Emanuel's book What We Know About Climate Change is one of the best [books on climate change] and is certainly the shortest. In less time than it takes to eat dinner, the respected atmospheric scientist and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor filters out the noise and presents clearly the essence of the issues that surround global warming." The Plain Dealer

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (August 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262050897
• ISBN-13: 978-0262050890
• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 0.2 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #707,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Short, Clear and Thoughtful January 5, 2013

By Steven Stoft

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I read many books on climate change when I was researching my own. This is the best I've found on the essential science of climate change. Dr. Kerry Emanuel is a first-rate (MIT) climate scientist who is properly skeptical of his own field. He writes clearly and concisely, and this is an extremely short book. Here are some hints of what is in the chapters and what's new in this edition.

Chp. 1. The myth of natural stability: The earth's climate has been extremely variable - "snowball earth" and "giant trees near the North Pole." The greenhouse effect explains a lot about this.

Chp. 2. Greenhouse physics: Without the greenhouse effect, the earth would be about 0 degrees, not 60. Without air currents, it would be about 85 degrees.

Chp. 3. Why the climate problem is difficult: Clouds. Also, natural variation is so large that it takes about 30 years to detect the human contribution. "The lack of appreciable global warming over the first decade of the current millennium is, ... entirely consistent with ... warming" [this is new].

Chp. 4. Determining humanity's influence: There are two ways, the actual temperature record and computer models. A good explanation of the problems of models, and why they're likely good enough. (Too bad the graph still only goes up to 2000.)

Chp. 5. The consequences: Yes, there are benefits. The negatives: (1) Three to 7 degrees warming and more over land, (2) sea level rise, (3) more frequent strong hurricanes, (4) more flooding and drought, (5) ocean already 30% more acidic [new and important].

Chp. 6. Communicating science: Some IPCC findings and a critique of how, "In their quest to publish the drama of competing dogmas, the media largely ignore mainstream scientists."

Chp. 7. Our options: (1) Mitigation - conservation, alternative energy, capturing carbon, (2) adaptation, (3) geoengineering - a last resort. This chapter is new and adds little.

Chp. 8. The politics: Largely a plea for Republicans to be reasonable; Emmanual has been a Republican most of his life. Also, "Climate research has been a victim of a disturbing phenomenon: the use of advanced marketing techniques to discredit scientific findings." This chapter is much stronger than in the first edition.

The interest of the book is in its scientific explanations and its perspective on how science works and how politics gets in the way of our making use of it.

I have only one small complaint. Chapter 3 tells us that doubling atmospheric CO2 (all else held constant) would raise the average surface temperature by about 1.9°F (up from 1.4°F in the first edition). But no estimate is given for the full effect when all else is not held constant. That crucial "climate sensitivity" is usually put at 5.4°F (3°C) and Emanuel explains clearly such a value is mainly due to positive feedbacks from water vapor and clouds.

He implies that water vapor is well understood, so what is the impact of doubling CO2 if only the water vapor feedback is taken into account? That would tell us how much is riding on the models of clouds that Emanuel tells us are so uncertain. I'm looking forward to the third edition.

PS. James Hansen is better on paleoclimate science.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brief and Superb Explanation January 8, 2008

By Ken

Format:Hardcover

Dr. Emanuel does a superb job of separating the wheat from the chaff in this little gem. It's virtually impossible for the average layman to separate conspiracy theory nonsense from fear-mongering reading most books and popular press articles on global warming. But Emanuel presents a sound authoritative analysis of what we really do and don't know.
Unlike many other books on global warming, which bury the reader with a plethora of out-of-context quotes, tables of data, and cherry-picked charts, Emanuel presents just enough solid data for the reader to understand the whole issue.
He covers the philosophic underpinnings of different views, the history of global warming, the science, and finally the politics. When put together in this fashion, readers will educate themselves properly.
Before reading this book, I spent months and months reading peer reviewed scientific journal articles, web-site after web-site, and many popular press articles. Had I read Dr. Emanuel's book sooner I could have obtained the same final position with much less work and time invested.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Words of authority October 16, 2007

By Brian H. Fiedler

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Be forewarned this is a very small book: 82 pages of text, one B&W figure and no references. On a typical page I counted 120 words. I spotted no typos. I found only one sentence where I thought the physical explanation was muddled. The text could provide an excellent narration to a video documentary. A typical citizen needing to get wise about the physics of global warming might be better served by something more than a book without graphics.

Nevertheless, the book is a very quick read and professionals in this field may still enjoy scouring the pages of this book to find out where Professor Emanuel stands on certain issues. I got my money's worth on page 67 where we can read: "Scientists are most effective when they provide sound, impartial advice, but their reputation for impartiality is severely compromised by the shocking lack of political diversity among American academics, who suffer from the kind of group-think that develops in cloistered cultures. Until this profound and well-documented intellectual homogeneity changes, scientists will be suspected of constituting a leftist think tank."

15 of the 82 pages are not Prof. Emanuel's words, but is an "Afterword" provided by other authors. These words carry less authority. For example, the Afterword attributes the melting of the snows of Kilimanjaro to global warming, but some recent scientific research implicates land use changes around Kilimanjaro.

The Afterword also lays out a plan to save us from global warming, with a claim that "addressing global warming could be relatively painless". Here is the plan: "the United States and other industrial economies reduce their emissions by three percent per year between now and mid-century" which will ultimately "reduce global emissions by 75 percent or more". Some of the means to do this provide a chuckle: "driving less aggressively". No account is made for global population growth and global ambitions for prosperity.