Climate Change: A Multidisciplinary Approach [Paperback]

William James Burroughs (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521567718 | ISBN-13: 978-0521567718 | Publication Date: May 7, 2001 | Edition: 1

This volume provides an up-to-date presentation of climate change and its implications for society. Burroughs, an expert on the subject, begins with balanced coverage of the physical principles of the global climate, its behavior on all timescales, and the evidence for and consequences of past change. He then reviews the methods used to measure climate change and the statistical methods for analyzing data. A comprehensive guide, the volume also explores the causes of change and how this behavior can be modeled. The final sections discuss predictions of future climate change and the economic and political debate surrounding its prevention and mitigation. This is a valuable undergraduate textbook for a wide range of courses, including meteorology, oceanography, environmental science, earth science, geography, history, agriculture and social science. It will also appeal to a wider general audience of readers in search of a better understanding of climate change.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book is best appreciated by those with an understanding of science, particularly earth sciences, and will be of interest to many following the climate change discussions." American Meteorlogical, Society Oct 2001

"Burroughs is to be congratualated for having written a serious and up-to-date book that competently surveys many highly technical aspects of modern climate science but manages to do so in a nonmathematical manner." American Meteorlogical Society, June 2002

Book Description

Climate Change: a Multidisciplinary Approach provides an up-to-date, concise and comprehensive presentation of our current knowledge of climate change and its implications for society. This book is a valuable undergraduate textbook for a wide range of courses, including meteorology, oceanography, environmental science, earth science, geography, history, agriculture and social science. It will also appeal to a wider general audience of readers in search of a better understanding of climate change.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 314 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (May 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521567718
• ISBN-13: 978-0521567718
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,352,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The next step, August 14, 2008

By 

Mats Frick (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Climate Change: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Paperback)

After reading some other text introducing the general topic of climate change, the next step should be this book. Burroughs does an excellent job of introducing the intermediate level to the concerned citizen. It is an unbiased account of the state of knowledge and covers a broad spectrum of climate change from statistical interpretation to continental drift. This is not a book for people that want to confirm alarmist or denialist positions, but a methodical (sometimes dry) walkthrough of the topic of climate change that require at least fundamental knowledge of natural science. Be prepared to do your homework though.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A useful introduction to a controversial and complex topic, September 14, 2008

By 

Philippe Puig (Darwin, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Climate Change: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Paperback)

Many professional scientists need to rapidly access key information on specific aspects of a new domain of science they are vaguely familiar with. For me climate change falls in this category. I came across some very positive comments on this book and decided to make it my first introduction to the topic. I was particularly interested in measurements of climate change and broad descriptions of associated mathematics to guide me on planning the first steps on some work in that domain. I found chapters 4 and 5 particularly useful for that purpose. They provide appropriate qualitative descriptions of what I may need to look for in scientific papers to get me started on the development of some local empirical models. I found general discussions on the ENSO and other climatologic measurements of interactions between oceans and atmosphere pitched just at the right level. I will have no hesitation to recommend this text.

5.0 out of 5 stars good link between physics and divulgation, August 28, 2010

By 

renato medini "rmd1" (ferrara, Italy) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Climate Change: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Paperback)

It's a very good synoptic overwiev of almost all aspects regrding this complex and actual argument. It's a very good link between too mathematical reading of many scientific papers and oversimplified divulgative texts.
Some notes:
there is a print error on page 176;
a syntesis with a diagram dealing of the global cyclic phenomena could help the reader to understand the magnitude of periods (or frequencies) interesting periodic or quasi-periodic events;
it would be more useful a trace on spectra and filtering, instead of the definition of variance;
maybe, a short paragraph on solutions of CO2 in the oceans would be interesting.
Other aspects which would be linkable to all of these could be, for instance, the immission of water vapour in the troposphere due to combustion, and if changes in Earth's angular momentum due to fuel extraction can lead to any change in climate stability.