Customer Reviews

Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming - The Illustrated Guide to the Findings of the IPCC

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're like me, you've longed for a user-friendly book to both clarify your own thoughts about global warming and to recommend to those acquaintances, friends, relatives, and colleagues who are either indifferent to climate change or think it's a bunch of tree-hugging hooey. Believe me, Dire Predictions is the book we've been waiting for. I rarely gush in the reviews I write. But I'm gushing in this one.

Authors Michael Mann and Lee Kump, the former a weather scientist and the latter a geoscientist, have put together a primer on global warming drawn from IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports that offers incredibly helpful illustrations and graphs, beautiful photographs, and informative, to the point text. The explanations are concise, typically a single topic to a page fold, and they focus on exactly the kinds of questions and issues that most of us have wondered about--for example, Is our atmosphere really warming?; How to build a climate model; Back to the future: Deep time holds clues to climate change; Fingerprints distinguish human and natural impacts on climage; Why is it called greenhouse effect? and Couldn't the increase in atmosphere CO2 be the result of natural cycles?

The book is divided into 5 parts:

1. Climate Change Basics
2. Projections of Future Climate Change
3. Impacts of Climate Change
4. Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change
5. Solving Global Warming

One of the best features of the Mann and Kump's approach is that they don't hesitate to respond directly to the "debunkers" of global warming that have become popular of late.

A wonderful book, exactly the sort of popular science approach that citizens, community activists, public policy makers, and presidential candidates need to get clear on the facts and implications of global warming. Highly recommended. Six stars.

I love the concept behind this book: an "illustrated" guide instead of another long text of prose about global warming. It has tons of charts and graphs and colorful pictures, so you learn the field in a new way -- less abstractly, more intuitively. Slightly below a Scientific American-level. This book would be great for someone who wants to understand climate change, but doesn't have the background (or patience) to read a 300 page book on it. Plus it would be great for kids 7th grade and up.

I've read hundreds of books and articles and papers on climate change, and yet I still learn things from nearly every page in the book, no matter where in it I start.

Excellent book for those interested in getting the facts and science of climate change. It is actually a summary of the 3000+ pages of the IPCC AR4 2007 reports. All the aspects are covered efficiently: physical basis, paleoclimatology, climate models, impacts, projections and GHG emission scenarios, adaptation and mitigation measures. The authors have done a wonderful job in making complex, interdisciplinary science understandable to anybody. Recommended to those wishing to have a quick guide to climate change without scientific compromise.
On the aesthetics side: this book is very nicely done. Text easy to read, nice pictures, well-chosen relevant and easy-to-grasp figures and charts, everything is done so the reader enjoys reading the book. Its structure is so that each set of two pages is independent on the previous ones. That means that you can browse through the book and pick up any random page to read! Cross-references are numerous.
A reference for the layman.

This book gets a strong 5 starts for content. It is a very accessible, clear account of the scientific data in the IPCC report written by two esteemed climate scientists. They explain complex information in a way that makes it very clear to the reader. For anyone that wants to truly understand what the report says as well as explaining the science behind it, this is a great book. In addition, the authors address various "climate change skeptics" arguments in a way that will leave no open mind in doubt as to the reality of the dire situation we're in.

But, it gets a minus 2 stars for readability! As has been mentioned by at least one other reviewer, the graphic design of the book will fight your ability to comprehend it on almost every page. What were the designers thinking?!
The publisher is DK, well known for lavishly illustrated books on a variety of subjects - many of them written for early teens. That's their style, and unfortunately, they don't depart from it in this important book.
Oh, it looks great. High quality, relevant photographs, excellent charts and illustrations on every page; many of them covering the entire page.
And that's the problem.
You'll spend so much time trying to read (not to mention comprehend) the large, yet thin font overlaid on top of all the photos that you'll slow down and strain just to muscle your way through it as it disappears and then reappears again though the light and dark parts of the photos.
That said, the content is so excellent, its worth slogging through.
Its just a shame that you have to.

This book could easily be titled, "A Guide to Help Climate Skeptics Understand Why They are Wrong." It's written, not in a dull, didactic, "here are the facts," manner, but more as a presentation of the arguments in which the standard questions from the other side are addressed as major section headings, such as, "Couldn't the increase in carbon dioxide be the result of natural cycles?."

Pretty much the bottom line conclusion of the book is presented in large, bold font near the end of first section where the authors say that if we don't do something to change our ways, the atmospheric carbon dioxide level will exceed "anything experienced on earth for over 50 million years." Could the stakes be laid out any more clearly?

The tables need to be turned on the climate skeptics -- it's time for the burden of proof to be placed upon their shoulders -- as in, you folks need to prove to us that it's possible to alter the atmosphere so significantly and NOT have something undesirable happen.

The structure of the book is very simple and powerful. In five nicely color-coded sections they lay out the basics of the problem, what the science predicts will happen, and how to avoid or cope with it. The style of writing is efficient, direct, to the point, and periodically snappy, such as asking, "Is it time to sell that beach house?"

The overall look of the book is almost as VISUAL as a slide show. This is a book that is perfect for undergraduates, the general public, and pretty much everyone willing to put their trust in science rather than politics.

The IPCC documents are quite heavy for the non-scientist who wishes to learn about the current state of climate change science. This book provides the reader with the most important information of these IPCC documents in an easy-to-read, highly illustrated format. Well done!

Scott A. Mandia, Professor - Physical Sciences
[..]

This is an excellent condensed book presented in an easy to understand format. Almost every topic and concern about climate change is included with easy to understand text, photos, and graphics.

From Global Dimming, ocean currents, coral reef bleaching,CO2 atmospheric content to paleo-climate studies and the influence of volcanoes and solar cycles everything is here. This is all presented at about the high school reading level so it is easily understood. I was able to read this in about one evening and will share it with others that are interested in this important subject.

This is a comprehensive, attractive summary of the recent IPCC report on climate change by recognized authorities in the field. If you accept global warming, as I do, you'll find the book excellent; if you deny climate change you'll hate it because the case for change is so clearly and forcefully presented.

The quality of the book was excellent. It looks as if it was brand new. Saved a lot of money on school textbooks this way.

The book is as good as it was describe. really satisfied, cheap. wouldnt get it anywhere else. get it now!!