Customer Reviews

Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast

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

 

 

There are some annoying typographical errors in this book, otherwise I would give
it five stars --- visit the book's website for a list of errata.

Plenty of books tell you about global warming, but this book really does
dymystify the nuts and bolts of how climate scientists know what they
say they know. The book says it is based on a course for non-scientists and
it shows --- the explanations are clearly honed from experience of explaining
scientific concepts to non-scientists. It is always difficult for scientists
in any field to convey the depth of knowledge which has accumulated over
a long period of time to people coming from other disciplines, but this book
does a pretty good job.

You will need to visit understandingtheforecast.org right away, to download the errata. There are 32 errors listed in the errata, as of 17 December 2008. Four figures need to be replaced, though one is an update to reflect the 2007 IPCC report. Unfortunately, the replacement figures are not the same size as those in the book. You cannot merely paste them over; you will need to tape them as a flap, so that you can still read the caption. You will likely find more typos in the book than those listed in the errata. Depending on how valuable your time is, you may effectively double the price of the book.

In addition to the typos, there are some serious errors in the book. The author is a geochemist. The opening chapter on the greenhouse effect, "The layer model", is incorrect for anything but epsilon=1 (epsilon being the emissivity). A term for radiation from the surface is missing entirely from the last equation on page 25. That term would have a factor of (1-epsilon). Fortunately, the solutions listed in Table 3.1 are for epsilon=1, but that is not stated explicitly in the text. Furthermore, there is confusion about the use of the same symbol, epsilon, for both the emissivity of the atmosphere and the surface. You can repair Chapter 3 (or ignore it) by referring to the Wikipedia for "Idealized greenhouse model".

A minor error appears on 157, in regards to the storm surge associated with a hurricane. We read "These are caused by the low atmospheric pressure inside a hurricane lifting up the sea surface". An elementary hydrostatic calculation reveals the a 100 millibar pressure deficit would lift the ocean surface by merely one meter. Storm surges associated with hurricanes are cause by the wind. See the Wikipedia for "Storm Surge".

On page 89: "If we were to precipitate the CO2 into a snowfall of dry ice ... 7cm of snow on the ground." The correct answer is 4 mm. In Figure 9.2: the label should be Gton C/TW yr.

Some of the presentation of the greenhouse effect is outstanding. Chapter 4, and particularly the figures of the spectra at the top of the atmosphere, give a wonderful graphic presentation of radiative forcing and its logarithmic dependence on carbon dioxide concentration. The equilibrium warming that would result from the radiative forcing is again shown with recourse to a spectra. These spectra for the warmed atmosphere provide a excellent starting point for a discussion of the feedbacks (assuming the discussants understand the spectra), which make the forecast uncertain.

The book really shines in the presentation of the chemistry, the carbon cycle and energy policy.

With a little repair by the reader, the book is turned into a five star book.

I wish to commend this wonderful book written by my colleague, David Archer. The class upon which this book is based is a runaway success, and each year it seems they need to find a bigger lecture hall. When you have read the books like "The Weather Makers," and "Field Notes from a Catastrophe," and are ready for something more quantitative but still fairly gentle on the math, this is the one for you. I think it's the best source around for people who want to get a true scientific understanding of the physics and chemistry of climate change.

I honestly believe that after reading this book, anyone will be able to confidently discuss global warming topics from an objective viewpoint.

Dr. Archer wrote this book after teaching a course with the same title for several years. His writing style is as great as his lecture style - non-intimidating, humorous, well-explained examples and analogies, and he teaches the science behind the famous words "global warming". There is no arm-waving or magical answer. The descriptive text encourages the reader to find answers themselves via simple calculations. In addition, several fun and relevant web-based models are included. For example, in one model, you can calculate how the earth's temperature may change if you increase the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. In another, you can play with the supply of fossil fuels and predict how long it will be before we run out.

I've been a teaching assistant to Dr. Archer for two years, and his lectures, which this book is partially based on, have helped students with no previous background understand the science behind global warming, and enjoy themselves while doing it. But as a graduate student, I still find myself consulting his book for general facts about the carbon cycle or atmosphere. It truly is a book that can be enjoyed at any level of background, especially today, when global warming is such a hot (no pun intended) topic. I've read the book each year, and look forward to reading it again. Definitely a great buy!

The climate books by Flannery, Kolbert, etc. tend to be anecdotal, with qualitative descriptions of how the climate works. While I think those books are valuable, what's been missing is a more technical description of the physics of the climate system that's accessible to people who aren't physics majors. This book is it. It serves as a bridge between the fully qualitative books and highly technical textbooks requiring calculus. There is some math in it, so math-phobes might approach it with caution. I think the book would be especially useful to scientists or grad students who want to know something about the climate problem, but don't want to invest a lot of time in reading dense textbooks or journal articles. I'm going to have my incoming grad students who did not major in atmospheric sciences read it in order to educate themselves quickly about the climate.

Based on a general undergrad course taught by author, this modest book is a very nice introduction to climate science and global warming. Following the arguments requires only a high school level knowledge of chemistry and algebra (knowledge that seems to be lacking in the Oklahoma Congressional delegation). Archer covers the basic features of the earth's energy budget, relevant physics and geochemistry, simplified modeling, and evidence for anthropogenic warming. The exposition is excellent with good use of figures, simple equations, and a direct writing style. As befits a textbook-style book, each chapter concludes with some exercises, useful references, and links to useful data and models. Given Archer's skill as a pedagogue, I would like to see some more discussion of economic models and mitigation strategies, which are really now the major issues.

This is text book. It's meant to be used in a class. I'm using it in the Understanding the Science of Climate Science, a continuing education class at Stanford. The Stanford class while it has excellent teachers, tries to cover this information in half the time that Archer does in his class at U of Chicago and there is no lab. My math skill are weak, and that's putting a positive spin on it. The concepts are easy enough to understand, I've been following the climate change problem for about 6 years, and the concepts about GHGs and feedbacks and Carbon are elaborated on in ways you won't get in standard public science writing about Climate Change. I appreciate the clearer conceptual foundation, but the math is not explained very well in the book for someone without math skills. I've watched 3-4 of Archer's lectures on line and while that helps with the concepts, it doesn't really help with the math. Conceptually it has given me more details about how Climate science works, but I'm not getting the real skills I wanted to be able to have a better understanding of technical papers. Maybe that too much to expect in one short course. This book would be even less useful without the class, unless you had excellent algebra skills, OR you simply don't worry about the math. The teachers of this particular class are not overly concerned that you come away from the class understanding the math. They want you to get the concepts.

We are using the 1st edition although some people got the 2nd edition. I'm sure the info and the few errors in the 1st edition have been cleared up in the 2nd edition, BUT the quality of the paper in the 2nd edition sucks. The pages are so thin you can't turn one without bending it. Bad choice by the publisher.

Brief, lucid, comprehensive, and objective. Covers an amazing amount of material in a short space. Brevity, however, is occasionally a flaw. For many of the topics, I found myself wishing there was more detail. Although everything is fully explained, readers having some basic science knowledge will find this book easier to follow. There is one serious flaw, there is a large number of typographical errors (some figures are badly scrambled). and a few of the illustrations are badly flawed. Find the list errata in the author's website.

Great book, and there's an online course to accompany it at [...]

But I will not buy it until and unless it is available on Kindle.

This book is writen well enough that a non-science major can understand the basics of global warming science and what the research has uncovered so far. This book is great coupled with the "Science of Sustainability" course at the University of Chicago.