Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

S. George Philander (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0691057753 | ISBN-13: 978-0691057750 | Publication Date: March 9, 1998 | Edition: 1

Most of us have heard the dire predictions about global warming. Some experts insist that warming has already started, and they warn of such impending disasters as the sea level rising to flood coastal cities. Others, however, have issued loud counterclaims, assuring us that global warming is a myth based on misleading data. How can we tell who is right, and how we should respond? And why is there no scientific consensus on a matter of such vital importance? George Philander addresses these questions in this book, as he guides the nonscientific reader through new ideas about the remarkable and intricate factors that determine the world's climate.

In simple, nontechnical language, Philander describes how the interplay between familiar yet endlessly fascinating phenomena--winds and clouds, light and air, land and sea--maintains climates that permit a glorious diversity of fauna and flora to flourish on Earth. That interplay also creates such potent weather disrupters as El Niño and La Niña, translates modest fluctuations in sunlight into global climate changes as dramatic as the Ice Age, and determines the Earth's response to the gases we are discharging into the atmosphere, such as those that led to the ozone hole over Antarctica and those that are likely to cause global warming. In his discussion of these matters, Philander emphasizes that our planet is so complex that the scientific results will always have uncertainties. To continue to defer action on environmental problems, on the grounds that more accurate scientific results will soon be available, could lead to a crisis. To make wise decisions, it will help if the public is familiar with the geosciences, which explore the processes that make ours a habitable planet.

The book is an excellent introduction to the basics of the Earth's climate and weather, and will be an important contribution to the debate about climate change and the relationship between scientific knowledge and public affairs.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Is the Temperature Rising? Well, yes, according to S. George Philander, a geoscientist at Princeton University whose introductory course in climatology provided the seed of this book. Written in a clear, literate style aimed at the layperson, Philander is a welcome antidote to the all-too-often sensational claims made by one side or the other in the global-warming debate. This is not to say that his book is comforting: Philander has little doubt that current conditions on earth--the proliferation of CFCs in the atmosphere, the forest fires and factory emissions that contribute to the destruction of the ozone and to the blanket of gases that trap heat--are having damaging effects. In the long run, he writes, the earth can take care of itself, adapting to the changes in its atmosphere; over the short term, however, the picture is grimmer, for no one can predict with any certainty just how these atmospheric changes will play out. And herein lies the real interest in Is the Temperature Rising? Rather than rant about imminent doom or deny it, Philander explains just why it is so difficult to forecast the consequences of global warming. Clouds, for example, are a huge uncertainty, since they can either heat or cool the earth depending on their form.

But just because you can't predict exactly what will happen is no reason not to do something about the problem, Philander argues. He opposes those who suggest we wait for more accurate scientific information about global warming on the grounds that the science of climatology will never be exact; put off making decisions for too long, he warns, and it could be too late. Is the Temperature Rising? is both a solid explanation of the factors that contribute to global warning and a no-nonsense exhortation to act while there is still time.

From Booklist

Philander's book emerges from the welter of tomes on global warming, both alarmist and complacent, as a welcome beacon to storm-tossed readers. This work is an outgrowth of Philander's introductory college course in climatology. The text fluidly outlines the long-term parameters of Earth's climate, distinguishing them from the shorter term events defined as the weather. Over the long haul, Philander is not too worried about Earth's habitability. Its self-regulating mechanisms have adjusted to bigger perturbations, such as a 30 percent increase in the solar flux, than the industrial age near-doubling of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Nevertheless, he is equally sure that in the short term, such dumping will alter the climate because the carbon dioxide cycle works too slowly to cope. Stressing constantly the complexity of climate, Philander informatively outlines the main processes that govern it, such as the global circulation of deep ocean water or the wobble of Earth's axis. Overall, a clear, opinion-free lecture on a topic everybody loves to talk about--without genuinely knowing much. Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; 1 edition (March 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691057753
• ISBN-13: 978-0691057750
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's really about climate, October 12, 1999

By 

Duwayne Anderson (Saint Helens, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming (Hardcover)

It's hard to imagine a more relevant, timely, and important book for our day than Philander's book on global warming. Though I say the book is about global warming, I really must elaborate. You see, this is really a book on earth's climate. Global warming is just a part of the book - a relatively short chapter at the end. The rest of the book consists of background information about climate that enables the reader to understand (at least in concept) the scientific arguments and issues related to global warming. Whether you believe that human intervention in the composition of the atmosphere will alter earth's climate or not (and I'm personally hoping you have the sense to do so) this is a first-rate book on climate issues in general.

The book is broken into three "parts." The first part is really just an introduction and discusses things at a pretty high level. The second part deals with weather (variations in day to day atmospheric conditions). There is an introduction to ideas related to absorption and radiation of heat, atmospheric pressure and temperature gradients (what causes them), the hydrological cycle, winds, and how the ocean and atmosphere couple together.

I particularly found the discussion about the ocean currents interesting. There is an unusually good discussion of El Nino and how it forms. There is also some good discussion about why ice ages have appeared over the earth's history. [For a more directed discussion about ice ages, I suggest "Ice Ages, Solving the mystery," by John Imbrie and Katherine Palmer Imbrie.

The main text of the book is non-mathematical and has plenty of diagrams and illustrations to help convey concepts. The book also comes equipped with 13 appendixes that go into more quantitative detail. These appendixes use numerous equations, but require no skills in mathematics beyond high-school trigonometry and algebra. [For a more rigorous and advanced text I suggest "The physics of atmospheres," by John T. Houghton."]

The last (third) part of the book gets down to business regarding the subject of global warming. It also discusses the ozone hole and provides an illuminating discussion about why it appears over the southern polar cap.

I thought that one major piece of missing information is a breakdown by country and source of the types of pollution that can lead to global warming. It would be nice, for example, to see a chart that shows how much each country contributes, the individual contributions in each country, and the types of fuels that are the most damaging. [This information is available from sources in the bibliography, however.]

If I could summarize the author's main premise it would be this: The atmosphere is an incredibly complicated system that illustrates sometimes-chaotic behavior. Globally it is probably stable - we most likely will not cause runaway global warming and life will survive. Locally, however, the weather can and does behave chaotically. We have the power to make our atmosphere more hazardous for our species. We are taking a terrible gamble in modifying several greenhouse gases, not by factors of a few percent, but by hundreds of percent.

The fact there is uncertainty in the exact final outcome is not the point. The point is we are gambling with the only atmosphere we have, and the results, if we loose, could be dire. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels an obligation to be more informed about what is, perhaps, the most important environmental issue of the day.

Duwayne Anderson Saint Helens, Oregon October 12, 1999

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't judge this book by its title--It's just an intro. text, November 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming (Hardcover)

I purchased this book because of its title and the good review it received in the New York Times by science reporter William J. Broad (July 5, 1998). Unfortunately only one of the book's 13 chapters is about global warming. Philander devotes only 14 pages to this topic and the material he presents simply repeats the conclusions that have been reported on televisions and in newspapers for the last several years.

In the preface, Philander is quite honest about his book, "It is based on notes I prepared for an introductory course I teach....The Appendixes are intended for those who use the book as a text for an introductory course." But this book is only an introduction to Atmospheric Science, not Climate Change or Global Warming.

In the chapter on Global Warming, he refers the reader back to chapter 7 where he claims to "describe" the computer models used by scientists. I was expecting details of the General Circulation Models (GCM) used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but instead Philander gives only general background information about computer models and concludes, "Different research groups proceed differently which is the reason for differences between models" (p.116).

My feeling is that he or the publisher, Princeton University Press (the same institution where he teaches), decided that an introductory textbook for Atmospheric Science would sell better if it had a catchier title of current interest. And they guessed correctly, because I would never have bought the book otherwise.

Although this is a reasonable layman's introduction to Atmospheric Science and suitable for undergraduate students in other disciplines, it will NOT be useful for anyone who wants to know more about "the uncertain science of global warming."

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an excellent mistitled book, November 21, 2000

By 

William Chaisson "microfossilboy" (Trumansburg, New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming (Paperback)

This book should really be called _How the Temperature Rises: the Fundamentals of Global Warming_.

In concise readable prose Philander outlines all the physics, chemistry, biology and geology that you will need to understand to truly follow the debate about global warming. This is no mean feat. We are talking about GLOBAL warming here, i.e. the science of how everything works. He methodically proceeds component by component through the environment and explains basic scientific principles that govern, among other things, how the wind works, how ocean currents move, how heat is transported through the atmosphere and in the oceans, how the atmosphere is heated from below and why, and how mathematical models represent climate.

He is determined to make his readers into informed participants in a discussion that he makes clear that he believes is very important. He does not hector, but he does take an unambiguous position: we should do something about this. It is a pleasure to read a book that reaches a passionate conclusion through reasoning. I withhold one star because I thought that the summary chapter that actually does address global warming directly could have been more detailed.