Science news and science current events, research and discoveries.
Top science news articles and science current events stories from the past week.
Science Resources
Science RSS News Feeds
Earth, Life and Space Science RSS News Feeds.
|
 |
 |
 |
| View Larger Image | Global Warming: The Complete Briefing
by John Houghton
| | List Price: | $63.00 | | Price: | $56.70 | | You Save: | $6.30 (10%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 44794 | | Studio: | Cambridge University Press | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 382 | | Publication Date: | September 06, 2004 | | Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| |
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
John Houghton explores the scientific basis of global warming and the likely impacts of climate change on human society in this comprehensive guide to the subject. He then addresses the action that could be taken by governments, industry and individuals to mitigate the effects of global warming. Previous Edition Hb (1997): 0-521-62089-9 Previous Edition Pb (1997): 0-521-62932-2 |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 11 reviews)
|
Propaganda disguised as science 
You have to admire a writer like this, who can tidy up all the assumptions in global warming so they disappear in the 'facts'. Who needs to question such an authority!? I mean, if you disagree with Mr. Houghton (we don't use titles of nobility in this country, fyi), well, you are obviously just a dense neanderthal!
So instead of really examining whether humans are causing significant global warming, let's just assume it, and then hype the issues that follow. These self-righteous government 'scientists' love to play the part of savior, but never disclose how much money they are making while selling their snake-oil from the government. But oh, if you are debating them, they will quickly sneer against you if you are actually living off of money provided by the free market.
The book may be just fine for learning what kind of problems occur when global warming occurs, but it might as well be a book about what kind of problems might occur if a big meteor hits Earth, or aliens attack, and it is just about that relevant. This book is great pabulum for the sheeple.
February 28, 2008 | |
Yes, It Really Is A Good Complete Briefing on Global Warming 
The title of the book "Global Warming - The Complete Briefing" is aptly named, as it is an excellent briefing, or primer, on the subject of global warming. The book avoids the politics of global warming, which can grow tiresome to those of us who actually work in the climate change field. Instead, the book focuses on the basic science behind global warming, and is a very balanced, non-partisan approach to causes, effects, uncertainties, and potential impacts.
The reading level of the book is college level science, similar to a beginning or intermediate level physical science or meteorology class. If you are looking for an over-all guide to the science of global warming, this is a great book. If you are looking for a less academic, more popular-culture point of view on global warming, look into "Hell and High Water - Global Warming - The Solution and the Politics and What We Should Do" by Joseph Romm for an eminently enjoyable, easily readable guide to some of political and cultural aspects of global warming.
January 19, 2008 | |
Excellent resource if you want to know the facts on global warming and climate change 
I have just gotten half way through this book but am already finding it an excellent source of background information on global warming and climate change. It has a lot of technical information but is written at a level that most people can understand. I'm using it to prepare for a community education class I'll be teaching and finding it most helpful with facts on the science behind global warming. I recommend this book to anyone that wants to delve into the reasons behind what you're hearing in the news. The author is an internationally recognized expert and obviously knows what he's taking about. The book it written in a well balanced way pointing out the uncertainties and sticking to the facts. I'm looking forward to completing the rest of the book this week.
May 20, 2007 | |
Here is the review I made on this book for class - Umass Boston.
The book "Global Warming: The Complete Briefing, Third edition" by John Houghton is a great guide to understanding how global warming works and how it affects us.
It offers many details and explains how much of the Earth climate phenomena work, and how human activity is altering Earth's climate. In this book review, I will go through the book and discuss what the strong points of each chapter were. I will end up the review by discussing the book's relevance to the class and offering a few suggestions.
Chapter 1, Global Warming and Climate Change, offers a great introduction to the book by explaining the concept of global warming. It talks about how, every year, human activity adds up more emissions of green house gases into an atmosphere that already contains 7 thousand million tones of carbon dioxide. The part that I consider the most helpful is figure 1.5 which talks about how climate change is integrated with human activity. This integration consists of Emissions and Concentrations of Greenhouse gases that lead to Climate Change, which Impacts Human and Natural systems. The diagram closes the loop by illustrating how Socio-economic developments can lead to mitigating the Emissions and Concentrations of Greenhouse gases. In many ways, this is the purpose of this book, to make people understand that it is up to us to develop Socio Economic paths to make use of our technology and governance to control the problem of Global warming. This is also the basis for Sustainable Development.
Chapter 2, The Greenhouse Effect, focuses on explaining the Greenhouse Effect in great detail. The strong points of this chapter are the diagrams presented in figure 2.2 and 2.6. Figure 2.2 shows an actual greenhouse and explains that the roof of the greenhouse keeps the sun rays from escaping easily, hence increasing the temperature. Figure 2.6 shows the Earth's "radiation budget" this puts into perspective how the clouds, the atmosphere and greenhouse gases all play roles in how much radiation from the sun is reflected back out into space, and how much is actually bounced back to Earth and remains as heat.
Chapter 3, The Greenhouse Gases, is about the various gases that induce global warming. The important part of this chapter is that it lets us know how much of each gas counts as a greenhouse gas. This is important for us to measure how much human activity accounts for global warming. The chapter explains that Carbon Dioxide is the main component of greenhouse gases and most of this gas is the result of human activity. Figure 3.1 is rather complicated, but it does a good job in explaining how the global carbon cycle is accumulating carbon in the atmosphere because the Earth can not readily soak up the extra carbon being produced by human activity. This is a key element for us to realize the extent of the problem that we have here. The yearly accumulation of Carbon in the atmosphere, as Carbon Dioxide, makes the problem harder to solve as time goes by.
Chapter 4 is called Climates of the Past. This chapter contains the most relevant piece of evidence to Global Warming, which is figure 4.1 - Global Temperature from 1861-2003. This figure presents evidence that the globe is warming up to higher temperatures during the last 75 years. The importance of this warming trend is because it coincides with the increase in using fossil fuels during the 20th Century. This figure shows that global warming is not part of a natural cycle but it is the result of human activity. Chapter 4 continues to describe the climate as far back as thousands of years, giving information pertaining the Vostok and Greenland records.
Chapter 5, Modeling the Climate, explains how weather forecasting, and other natural phenomena, such as the Ocean's circulation belt. The oceans circulation was the point that I found the most interesting as it pertains thermohaline circulation, as seen in the movie The Day After Tomorrow. The models described in this chapter mentions that, global warming and polar caps melting will weaken the thermohaline circulation and this will result in various climate effects such as colder temperatures for Europe and altering agricultural zones.
Chapter 6 is called Climate Change in the 21st Century and Beyond. The importance of this chapter is that it presents the estimated temperature forecasts for the next century. Figure 6.4 is also included in the movie An Inconvenient Truth as the "Hockey Stick Graph" - which shows an extreme increase in temperatures for the next 100 years, if the current warming trend continues and CO2 emissions are not substantially reduced.
Chapter 7, Impacts of Climate Change, shows the biggest problems we will face due to global warming. The most interesting information on this chapter is Desertification, because we can already see the multiple effects of this problem every time we hear about the Genocide in Darfur, which was catalyzed by famines that resulted from changes in the region's climate. The effects of desertification are also explained on this chapter under a section called "Impact on agriculture and food supply."
Chapter 8, Why Should we be Concerned?, allows us to study the concept of "Earth", and how culture plays a role in people's reaction and interaction with "Earth". The strength of this chapter is the ability of the author to convey the message that we should not separate religion from science if we really want to "Save the Earth." Instead the author's message is that we should develop Environmental Values and become Stewards of the Earth.
Chapter 9 is called Weighting Uncertainty. The basic idea behind this chapter is that the IPCC has been having problems in the past by not being able to tell people that Global Warming is 100% a result of Human activity. The idea of Sustainable Development is discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 10 is called A Strategy for Action to Slow and Stabilize Climate Change. The Montreal and Kyoto Protocols are talked about in this chapter. This chapter is a great reference to efforts that have been taken by the World Governments to deal with Global Warming.
Chapter 11 is called Energy and Transport of the Future. The most important aspect of this chapter is the discussion of the Future energy projections. Figure 11.4 and 11.5 show the different scenarios of what may happen in the next 100 years if the world chooses to use renewable energy or not. The significance of these figures is that they provide a reference for us to evaluate what may happen if things stay as they are. If the world does not choose renewable energy, the energy consumption is expected to be twice as much as it is today. This is the expected energy consumption presented in scenarios A & B, and this, not using renewable energy as is our status quo, would result in major catastrophes, widespread desertification, water shortages and limited agricultural zones. Figure 11.4 & 11.5 also give us scenario C, in which mainly renewable energy sources are used, this being the most promising scenario. The chapter also discusses Building efficiency, alternatives to transportation and energy production, all key to sustainable development.
The book offers high detail and complexity on every chapter. I think that the depth of this book makes it a very effective tool for anyone interested in climate change, possibly all of us. However, since the different climate mechanisms: patterns and phenomena, which are intrinsically complex, made it difficult for me to embrace all the concepts and theories as a whole. Perhaps the book should be studied as a year long course which would go into the depth that is required to understand the complexities of the book. Another way to solve this problem is for the book itself to have a summary or an author's perspective of how he sees the various different climate mechanisms, as "interacting with" and "affecting" each other. I believe that these interactions and effects can result in, either a worsening or lessening of the current climate change trends and this is not explicitly considered in this book, or perhaps, I missed.
May 02, 2007 | |
Global Warming Explained
The book that I read is the second edition. Because the book is priced at $50+ I chose to do an interlibrary loan instead of purchasing a new copy.
Houghton takes a genuine and direct approach in his book. Indeed it is the complete briefing as advertised. The book starts from the very beginning by explaining the basics on greenhouse gases. The book doesn't get deep into molecular theory. A rounded presentation is given on what greenhouse gases do to the atmosphere and moves into why it is important to address the threat. It finishes by suggesting alternative energy sources.
While I'd like to recommend the book, you could spend the money to outfit a home in fluorescent lighting.
April 22, 2007 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| |
|
|
|
|
