The Onion last week had a great (recycled) spoof on the various ‘green’ special issues being published but, not to be outdone, the contributors to RealClimate have also been busy producing paper products about the environment.
Surprisingly perhaps, as well as having day jobs and writing for this blog, collectively we have written a number of popular science books about climate change. Some of these have already been published, but there are a few more “in the pipeline”. We try not to overdo self-promotion on this website (for instance, we don’t blog about most of our own technical publications) but since these projects are synergistic with our aims here, it makes sense to let people know what we’ve been up to. We have therefore set up a page listing “Our Books” that we will keep up-to-date as more titles become available. It’s also linked from the new animated gif image on the side bar.
“The Long Thaw: How Humans are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth’s
Climate.” David Archer, [ Princeton University Press, November 2008 ]
I am looking forward to reading this one!
Good move! I’ve pre-ordered a copy of Dire Predictions for myself. And I’ve also sent a suggestion to my local public library that they buy a few copies for general circulation.
[Response: Thanks for your kind words. I hope you like the book. We did our best to write it a level appropriate for the person on the street, while not ‘talking down’ to our readers. -mike]
Great! the Pierrehumbert book is exactly what I’ve been looking for.
Ray, there’s a typo on page 5:
“This is known as blackbody radiation and will be discussed in detail…”
Good stuff so far!
Useful. Thanks.
Ah ha! This proves that RC has been in the back pocket (literally!) of the paper products industry all along!
Thnaks for highlighting your books. I’m looking forward to reading several of them. Regrettably I don’t speak German, despite being born there.
Speaking of books, any comment on Robert Kunzig & Wally Broecker’s Fixing Climate?
#6 Peter Backes:
Not to fear, I believe there’s a deeper plan at work. Turns out bookshelves are great carbon sequestration reservoir.
Another problem w/”e-books”, BTW. No carbon capture…
I read the Onion green issue and it was very funny. The Onion has had some funny science related articles too, but the best one for dealing with contrarians is “Study: 38 Percent Of People Not Actually Entitled To Their Opinion”
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/study_38_percent_of_people
I received a gift certificate for Barnes & Noble recently and I’ll definitely use it to get one of the books one the list. David’s book “The Long Thaw” has the catchiest title. Ray’s Book “Principles of Planetary Climate” would probably help me the most.
Got another typo for Ray.
p. 17: “Mars surface cools so fast that that once it is dark…”
Enjoying thoroughly so far.
Fabulous idea, and many thanks to all of you at RC. I am always looking for some solid publications on Science to read for myself, and to recommend for others.
Re Dire predictions
As one member of the target audience you have the level spot on.
One question on Chapter 1 Is the non-mention of Callendar’s identification of global warming from data analysis in the 1930’s because of lack of space or because of lack of relibility of the result?
[Response: thanks for the comment. Well, one has to make tough choices about what to and not to include w/ a 200 page heavily illustrated large format book. The history of the science is fascinating, and we could have spent several spreads on that alone. But it would have meant sacrificing other important topics. Would it be great for our readers to know more about the historical figures in the development of the science? Sure. Do they *need* to, to understand the big picture? Well, no. Of course, there are other great sources for that (e.g. Spencer Weart’s book). -mike]
I’ve ordered an evaluation copy of “Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming”. This could be just what my biology students need for background on AGW for several courses I teach that look at the biological impacts of climate change. Thanks for pointing this books out to us.
[Response: Thanks for the vote of confidence. We envisioned the book as serving dual purposes, either a layperson’s guide to climate change science/impacts/solutions, or as a text for first year seminars and/or non-technical introductory level courses. I’d appreciating hearing your thoughts about the book! -mike]
Wish I’d seen this list before I had to order textbooks (back in April) for my ‘Population, Resources and Change’ class, but there’s always next term.
What about a list of other people’s books as well? It could be a separate list from the Real Climate list. I would suggest that it be a list of books that address the science, and leave out the books that are mostly political. You could start with Spencer Weart’s book “The Discovery of Global Warming”?
[Response: We’ve done a number of nearly-annual book reviews here, here and here. – gavin]
While we are discussing books may I congratulate Mark Lynas on winning the 21st Royal Society Prize for Science Books.
The Guardian says A grim exploration of the implications of global warming has won Britain’s most prestigious prize for science writing.
Cheers, Alastair.
I like the list of books. I do not like that flashing image of those books on the sidebar. As a Firefox user with the AdBlock extension I got rid of it with two clicks, but I thought I would let you know how at least one reader feels about flashing imagery on websites.
Now to solve the fun little puzzle so I can submit this…
[Response: Would it help if it was slowed down? The issue is that there isn’t enough space to have them all separately – a collage might be possible… – gavin]
Gavin — Yes, it is good enough to slow these way, way down. I’ll suggest 11 seconds.
[Response: It was already 10, so I made it 20. – gavin]
I vote for a collage, non-flashing if it is possible.
I also would prefer a collage. I find changing images distracting when I am trying to read.
Just ordered Ray Bradley’s ‘Paleoclimatology’ and I’m thinking about ‘Dire Predictions.’ Thanks for being so active, both in the scientific literature, and in non-technical books (and realclimate) for allowing people to understand these issues.
Hmmm… just a slight gripe!
I’ve just received my copy of DP (excellent!) and I was intending on using it to grace my coffee table. Unfortunately, though, I’ve just discovered that if you leave it in such an exposed position (no, I don’t live outside, I just mean not supported by other books), the cover curls up like a piece of dry peel!!
I’m not letting it curtail my enjoyment of the contents though! Well done!
[Response: Sorry, only just now saw this message. Yeah, I had the same problem w/ mine too :( I guess we can try curling it in the opposite direction (in the hope that ‘cover fatigue’ doesn’t set in) or placing it under weight for some time. I’d be interested in any other solutions folks find to this. -mike]
Hi Mike:
Amazon.com has two titles for DP with two different sub-titles: One is the illustrative Guide and the other “Understanding etc,” As I am a Ph. D. chemist with a specialty in data modeling, analysis and prediction (FA PLS, etc.) which of the book would I benefit the most from? Thanks in advance and congrats on that effort!
Regards,
Denys Leclerc
[Response: Thanks for the message Denys. Well, there’s just one book. Unfortunately, ‘Amazon’ got ahold of an earlier pre-release version that had a different cover (a signpost submerged in a flood). I was pretty sure that this had been eradicated, though I’ve noticed that the Canadian Amazon still has this one. In any case, the correct version should have a cover that looks like the one shown here, i.e. the black cover w/ a footprint on it. The link is here. Sorry for any confusion. And thanks for your interest in the book! -mike]
Thanks,Mike!
[Response: Thank you for your interest in the book Denys. I hope you find it interesting and useful. -mike]
I was inspired by Ray’s book to code up a little visualizer and write the following post for my work blog.
Visualizing Climate Data in Phase Space
I’m just a lowly coder with an interest in climate science — any comments and feedback are appreciated!