{"id":633,"date":"2008-12-22T19:36:21","date_gmt":"2008-12-23T00:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/archives\/2008\/12\/books-08\/"},"modified":"2009-01-24T14:42:21","modified_gmt":"2009-01-24T19:42:21","slug":"books-08","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/archives\/2008\/12\/books-08\/","title":{"rendered":"Books ’08"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As is usual, we have a brief round-up of books we have found interesting or noteworthy this year. While we mainly focus on new books, we include a couple of new editions of older books, and of course, our previous reviews might still be of some interest (2005<\/a>, 2006<\/a>, and 2007<\/a>).
\n<\/p>\n

The prize for the most optimistic title this year goes to Wally Broecker, for “Fixing Climate<\/a>” (written mainly by Robert Kunzig). This is a book written in a particular style – a number of recent advances in relevant paleo-climate (abrupt changes, mega-droughts, etc.) are examined through the lens of a single scientist and their one key measurement or observation. This makes for a good narrative, but without wishing to take anything away from the great science discussed or the individual insights, it’s only a partial picture of how these interesting ideas actually took root and got validated by the wider community. The climate fix the book ends up backing is a scheme for the air capture of CO2<\/sub> (discussed here<\/a>, and more recently here<\/a>). The technology is fascinating, but at over a couple of hundred $\/per ton CO2<\/sub>, the economics are a long way from being viable. But read about it for yourselves. <\/p>\n

Also dwelling on paleo-climate is Chris Turney’s Ice, Mud and Blood<\/a>. Eric reviewed this for Nature<\/em><\/a>, noting that “Turney is by no means the first to try to articulate the point that paleoclimatology has lessons for our future. Richard Alley’s The Two-Mile Time Machine and Mark Bowen’s Thin Ice, to name just two, have made the same basic arguments. But Turney’s book is the most up to date, and I would certainly recommend it to colleagues, who will enjoy it and may well learn something new, as I did.”<\/p>\n

Finally, it is definitely worth paying attention to books that may have been out for a while, or in a new edition. We were particularly impressed with Richard Somerville’s award-winning introduction to understanding environmental change “The Forgiving Air<\/a>” which has just been re-issued. <\/p>\n

Another notable paperback this year was from Joe Romm (of Climateprogress.org<\/a>). His “Hell and High Water<\/a>” is mostly focused on policy solutions. As is a new book by Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks “Apollo’s Fire<\/a>“. Congressman Inslee has been known to pass by RealClimate now and again. It does worry us a bit that the very first chapter refers to our friend and colleague Cecelia Bitz — a noted sea ice expert at the University of Washington — as ‘Carol’, and we hope that this is not indicative of the fact-checking care in the book. It looks to be an interesting contribution to the discussion of U.S. climate policy and it is especially timely to have a serious book on solutions to the problems in the Middle East, climate change, and the economy, all rolled into one. We look forward to reading this more closely.<\/p>\n

And of course, we are far too modest to mention our own humble offerings<\/a>…. ;)<\/p>\n

Feel free to suggest other interesting titles in the comments.<\/p>\n\n<\/div> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As is usual, we have a brief round-up of books we have found interesting or noteworthy this year. While we mainly focus on new books, we include a couple of new editions of older books, and of course, our previous reviews might still be of some interest (2005, 2006, and 2007).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,35,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-climate-science","category-communicating-climate","category-reviews","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t