{"product_id":"global-weirdness-isbn-9780307743367","title":"Global Weirdness","description":"\u003cb\u003eSixty easty-to-read essays that enlarge our understanding of how climate change affects our daily lives, and arms us with the incontrovertible facts we need to make informed decisions about the future of the planet, and of humankind. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A breath of fresh air: just the facts, efficient and easy to understand.” —\u003ci\u003eScientific American\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eGlobal Weirdness\u003c\/i\u003e summarizes everything we know about the science of climate change, explains what is likely to happen to the climate in the future, and lays out, in practical terms, what we can do to avoid further shifts. Climate Central tackles basic questions such as: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e-Is climate ever “normal”? \u003cbr\u003e-Why and how do fossil-fuel burning and other human practices produce greenhouse gases? \u003cbr\u003e-What natural forces have caused climate change in the past? \u003cbr\u003e-What risks does climate change pose for human health? \u003cbr\u003e-What accounts for the diminishment of mountain glaciers and small ice caps around the world since 1850? \u003cbr\u003e-What are the economic costs and benefits of reducing carbon emissions?\u003ci\u003eIntroduction \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eI WHAT THE SCIENCE SAYS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e1 \u003c\/b\u003e“Normal Climate” Meant Something Different to the Dinosaurs and the Woolly Mammoths than It Does to Us.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e2 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Climate Has Changed Dramatically in the Past. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e3 \u003c\/b\u003eOur Ancestors Survived Climate Change. But It Wasn’t Always Pretty.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e4 \u003c\/b\u003eDinosaurs Didn’t Drive Gas-Guzzlers or Use  Air-Conditioning. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e5 \u003c\/b\u003eCarbon Dioxide Is Like a Planetwide Sweat Suit (Sort Of). \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e6 “ \u003c\/b\u003eGlobal Warming” or “Climate Change”? Doesn’t Matter, It’s All the Same. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e7 \u003c\/b\u003eWeather Is Not Climate. Climate Is Not Weather. Except They Kind of Are. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e8 \u003c\/b\u003eOn Venus, the Greenhouse Effect Makes It Hot Enough to Melt Lead. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e9 \u003c\/b\u003eCarbon Dioxide Is Only Part of the Problem. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e10 \u003c\/b\u003eOnce We Invented the Steam Engine, Climate Change Was Pretty Much Inevitable. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e11 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Ozone Hole Is Not Global Warming. Global Warming Is Not the Ozone Hole. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e12 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Northern Hemisphere Has Heated Up More in the Past Half Century than in Any Similar Period Going Back Many Hundreds of Years. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e13 \u003c\/b\u003eCoal Alone Churns Out 20 Percent of Human Greenhouse Emissions. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e14 \u003c\/b\u003eA Quarter of the CO2 in the Atmosphere Comes from Fossil Fuels, and It’s on the Way Up. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e15 \u003c\/b\u003eIf We Stopped Burning Fossil Fuels, We’d Keep Emitting Greenhouse Gases. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e16 \u003c\/b\u003eNo Natural Force Has Been Able to Explain the Recent Warming. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e17 \u003c\/b\u003eCO2 Could Stay in the Air for Hundreds or Thousands of Years, Trapping Heat the Whole Time. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e18 \u003c\/b\u003eExtra CO2 Going into the Sea Is Making the Ocean More Acidic. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e19 \u003c\/b\u003eCutting Down Forests Means More CO2 Stays in the Atmosphere. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e20 \u003c\/b\u003eStop All Greenhouse Emissions and the Temperature Will Keep Going Up. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e21 \u003c\/b\u003eWant an Exact Number for How Warm It Will Get? Sorry, Scientists Don’t Have One. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e22 \u003c\/b\u003eMelting Ice Makes the Ocean Rise—but It’s Not the Only Factor. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e23 \u003c\/b\u003eNobody Ever Said Global Warming Means Every Year Will Be Hotter than the Last. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e24 \u003c\/b\u003eNobody Ever Said the Whole World Will Warm Up at the Same Rate. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e25 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Poles Are Warming Faster than Other Places. That’s Just What Climate Scientists Predicted. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eII WHAT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e26 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Atmosphere Now Holds a Record Amount of CO2—Unless You Go Back Half a Million Years or More. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e27 \u003c\/b\u003eSea Level Is Eight Inches Higher than It Was in 1900. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e28 \u003c\/b\u003eEarth’s Temperature Is About 1.4°F Higher than It Was in 1900. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e29 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Continental United States Had Twice as Many Record-High Temperatures During the First Decade of the Twenty- First Century as Record Lows. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e30 \u003c\/b\u003eGlaciers and Ice Caps Have Been Shrinking Since About 1850.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e31 \u003c\/b\u003eGreenland Is Losing Ice Faster All the Time. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e32 \u003c\/b\u003ePolar Bears Will Suffer as Sea Ice Continues to Melt. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e33 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Growing Season in the Continental United States Is Two Weeks Longer than It Was in 1900. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e34 \u003c\/b\u003eEcosystems Around the World Are Already Seeing Big Changes as the Climate Warms. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e35 \u003c\/b\u003eSome Species Can Adapt to Changing Climate a lot Better than Others. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e36 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Arctic Has Been Losing Ice Much Faster than the Antarctic. That’s Just What Scientists Expected.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e37 \u003c\/b\u003eArctic Sea Ice Has Been on a Mostly Downward Spiral for the Past Thirty Years.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e38 \u003c\/b\u003eDroughts, Torrential Rains, and Other Extreme Weather Are Happening More Often than They Used To.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e39 \u003c\/b\u003eRising Ocean Temperatures Are Causing a Major Die-Off in Corals. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eIII WHAT’S LIKELY TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e40 \u003c\/b\u003eComputer Models Aren’t Perfect. This Isn’t a Big Surprise. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e41 \u003c\/b\u003eSince We Don’t Know Whether and How Much People Might Cut Greenhouse- Gas Emissions, It’s Hard to Know Exactly How High the Temperature Will Go by 2100. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e42 \u003c\/b\u003eAn Imperfect but Still Pretty Good Prediction: Sea Level Will Rise Two to Six Feet by 2100. But That Could Change.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e43 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Effects of Greenhouse Gases Won’t Magically Stop in 2100.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e44 \u003c\/b\u003eBest Guess About Atlantic Hurricanes in the Future: Fewer, but More Powerful.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e45 \u003c\/b\u003eWhatever Happens with Hurricanes, Higher Sea Level Will Make the Storm Surges They Cause More Destructive. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e46 \u003c\/b\u003eClimate Change Will Force People to Move, but Whether It’s a Million People or a Hundred Million Is Hard to Say. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e47 \u003c\/b\u003eClimate Change Can Be Bad for Your Health.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e48 \u003c\/b\u003eClimate Change Can Be Bad for the Health of Entire Species, and Even for Their Survival.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e49 \u003c\/b\u003eFreshwater Will Become Scarcer. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e50 \u003c\/b\u003eDroughts Will Probably Come More Often. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e51 \u003c\/b\u003eClimate Change Is Likely to Destabilize the Food Supply. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eIV CAN WE AVOID THE RISKS OF CLIMATE CHANGE?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e52 \u003c\/b\u003eWho Says a 2°C Temperature Rise Won’t Bring Really Bad Consequences? Not Scientists. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e53 \u003c\/b\u003eUsing Ethanol in Your Car Can Reduce Emissions—but Not Always by a lot.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e54 \u003c\/b\u003eBurning Coal Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Emitting Greenhouse Gases. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e55 \u003c\/b\u003eWind Energy Can’t Solve Our Emissions Problem by Itself. Neither Can Other Renewables. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e56 \u003c\/b\u003eEnergy Costs Are Likely to Rise in the Short Term if We Limit Carbon Emissions. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e57 \u003c\/b\u003eNuclear Energy Is Essentially Carbon-Free. That Doesn’t Mean It’s Without Issues. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e58 \u003c\/b\u003eEven If We Can’t Reduce Emissions, Futuristic Technology Could Save Us. Maybe. And It Could Be Risky. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e59 \u003c\/b\u003eIf We Made It Easier for Plants and Animals to Relocate,\u003cbr\u003e We Might Prevent Some Species from Going Extinct. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e60 \u003c\/b\u003eReducing Emissions Has Benefi ts and Costs. But It’s Hard to Pin Down Exactly What They Are. \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eEpilogue: The IPCC Is What, Exactly?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eReferences \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eList of Outside References \u003c\/i\u003e“A breath of fresh air: just the facts, efficient and easy to understand.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eScientific American\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Slim and elegant . . . lays out what we know about climate change while hewing to the facts and taking great care to avoid bias and hysteria.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eGlobal Weirdness\u003c\/i\u003e is probably the weirdest book about global warming you’re going to read . . . because it’s nonpartisan, making absolutely zero attempts to agitate for legislation.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTime Out Chicago\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“So welcome . . . explains climate change in simple, easy-to-understand language and ultrashort chapters.” \u003cbr\u003e—Mark Bittman, author of \u003ci\u003eHow to Cook Everything\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Written in straightforward prose and fact-checked by the world’s eminent climate scholars, \u003ci\u003eGlobal Weirdness\u003c\/i\u003e reads like the 9\/11 Commission Report: all of the facts, none of the hyperbole. In four succinct sections, its authors detail the truth about climate change.” \u003cbr\u003e—CBS Smart Planet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This primer on the science of global warming provides a fact-filled explanation of how climate change impacts, and will continue to impact, our daily lives. The 60 concise and easily digestible chapters tackle such questions as: Is climate ever ‘normal’? What risks does climate change pose for human health? What are the economic costs and benefits of reducing carbon emissions? The authors are up-front about the potential downfalls of alternative energy and technological fixes.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eConversation Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Without talking down to readers, the authors do a masterful job of clarifying all aspects of a complicated and alarming topic, making it that much more difficult for global-warming denialists to keep their heads in the sand.” \u003cbr\u003e–\u003ci\u003eBooklist \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With quippy titles, helpful summaries, and a jargon-free writing style, Climate Central integrates scientific, historical, and sociological facts in an appealing and informative manner.... A great starter text on climate-change issues--fans of Bill McKibben will enjoy this work and then pass it along to skeptical friends.” \u003cbr\u003e–\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An ideal introduction to the facts about global warming . . . Lucidly written and thoughtful.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An easily digestible read, with most chapters less than three pages long. Divided into four sections (‘What the Science Says,’ ‘What’s Actually Happening,’ ‘What’s Likely to Happen in the Future,’ and ‘Can We Avoid the Risks of Climate Change?’), the book covers all the basics, including descriptions of Earth’s previous climates and how hard it is for different cultures to adjust to changes; the difference between weather and climate; the greenhouse effect; and how climate scientists’ predictions are coming true.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003eThis book was produced collectively by scientists and journalists at CLIMATE CENTRAL, a nonprofit, nonpartisan science and journalism organization. The book was written by Emily Elert and Michael D. Lemonick; prior to external scientific peer review, it was reviewed by staff scientists Philip Duffy, Ph.D. (Chief Scientist), Nicole Heller, Ph.D. (ecosystems and adaptation), Alyson Kenward, Ph.D. (chemistry), Eric Larson, Ph.D. (energy systems), and Claudia Tebaldi, Ph.D. (climate statistics).\u003cb\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn February 2010, Thomas Friedman made the following plea in his \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ecolumn:\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAlthough there remains a mountain of research from multiple institutions about the reality of climate change, the public has grown uneasy. What’s real? In my view, the climate-science community should convene its top experts—from places like NASA, America’s national laboratories, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, the California Institute of Technology and the U.K. Met Office Hadley Centre—and produce a simple 50-page report. They could call it “What We Know,” summarizing everything we already know about climate change in language that a sixth grader could under- stand, with unimpeachable peer-reviewed footnotes.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWe couldn’t agree more. It’s quite remarkable that despite the steady growth in scientific understanding about the causes and effects of climate change, and the growing confidence of climate scientists that it poses a potentially serious threat to people, property, and ecosystems, the public seems more confused than ever. Is climate change really happening? If so, and if it’s happened due to natural causes in the past, why should we think it’s our fault this time? Haven’t scientists been wrong before? They can’t even predict the weather a week in advance; how can they possibly say anything about what the climate will be like fifty years from now?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA big part of the problem is that climatology is a relatively young and evolving field. Scientists are still learning about Earth’s climate system—about how the land, oceans, and atmosphere absorb heat from the sun and move that heat around, and about how heat drives storms, droughts, sea-level rise, heat waves, and more.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut just because they don’t know everything about the climate doesn’t mean they know nothing. Far from it. They know for certain (and they’ve known for more than a hundred years) that carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere traps the sun’s heat. They know that burning fossil fuels including coal, oil, and natural gas adds extra CO2 to the atmosphere beyond what’s already there naturally. They know that humans have been burning more and more fossil fuels since the Indus- trial Revolution and that, as a result, levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are more than a third higher than they were a couple hundred years ago. No responsible scientist, including most of those who have been labeled “climate skeptics,” argues with any of this.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThere’s also very little argument over what the broad effects of an increase in CO2 should be. The planet should get warmer. Sea level should begin to rise as warming ocean waters expand and as the warmer air melts glaciers and ice caps. That is exactly what both ground-based and satellite measurements have shown. On average, the oceans are about eight inches higher than they were in 1900, and the temperature is about 1.3°F hotter.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThings get more complicated when scientists try to predict what’s likely to happen in the future. The reason is that Earth doesn’t just respond passively to increasing temperatures: it can react in all sorts of ways that might boost the temperature rise or hold it back—and scientists haven’t yet unraveled all of these possibilities. Increasing cloud cover could reflect extra sunlight back into space. Decreasing ice cover in the Arctic could do the opposite. Melting Arctic permafrost might release extra carbon that has been in a deep freeze for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s also not clear precisely how the changes in temperature will translate into changes in local conditions, although it’s very likely that familiar weather and climate patterns will change, perhaps in surprising ways. That’s why this book isn’t titled “Global Warming,” but rather “Global Weirdness,” since warming is only part of what we can expect.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThese uncertainties are one reason the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, could only narrow the likely temperature rise by 2100 to between 3.2ºF and 7.2ºF above what it was in 2000. Another reason is that we don’t know if fossil-fuel use will keep going up, or level off, or decline over that period.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis isn’t to say that literally every climate scientist agrees with these findings. Some think that the temperature rise will be less than 3.2ºF, while others think it could be more than 7.2ºF. But there’s no field in science, from genetics to evolutionary biology to astrophysics, where agreement is absolute. The reports issued periodically by the IPCC are meant to be snapshots of what climate scientists \u003ci\u003egenerally \u003c\/i\u003eagree on at a given time (the most recent report came out in 2007; the next one is due out in 2013 or 2014). And despite some very public criticisms about the organization and its procedures, several independent investigations have shown only a tiny handful of scientific errors in the thousands of pages that make up the reports themselves. The same is true of the so-called Climategate episode, in which a few scientists said intemperate things in private e-mails and were somewhat sloppy in their record keeping. Outside investigators have found them guilty of carelessness but didn’t find anything to cast doubt on the science itself.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eResponsible scientists also know that it’s important to keep questioning their own results. “The first principle,” the physicist Richard Feynman once said, “is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.” He meant that scientists need to consider all plausible explanations for what they observe, not just the most obvious or conventional. If Earth is warming, it’s probably due to greenhouse gases, but it could instead be that the sun is putting out more heat. Scientists have looked carefully at that possibility, and it doesn’t seem to hold up. They’ve also looked at the role of volcanoes and other natural factors that have caused warming or cooling in the past, and so far nothing explains the warming as well as greenhouse gases do.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFinally, the public has undoubtedly been confused by statements about climate change that sound authoritative but are simply false. Take the often-repeated assertion that global warming stopped in 1998. If you look at a graph spanning the years 1998–2010, that might appear to be close to the truth. But 1998 was an unusually warm year, so it’s a misleading starting point. If you start in 1997 or 1999, things look very different. And if you zoom out to look at a graph spanning the years 1900–2010, it’s clear that the first decade of the twenty-first century is warmer than any decade during that 110-year period.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAll of this wouldn’t matter very much if we were talking about a field like astrophysics. It ultimately doesn’t matter whether there’s a black hole in the center of the Milky Way or not. But if the effects of climate change are going to be truly disruptive, the problem would be dangerous to ignore. If they’re not, we risk diverting a lot of resources for no reason. The difficulty is that if we wait until scientists are absolutely certain about every detail, it will be impossible to undo the damage, whatever it turns out to be.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSo it’s crucial for the public and for policy makers to understand what we do know about climate change; what we strongly suspect to be true, based on the available evidence; and what we’re still uncertain about. Such knowledge is necessary to make informed decisions.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis book is an attempt to do just that: to lay out the current state of knowledge about climate change, with explanations of the underlying science given in clear and simple language. It’s not exhaustive, but it covers the essentials. Since many aspects of the climate system are interconnected, so are many of the chapters: some of the information in the book appears in some form in more than one chapter.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn order to be as credible as possible, we’ve taken great care to avoid bias. We acknowledge that some aspects of the problem can’t yet be addressed with certainty. We also make clear what climate scientists \u003ci\u003edo \u003c\/i\u003eknow with a high degree of confidence.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTo ensure technical accuracy, each chapter has been carefully reviewed internally by Climate Central scientists and revised in response to their comments. The chapters have then been reviewed again by eminent outside scientists who have particular expertise in the relevant subject areas—and then, if necessary, revised again.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe result, we believe, is an accurate overview of the state of climate science as it exists today.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA final note: we can’t promise that all sixth graders will understand every word of this book. But we’ve tried to keep the language as simple, straightforward, and jargon-free as possible. We hope you find it useful.","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301284663525,"sku":"NP9780307743367","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780307743367.jpg?v=1767728198","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/global-weirdness-isbn-9780307743367","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}