Few subjects arouse more resistance and engender more confusion than global warming. Dire warnings about climate change sound like the stuff of science fiction. It's hard to know what to think, or what to do, when we're told there will be an increased number of storms on the order of Hurricane Katrina, worsening droughts and wildfires, and rising sea levels. We can hardly believe that the great sheets of ice at the North and South Poles, immense heat-reflecting shields, are melting. As Al Gore observes, the facts about global warming comprise "an inconvenient truth." And as a new documentary narrated by Alanis Morissette and Keanu Reeves tells us, just as humankind weathered the Great Plague and the Great Depression, we are now facing the challenges of the Great Warming. Below is an annotated list of accessible books providing both information and analysis regarding climate science, firsthand reports from places where the consequences of global warming are evident, and suggested remedies.
Christianson, Gale E. Greenhouse: The 200-Year Story of Global Warming. 1999. Walker, $24 (0-8027-1346-7).
"The story of global warming as told by science writer Christianson embraces a number of fluidly linked topics, including the vanished Anasazi, chimney construction, and increasing greenhouse gases, adding up to a multileveled and level-headed overview.
Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. 2005. Viking, $29.95 (0-670-03337-5).
Pulitzer Prize-winning Diamond considers the reasons civilizations have collapsed, citing environmental damage, climate change, and hostile neighbors, then casts his acute and inclusive gaze on the issue of why civilizations fail to see collapse coming.
Ehrlich, Gretel. The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold. 2004. Knopf, paper, $13.95 (1-4000-3435-2).
Nature writer Ehrlich poignantly recounts her quest for winter in places of waning ice and snow and asks if the restorative season of cold is doomed in a warming world.
Flannery, Tim. The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change. 2006. Grove/Atlantic, $25 (0-87113-935-9).
Flannery's internationally best-selling synopsis of the science of climate change and the impact of global warming on everything from coral reefs to polar bears to cities is driven by an act-now imperative.
Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth. 2006. Rodale, paper, $21.95 (1-59486-567-1).
Gore forthrightly addresses the urgency and, yes, inconvenience of global warming, a phenomenon that demands changes in our lifestyles. The documentary based on the book is now available on DVD.
Linden, Eugene. The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations. 2006. Simon & Schuster, $26 (0-684-86352-9).
Linden's restrained, carefully documented, and therefore persuasive presentation of scientists' theories on historical climate change and the fate of societies such as Greenland's Norse and the Mayans sheds light on the implications of global warming for today's civilizations.
Matthiessen, Peter. End of the Earth: Voyages to the White Continent. 2003. National Geographic, $26 (0-7922-5959-1); paper, $15 (0-7922-6836-9).
The grand master of ethical, nature-oriented travel writing celebrates the astonishing and threatened beauty of Antarctica, and decries the federal government's failure to address global warming.
McKibben, Bill. The End of Nature. 2006. Random, paper, $14.95 (0-8129-7608-8).
Way ahead of the pack when it originally appeared in 1990 and now updated with a new introduction, McKibben's prescient report on global warming is, sadly, resoundingly affirmed day by day.
Pearce, Fred. With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change. Mar. 2007. Beacon, $24.95 (0-8070-8576-6).
Environmental journalist Pearce explains what has led him to conclude, after covering climate change for 18 years, that human activities are stoking global warming, sharing, along the way, supporting evidence gleaned from the poles and the tropics.
Romm, Joseph. Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do. Jan. 2007. Morrow, $24.95 (0-06-117212-X).
Romm presents a lucid overview of climate science, dissects the negative fallout of global-warming politics, and calls for the marshaling of present-day technologies in a concerted effort to avoid calamity.
Speth, James Gustave. Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment. 2004. Yale, $24 (0-300-10232-1); paper, $16 (0-300-10776-5).
Sympathetic to economic needs and lifestyle preferences, yet determined to awaken readers to the need for action and change, Speth calmly articulates easy-to-comprehend information about the consequences of global warming.
Steinman, David. Safe Trip to Eden: 10 Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown. Jan. 2007. Thunder's Mouth, paper, $15.95 (1-56025-806-3).
Steinman, publisher of Healthy Living magazine, rants a bit about global warming and politics, then brings the issue down to a practical level, encouraging readers to alter their habits and live as "carbon-neutral" and nontoxic a life as possible.
Stutz, Bruce. Chasing Spring: An American Journey through a Changing Season. 2006. Scribner, $24 (0-7432-6247-6).
Stutz tracked spring across the country, discerning how and why the season of renewal has changed over the past 50 years due to global warming, which, to mention but two ill effects, disrupts the pollination process and threatens the freshwater supply.
Weart, Spencer. The Discovery of Global Warming. 2003. Harvard, paper, $15.50 (0-674-01637-8).
Weart's soberly written inquiry tracks the scientific inquiries that led to today's understanding of climate change.
Named Works: Greenhouse: The 200-Year Story of Global Warming (Book) Book reviews; Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Book) Book reviews; The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold (Book) Book reviews; The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth (Book) Book reviews; An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do about It (Book) Book reviews; The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations (Book) Book reviews; End of the Earth: Voyages to the White Continent (Book) Book reviews; The End of Nature (Book) Book reviews; With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change (Book) Book reviews; Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do (Book) Book reviews; Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment (Book) Book reviews; Safe Trip to Eden: 10 Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Book) Book reviews; Chasing Spring: An American Journey Through a Changing Season (Book) Book reviews; The Discovery of Global Warming (Book) Book reviews
Source Citation
Seaman, Donna. "Core collection: climate change.(Greenhouse: The 200-Year Story of Global Warming)(Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed)(The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold)(The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth)(An Inconvenient Truth)(The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations)(End of the Earth: Voyages to the White Continent)(The End of Nature)(With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change)(Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do)(Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment)(Safe Trip to Eden: 10 Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown)(Chasing Spring: An American Journey Through a Changing Season)(The Discovery of Global Warming)(Book review)." Booklist 1 Dec. 2006: 19. Academic OneFile. Web. 23 Mar. 2010.
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