Product Description

Global Warming is one of the most controversial scientific issues of the twenty-first century. This is a problem that has serious economic, sociological, geopolitical, political, and personal implications. This Very Short Introduction is an informative, up-to-date, and readable book about the predicted impacts of global warming and the surprises that could be in store for us in the near future. It unpacks the controversies that surround global warming, drawing on material from the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a huge collaborative study drawing together current thinking on the subject from experts in a range of disciplines, and for the first time presents the findings of the Panel for a general readership. The book also discusses the politics of global warming, and looks at what we can do now to adapt to climate change and mitigate its worst effects.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #267812 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 180 pages

The Independent, December 17, 2004
Maslin's primer packs an amazing quantity and quality of data and debate into its brief span.

About the Author
Mark Maslin is Lecturer in palaeoceanography and palaeoclimatology at the Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London. He writes for the New Scientist and the Guardian, and has been a consultant, commentator, and presenter for radio and television programmes. He is author of Global Warming (forthcoming from Colin Baxter), volumes on earthquakes, storms, and floods in the 'Restless Planet' series, and more than fifty journal articles on
climatology and environmental geography.

Customer Reviews

A Very Good Introduction
It's very striking that at least three of Amazon's top 20 books on global warming represent only the sceptical / George W Bush view, which is supplied mostly by economists funded by oil companies rather than publicly-funded climate scientists as it happens. Are readers earnestly searching for a balanced view, or is it that we prefer to read books that confirm our hopes and allow us to go on with our lives reassured?

This little book makes two major contributions to the debate. First it conveys all the essential information about global warming in an accurate and accessible way, soundly based in the author's extensive experience in paleoclimatic studies. But at least as important is the way in which it engages with climate change scepticism, showing how it is based in real scientific argument as well as self-serving dismissal. The arguments of sceptics are fairly represented, with some points frankly conceded and other rebutted with the help of the latest scientific evidence. But as well as arguing the specific claims, the author shows how the debate reflects deeper divisions between participants regarding conceptions of nature and risk. So for example sceptics might view nature as basically resilient, even eternal, thus discounting environmental risks compared with environmentalists who view it as basically fragile and transient. In other words, as well as trying to resolve some of the arguments about global warming, he shows how some are effectively insoluble in purely scientific terms. If you're after real balance, rather than ideologically-motivated reassurance, you can find it here.

Excellent review, with some original ideas too - well worth the modest investment in time and money
Professor Maslin has written a wide ranging, comprehensive and reasonably balanced review of global warming theory, despite declaring himself part of "the consensus" pretty early on. His 150 or so pages are an excellent summary, covering the greenhouse effect hypothesis, its history, evidence that warming is already happening, thoughts on how we might mitigate its effects, political problems and eventual solutions. Much of the material is from the IPCC's Third Assessment Report (so perhaps an update is on the way) although Maslin brings in other material as well. The most innovative of the chapters dips into the psychology of global warming acceptance/scepticism, and while this may not be a normal part of a geographer's repertoire it is thought provoking all the same. There is quite a lot on storms - this appears to be one of Maslin's own areas of research, and here he is more qualified about stating causative links. He also comments on press coverage, contrasting the Guardian (for which he was a contributor) with The Times, which was more sceptical.

Maslin puts the sceptics case fairly and courteously, although mainly to seek to disprove it or to seize on those elements of global warming theory that sceptics have conceded. While he names many of the consensus thinkers by name, however, he mentions few sceptics; while he does cover the theory of "Chilling Stars", for example, and even gives it an abbreviation (GCRs = Galactic Cosmic Rays), Henrik Svensburg is not mentioned in the text.

He has not, I am afraid, moved me much from my "don't know to moderately sceptical that warming is man-made" position. For example, he accepts the importance of water-vapour as a greenhouse gas, and goes on to accept that water-vapour and the mechanism for cloud formation is one of the least well understood processes. It seemed to me that the next step was to admit that this meant that there was a great deal less certainty in the climate models as they currently stand than some suggest. I was disappointed, too, (as it was one of my purposes in reading the book) that he does not explain any experimental basis quantitatively linking increased CO2 with increased temperature. The computer models (which he explains in concept, though not in individual detail) must have a formula (amongst many) to the effect that "additional 100 ppm CO2 = a temperature rise of x degrees C". You will be none the wiser as to how the (many different) values of "x" might have been calculated.

This was the first of OUP's "A Very Short Introductions" that I have read; there were 133 of them listed I this 2004 edition. I shall certainly read more, but would like to suggest to OUP that they print them in a slightly larger format - at 7" x 4.5" they are rather smaller than standard paperbacks these days and the print is unnecessarily small. While written by a scholar, the book does not give footnotes so it is not easy to establish exactly where a particular fact or argument originates.

That though, is a minor quibble. Overall, an excellent summary with a few original ideas of Maslin's own.

Trite rubbish
The author simply regurgitates the propaganda he has swallowed. There is no merit in this worthless book.