Climate Change, second edition: What It Means for Us, Our Children, and Our Grandchildren (American and Comparative Environmental Policy) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262525879 ISBN 13: 9780262525879

Publisher: The MIT Press, 2014

Synopsis

An updated and accessible account of what science knows about climate change, incorporating the latest scientific findings and policy initiatives.

Most of us are familiar with the term climate change but few of us understand the science behind it. We don't fully comprehend how climate change will affect us, and for that reason we might not consider it as pressing a concern as, say, housing prices or unemployment. This book explains the scientific knowledge about global climate change clearly and concisely in engaging, nontechnical language, describes how it will affect all of us, and suggests how government, business, and citizens can take action against it.

This completely revised and updated edition incorporates the latest scientific research and policy initiatives on climate change. It describes recent major legislative actions, analyzes alternative regulatory tools including new uses of taxes and markets, offers increased coverage of China and other developing nations, discusses the role of social media in communicating about climate change, and provides updated assessments of the effects of climate change.

The book first explains the basic scientific facts about climate change and its global impact. It discusses the nature of scientific consensus and the strong consensus of mainstream science on climate change. It then explores policy responses and corporate actions in the United States and the rest of the world, discusses how the communication of climate change information by journalists and others can be improved, and addresses issues of environmental justice―how climate change affects the most vulnerable populations and regions. We can better tackle climate change, this book shows us, if we understand it.

About this title

About the Author:

Joseph F. C. DiMento is Professor in the School of Law and former Director of the Newkirk Center for Science and Society at the University of California, Irvine. He is coeditor of Climate Change: What It Means for Us, Our Children, and Our Grandchildren (MIT Press).

From Booklist:

As revealed in Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, many interest groups are involved in the debate over climate change—groups with sometimes overlapping, and frequently diverging, concerns. This book seeks to introduce readers to "the science, politics, and policies of climate change" by taking this complex phenomenon "from the laboratory to the living room." In language understandable to the layperson, the authors begin with a "primer" on the earth's climate system—a balancing act involving the atmosphere, oceans, ice masses, land surface, and the biosphere—and explain how global climate change can impact individual nations. DiMento and Doughman move on to the science of why these changes are occurring, including discussion of greenhouse gases and aerosols and their effect on melting glaciers. They stress the need for the free flow of information and an avoidance of ungrounded scare tactics, and look to the challenges that will face the next generation. A lucid argument for the importance of small, individual steps in the effort to combat global warming, as well as global policy changes. Donovan, Deborah

About this edition

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0262525879
• ISBN 13: 9780262525879
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Dimento Joseph F.C., Doughman Pamela