Richard Wolfson

In Earth's Changing Climate, Professor Richard Wolfson presents a clear and concise explanation of how (and why) our planet's climate is changing. To those who say, "the Earth's climate is always changing, and has changed many times in the past", he explains that those past changes occurred due to natural causes over hundreds of thousands or millions of years, and today's changes are occurring hundreds of times more rapidly than past "natural" changes. He explains how past "natural" changes have occurred, and explains how anthropogenic changes are unlike the past, and why these rapid changes present severe challenges to our now heavily populated planet.

The information is presented in a series of twelve "lectures", each of which is clear and understandable to the non-scientist. The data provides the accepted technical information from scientific organizations across the globe, and is refreshing in that it's not done in a partisan way as one might hear from ideologues on either side of the argument trying to make political points.

If there's a downside to the book, it's mainly in format I selected. I listened to the book, which is great for a daily commute in an automobile, but doesn't lend itself to easily reference the graphs and slide the author sometimes refers to when making his points. To truly understand the information, seeing the graphs really drives the message home. The graphs and charts are available with the audiobook, however if one chooses to listen to the audiobook in the car, as I did, the strength of the arguments being made might not be fully appreciated. However, if the reader has access to the graphs, or already has a fairly good understanding of the information, the need to see the graphs as Professor Woldson discusses the information is not as important.

One other very minor critique is that the information in the book no longer is the most current.
The book is about five years old, and the science and knowledge of climate change continues to evolve at a rapid pace. The information in the book is still valid, of course, however the most recent data available only makes Professor Wolfson's points all the more poignant.
… (mais)

A paperback physics textbook? That's automatically a turnoff for me. It doesn't sit open like a normal textbook, it can't be conveniently held in one hand in order to write on the board, and it's just plain nondurable.

The textbook is also lean on adequate examples. The examples within the chapters range from rudimentary to comprehensive, with little in between.

I almost exclusively relied on a past physics textbook to teach me the concepts, then just returned to this textbook to do my homework.… (mais)