Climate Change

The Health of a Planet in Peril

Bibliographic Data

ID8375437
AuthorsC Gregory Knight, Carl Knight (0000-0002-6093-2868, Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume100
Issue4
Pages1036-1045
Publication date2010-08-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnnals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00045608.2010.502444
OpenAlexW2048461757
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeKey Words: assessmentclimate changeglobal warmingpoliticssustainability Notes 1. See http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/peoples-agreement/#more-1584 (last accessed 6 May 2010). 2. For example, Amazon.com recently listed more than 6,000 printed books and 365 books available for its Kindle reading system; BarnesandNoble.com offered more than 5,500 books as well as 148 electronic items on the same date (consulted 2 May 2010). Some of these items are the works of climate change skeptics (it is only a natural cycle; it is a hoax to get money for researchers) and deniers (the climate isn't so sensitive to GHGs or the benefits outweigh the negative impacts); most items express serious and well-informed concern. 3. Google.com yielded 87 million citations in a search on “climate change” OR “global warming”; Yahoo.com noted 90 million (consulted 2 May 2010). 4. It is simply impossible within the scope of this essay to trace the links between climate change and issues of (and vast literature on) related topics such as sustainability, energy, environmental stewardship, global futures, and the like (see Speth 2004 Speth, J. G. 2004. Red sky at morning: America and the crisis of the global environment, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar] as an example). These linkages are explored in many of the books cited, from which readers can launch excursions down paths of interest. This reviewer makes no concession to journalistic demands of fairness and balance: The reader will have no problem locating claims that global warming is at best beneficial and at worst a hoax, and space limitations mean that relevant debate is not reflected here. Many of the books reviewed speak to these controversies. My selections unabashedly reflect mainstream science; the choices of them and views expressed here are mine alone and are not necessarily shared by the Association of American Geographers or its members. Sincere apologies and regrets are extended to the many climate change research colleagues whose work could not be cited here: Absence of your work is by no means an indicator of its value, now and in the future. 5. A graphic of comparative forcings produced by the IPCC is useful: see http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-human-and.html (consulted 6 May 2010). 6. Ruddiman (2005) Ruddiman, W. 2005. Plows, plagues and petroleum: How humans took control of climate, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar] posited that contemporary orbital factors should be leading to global cooling but that over a long period human changes to climate, primarily through agriculture prior to fossil fuel use, have overcome this trend. In a related way, the concept of “global dimming” suggests that aerosols from fossil fuels and deforestation have masked GHG-induced global warming; air pollution control has the potential to increase global warming and reveal the true magnitude of the challenge. Conversely, purposeful injection of atmospheric aerosols could be a “geoengineering” solution to global warming. 7. An illustration of business-as-usual appears in the caption of Robert Mankoff's New Yorker cartoon (9 September 2002) of a public speaker: “And so, while the end-of-the-world scenario will be rife with unimaginable horrors, we believe the pre-end period will be filled with unprecedented opportunities for profit.” 8. See Moser and Dilling (2007) on communicating climate change and facilitating the changes that must occur 9. Other GHGs, such as methane and water vapor, are compared to CO2 based on their relative level of radiative forcing and longevity in the atmosphere—that is, global warming potential. 10. The term semiautobiographical often refers to a work that combines autobiography and fiction. Here I use the term to describe books that speak to scientific knowledge, science as a social process, and the interaction of science and society from the perspective of a participant such as Bolin. A strength of several of the reviewed volumes comes from documenting the author's direct involvement, works that incorporate science, history, and career experience (Broecker, Schneider, Hansen). 11. For a specific look at scientific disputes and to a limited extent their reflection in the media, Mooney's (2007) Storm World documents the vigorous arguments about the impact of global warming on hurricane frequency and intensity. 12. Lynas (2008) Lynas, M. 2008. Six degrees: Our future on a hotter planet, Washington, DC: National Geographic Books. [Google Scholar] also elaborates what Earth would look like at one, two, and onward to six degrees warmer. See also McKibben (2010) McKibben, B. 2010. Eaarth: Making a life on a tough new planet, New York: Times Books. [Google Scholar] for an apocalyptic view of “Eaarth.” 13. See Dessler and Parson (2010) for an elaboration of the political issues. 14. Mann is one of the permanent contributors to the World Wide Web site, http://www.realclimate.org. 15. Important sources for examining issues of emissions, mitigation, and potentials for adaptation at the national level are the National Communications and National Adaptation Programmes of Action submitted to the UNFCCC (n.d.). 16. Readers will recognize the same paradox as focal in Diamond's (2005) “practical lessons” from study of the collapse of societies. Al Gore's message is not yet heard where it needs to be (Gore 2006 Gore, A. 2006. An inconvenient truth: The planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it, Emmaus, PA: Rodale. [Google Scholar]); perhaps our future will be that of the Nacirema (Thompson 1972 Thompson, N. B. 1972. The mysterious fall of the Nacirema. Natural History, 81: 11–18. 80–84. [Google Scholar]). 17. A good example of climate change as a security risk is Schubert et al. (2008), a book of that title produced for the German Advisory Council on Global Change. This volume has sections that are conceptual, for example, introducing the concept of a “conflict constellation,” and regional, citing specific “hotspots of climate change.” 18. Recognizing the seminal importance of Rachel Carson's (1962) book

Climate change · Global warming · Political science · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Science and Climate Studies

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