Climate Change and Climate Change Science
Looking for the lowdown on the abc’s of climate change? The science, the facts, or the general picture? Whether you prefer to read it, watch it or get it off the internet, you might consider starting with some of the sources listed below.
Read
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What we can Do about it, by Al Gore. Rodale Press: Emmaus, PA, 2006.
The Deniers: the world renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria, political persecution, and fraud and those who are too fearful to do so, by Lawrence Solomon. Richard Vigilante Books: Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2008. (U:)
Read the last chapter of this book first and the reason Energy Probe Executive Director and environmentalist Lawrence Solomon published this expanded anthology of articles from his series for the National Post becomes a bit clearer. That’s where he states, among other things, that he doesn’t necessarily agree with many of the so-called climate change deniers he profiles. He also admits throughout the book that he hasn’t found any reputable scientists who outright deny climate change, just ones who take issue with this or that conclusion in the grand scheme of climate change science and policy. Some of them are mighty pissed off that he’s had the gall to call them deniers in the first place. His summaries of the research of one or two others is populated with enough “ifs” to ellicit a suit from Rudyard Kipling’s estate. A few, particularly his first two or three big guns, sound pretty damning until you realize he’s boosting valid scientific work with a healthy dose of rhetoric to make his case. No, climate change science does not crash to the ground if the hockey stick graph uses faulty statistics (and he admits that the debate about that rages on anyway). Straw men pop up everywhere, he makes extremely liberal use of the term “doomsayers” ensuring that it eventually becomes synonymous with anyone who even suggests that climate change might have negative impacts, and he seldom misses an opportunity to smear the IPCC in passing. Why? All to make what I think is a valid enough point, even if I deplore his approach and shake my head at the people he’s got in bed with to forward his agenda (Terence Corcoran and the Post, Myron Ebbell and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and do check out the other titles available from Richard Vigilante Books). He’s justly worried we’ll panic and take the nuclear option to reduce carbon emissions. Well OK then. I’m right behind him on that one, if nothing else. In spite of its title, read attentively cover to cover, this book could be a potent inoculation against climate change denial. Read piecemeal, it’s just what the take-no-action camp ordered. Author
Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming (The Illustrated Guide to the findings of the IPCC), by Michael Mann and Lee R. Kump. DK Publishing, Inc. New York, 2009.
Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction, by Mark Maslin. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2004. (U:)
The book equivalent of An Inconvenient Truth in that taking it in requires a relatively brief time commitment, but covers a lot of the basic information (and much more) on the topic very well. Maslin a bit too obviously favours the cap and trade approach to CO2 reductions judging by his brusque dismissal of carbon taxes, but I’m quibbling. This pint sized pocket book is an excellent climate change primer.
Global Warming: Are We Entering the Greenhouse Century? by Stephen Schneider. Sierra Club Books: San Francisco, CA, 1989. (U:)
Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World, by Andrew Weaver. Viking Canada: Toronto, 2008. (U:)
Watch
An Inconvenient Truth. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Paramount Pictures 2006. (U:)
If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s as good a ninety-minute introduction to climate change as you’ll find anywhere.
Available: Amazon, CPL, EPL, FMPL, LPL, RDPL .
Arctic Mission: Washed Away. Dir. Patricio Henriquez. National Film Board of Canada, 2003. (U:)
Arctic Rush. CBC Doc Zone. CBC Learning, 2006. (U:)
Dimming the Sun: What does this Climate Conundrum mean for the Future of Earth? Dir: BBC, 2004 (Boston Video, Nova PBS). (U:)
Everything’s Cool: A Toxic Comedy about Global Warming. Dir. Gold, Daniel B. and Judith Helfand. Working Films, City Lights Home Entertainment, Warner/Elektra/Atlantic Inc. 2007. (U:)
Global Warming: The Science of Global Warming, Solutions. Dir. Narr. Erick Avari Ambrose Video, 2006. (U:)
Global Warming: What’s up with the Weather? Writ., Prod. Dir.:Jon Palfreman. 2000.2006, 2007 WGBH Boston Video.
The Great Warming: The Human Fingerprint, Age of Uncertainty, Our Children’s Planet. Narrr. Alanis Morrissett and Keanu Reeves. Prod. Stonehaven Productions. Filmwest Associates. (U:)
Too Hot Not to Handle. prod. Susan Lester and Joseph Levitt. Writ. Susan Joy Hassel. HBO Video, 2006. (U:)
Surf
Desmog Blog: Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science. (U:) link
The Great Global Warming Swindle. Dir. Martin Durkin for Channel 4 TV, originally broadcast March 8, 2007. Accessible on internet at Garage TV. (U:)
This documentary, made for Britain’s iconoclastic Channel 4, is sometimes put forward by global warming deniers as proof positive of the case against action on climate change. Remind these people that it had to be recut a number of times to excise inaccuracies and, when it was put before the British media regulator, Ofcom, on complaints of misrepresentation and misleading the public, it received a particularly damning ruling, escaping harsher judgement only because the reality of climate change was deemed no longer a matter of debate by the time it was broadcast. Watch it if you like, but before you let it change your mind, give it a thorough fact check on Google (See also: The Great Global Warming Swindle ABC Debates, below).
The Great Global Warming Swindle ABC Debates, accessed on You Tube in 9 parts. (U:)
If you watch the Great Global Warming Swindle, you should also watch this Australian Broadcasting Corporation debate/expose of its misinformation tactics. Only one of many responses to the Swindle, this news special catalogues the films flaws one by one and tells you a few things you should know about the filmmaker as well. Sure, the ABC moderator and some of the scientists on the panel behave a lot like the bully oil lobbyists who posed as “credible” critics of global warming science on North American TV news for years, but in this case, the audacity of director Martin Durkin’s polemic arguably warrants it.
Real Climate: Climate Science from Climate Scientists. link
United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP15). link
The official website of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change. An excellent-looking resource.