Tuesday, February 9, 2010

My Beatles Plate

--here is (IMHO) the best Beatle license plate ever--



Number 9...number 9... :)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Good books on climate change & global warming - Updated Oct 2011

If you're looking for a book to get a good understanding of global warming and climate change, pick one of these. All are well researched and very readable.

The best book that I've read so far is the one by James Hansen of NASA. It's still current (it came out in 2010) and he covers the whole scientific picture in very clear, readable prose. He also tells the story of how the Bush administration played games with science by attempting to manipulate or block the research that he was trying to report. The two by Tim Flannery are really good too. The book by Eric Pooley gives an inside picture of both sides of the climate change argument. I have some good books for kids below too.
  • "Storms of My Grandchildren" by James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
  • "Now or Never: Why We Must Act Now to End Climate Change and Create a Sustainable Future" (2009) by Tim Flannery 
  • "The Weather Makers" (2005) by Tim Flannery"
    • I even wrote a review on Amazon to this one. Here it is: http://www.amazon.com/review/R34KT62ZH9TASR/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
  • "The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth's Climate" by David Archer (2010)
  • "The Climate War" by Eric Pooley
    • Eric Pooley has served as managing editor of Fortune and national editor, chief political correspondent and White House correspondent for Time.  He is now deputy editor of Bloomberg Business Week. No Rolling Stone there. A lot of behind-the-scenes reporting on both sides of the climate change argument. Here you see why the deniers case is not defensible.
If we don't take dramatic concerted action, here is what awaits us:
  • "Climate Wars" by Gwynne Dyer
    • Gwynne Dyer is military analyst, and he runs through some of the likely/possible scenarios over the next 50 years, and how countries are likely to react to loss of water, droughts, constant storms, refugees streaming across their borders. Not pretty.  Think about what WW1 was fought over. In that case, millions died over treaties, colonial rights in Africa and bad feelings?  What happens when countries are in real stress and their neighbor countries have food?
Books for kids:
  • "Our Choice" (Young Reader's Edition) by Al Gore - aimed at the 6th-8th grade audience.
  • "How We  Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate; Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming" Cherry, Lynne and Gary Braasch. (Grades 4-8)
    • An introduction to scientists around the world and their research into global warming. Also work of citizen scientists, including children. Covers where clues are found about climate change, combining clues to  get the big picture and how the resulting information is used, and what we all can do. List of all scientists introduced and their locales at the back of the book. 
The kids books are actually good for adults looking for a fast way to come up to speed on the topic, and make for a quick read!