Updated book about climate change 'dead accurate'

Climate scientist Kerry Emanuel has updated his 2007 book, What We Know About Climate Change, explaining the most up-to-date science about global warming. Justin Gillis of The New York Times reports the new version is "an improvement, perhaps even the single best thing written about climate change for a general audience."

The new version updates climate science with the latest numbers, and adds chapters about potential solutions to climate change and "the bizarre politics that have cropped up around it in recent years," Gillis writes. He says the book is "dead accurate" about what we know and don't know about climate change, but Emanuel, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, keeps all his language taut and simple so "nobody is likely to be intimidated by the book or to feel put out at being asked to read it. Emanuel told Gillis the point of the book "is to give people some ammunition when they encounter the kind of contrarianism about climate change that has become pervasive in the U.S.."

"Conservatives will find a few points in the book that especially resonate," Gillis writes. "For instance, while Dr. Emanuel assails the irrationality of dismissing an entire branch of science as some kind of elaborate hoax — many Republicans have done lately — as he also takes green groups to task on certain points, including their skepticism about nuclear power. He sees nuclear energy as one of the few ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming, on a large scale. And he is doubtful that renewable energy sources like wind and solar power can be ramped up fast enough to meet the challenge." (Read more)