Beacon Press
With speed and violence; why scientists fear tipping points in climate change.
Although he considers himself a skeptical environmentalist, Pearce (a former news editor and current environment and development consultant with New Scientist) is highly alarmed about the prospect of global climate change induced by human activity, warning that, instead of the gradual climate change modeled by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we are quite likely to experience abrupt and violent change triggered by the crossing of hidden tipping points such as the release of huge amounts of methane from the melting Siberian peat, the end of the Asian monsoon as a result of aerosol emissions from China and India, or the shutdown of the ocean's conveyer belt regulating global temperatures. In addition to explaining the science of these tipping points to a lay audience, Pearce profiles the scientists involved in investigating global climate change in the past and predicting its future. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
