This is a remarkably nuanced historical account of the science of climate change -- especially for a book that is so brief and readable. Weart is not uncertain or "lukewarm" on whether global climate science is "real" -- he concludes that it is very likely that significant global warming will bring serious harmful consequences in our lifetime, and that "the few who contest these facts are either ignorant or so committed to their viewpoint that they will seize on any excuse to deny the danger." (p.199).

But he does not gloss over the complexities and uncertainties that are inherent in this judgment. The science of global warming did not unfold in an inevitable, linear fashion; Weart argues that science in any field very seldom does. Rather, scientific evidence and theories about global climate change developed in a much more fitful, sporadic basis. Studying so broad and amorphous an object as "the climate" continues to pose daunting technical and conceptual challenges for scientists. But the social challenge of developing the kind of collaborative relationships across scientific specialties needed to properly study climate has been perhaps the greatest challenge of all.

Whatever the reader's position on global warming, this book will heighten the appreciation for what is entailed in generating reliable scientific knowledge about global warming. And if you want to know more, the book links to the author's website which provides much more detail and many of the primary sources on which this book was based: http://www.aip.org/history/climate. (

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PrinceLackadasia | Aug 1, 2007 |

A sober historical account of the dawning realisation amongst most of the scientific community of the fact of global warming. Puts Fred Singer in his place! (

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Fizzog | Jan 2, 2007 |

This was a long and complicated story, and I won't remember most of it for more than a day or two.
But that wasn't the goal; the goal was to get an overview of the history of climate research --- basic science, computer models, experimental work and so on --- and this book did a really fine job in that respect.
My hope, now, is that when I read any other book on climate, I'll have at least a passing familiarity with how to fit it into a larger body of knowledge. (

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name99 | Nov 11, 2006 |

This is a decent history of the Global Warming theory, from the 1880s to about 2001. The theory entered mainstream knowledge in the 1970s, and mainstream concern in the 1980s. By the IPPC report of 2001 it is now beyond any reasonable doubt and is really no longer a science issue but a social question, what do we do. (

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Stbalbach | Jul 5, 2006 |

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0674016378, Paperback)

THIS EDITION HAS BEEN REPLACED BY A NEWER EDITION..

In 2001 a panel representing virtually all the world's governments and climate scientists announced that they had reached a consensus: the world was warming at a rate without precedent during at least the last ten millennia, and that warming was caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases from human activity. The consensus itself was at least a century in the making. The story of how scientists reached their conclusion--by way of unexpected twists and turns and in the face of formidable intellectual, financial, and political obstacles--is told for the first time in The Discovery of Global Warming. Spencer R. Weart lucidly explains the emerging science, introduces us to the major players, and shows us how the Earth's irreducibly complicated climate system was mirrored by the global scientific community that studied it.

Unlike familiar tales of Science Triumphant, this book portrays scientists working on bits and pieces of a topic so complex that they could never achieve full certainty--yet so important to human survival that provisional answers were essential. Weart unsparingly depicts the conflicts and mistakes, and how they sometimes led to fruitful results. His book reminds us that scientists do not work in isolation, but interact in crucial ways with the political system and with the general public. The book not only reveals the history of global warming, but also analyzes the nature of modern scientific work as it confronts the most difficult questions about the Earth's future.

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