An excellent book, I am now a fan of Tim Flannery his direct style and vast knowledge come together as a wonderful interesting reality account of where we are in the climate change factual story. ( )

Everything you want to know on the global warming issue. ( )

Inconvenient truth in expanded detail is an apt description for this book. The book format can include a lot more information than a movie so if you want to know more about global warming than what is in Al Gore's movie, this is a good place to start. The author is from Australia so that country gets more coverage than one would otherwise expect. Nevertheless, the subject of global warming is well covered. The book was first published in 2001 and updated in 2006 so it may becoming a bit date...more Inconvenient truth in expanded detail is an apt description for this book. The book format can include a lot more information than a movie so if you want to know more about global warming than what is in Al Gore's movie, this is a good place to start. The author is from Australia so that country gets more coverage than one would otherwise expect. Nevertheless, the subject of global warming is well covered. The book was first published in 2001 and updated in 2006 so it may becoming a bit dated in a quickly expanding subject area.

Read in April, 2008 ( )

In the late '90s Tim Flannery, an Australian geologist, got curious enough about global warming and the alleged controversy regarding it that he decided to pursue and read all current research on the subject to see what degree of worry might be merited. The result of his interest is this book, which is a very nice summary of current climate change research circa 2007.

Of course, a simple summary of climatological research could easily be incredibly dry or impenetrable, so the skill of the author in presenting the material is key. Flannery appears to be more than up to the task, and the boook is as accessible as it is comprehensive.

Starting with the basics of the relationship between atmospheric gases and climate, moving on to the signs that climate change is already underway, and finishing with a look at the various technologies that may or may not help prevent catastrophic changes, the book provides a thorough look to all the issues surrounding global warming. ( )

A discussion on global warming that covers an assortment of aspects, and presents an absolutely convincing argument that global warming is both real and far along. Topics covered included the earth’s climate history, the mechanisms of global warming, the effects present and future, Kyoto and other efforts to halt human harm of the atmosphere, and what Flannery sees as the solution.

As a summary, the human-friendly earth is desperate for us to act now on global warning, not next year. And there are answers.

One observation he makes really struck me: historically all cost estimates to reduce industrial pollution are largely overstated, often by more then twice the real cost. Whereas all cost estimates to clean up after pollution are enormously understated, often by an order of magnitude.

Flannery is not an alarmist. He writes in an accessible manner, does a good job of putting various facts together to make his point. There is a lot to be learned here, and you don’t need to be a scientist to follow along and understand.

Climate History
The most interesting sections for me were on the mechanism causing global warming and the earth’s climate history. The later underlining the former. How interesting that Homo sapiens have existed for 150,000 years, and yet almost all technological advancement occurred within the last 10,000 years? What happened during those 1st 140,000 years? Flannery argues that climate happened. The ice ages and other naturally phenomena hindered humanity, driving it to the brink of extinction at least once. Then, over the last 10,000 years we’ve had one long summer of stable climate.

Global Warming Mechanisms
As for the mechanism, Flannery begins by giving a nice clear explanation. He tries to cover the latest research through 2005, and includes many critical findings that only date to within a couple years before the book was published. Global warming has been discussed for a long time, but we are still trying to understand the mechanisms. And some of the most critical and convincing research is very recent. The problem is that the climate is very complex, with many features offsetting others. Sometimes a feature that would seem the drive the climate one way actually is critical to driving it the other. The key features are the positive feedbacks. This is where warming triggers an event which then causes more warming. For example warming melts ice caps. The ice, which reflects large amounts of the suns energy, is them replaced by sea water or something else that reflects a great deal less of it.

Unfortunately it seemed to me that this explanation stopped a little too early, leaving some unanswered questions. At least I was still confused and ready for more clarification. Alas it didn’t come.

The Effects Present and Future
I want to say that these sections were horrifying. But there are so many examples that my eyes glaze over after awhile. I get the point, global warming is doing bad things, species are going extinct as a tremendous rate, places like Australia are losing critical rainfall. Yes, OK…no no no, please not another example.

But, what is fascinating here are the two climate windows we’ve passed through recently that are well documented: 1976 & 1998. Global climates shifted dramatically these two years, and did not return. Some threshold was passed beginning positive feedback loops towards a warmer climate. This should be enough to get our attention that climate is changing for the warmer and will continue to do so if we don’t reduce emissions.

Kyoto and Other Efforts to Halt Human Harm of the Atmosphere
It’s a sad reality that industry is successfully confusing the picture, and undermining popular understanding of globally warming. I don’t recall any stunning details here, Flannery just points out the obvious as he tries to explain why the United States and Australia haven’t ratified Kyoto – an underwhelming and partial answer to global warming.

To quote:
“It is of paramount importance to understand that the Kyoto Protocol is the only international treaty in existence created to combat climate change. For those who urge abandonment or who criticize Kyoto, there are two questions: What do you propose to replace Kyoto with, and how do you propose to secure international agreement for your alternatives? ”

The Solution
Sign Kyoto. Begin taxing carbon emission and investing in all alternatives to coal and oil. As we invest, the costs of alternatives will come down. There are several, including wind, solar and nuclear energy, and all need to be used at some level. And once emissions are taxed, better ways will be found to replace coal and oil. Flannery seems most interested in the solution and the actions we can take. His makes a good point that there is a lot we can do now - and the costs of doing them probably aren't all that high. Acting now would make a huge difference. ( )