Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Global Warming: Alarmists, Skeptics and Deniers brings a unique geological perspective to this politically charged issue, a perspective that has been ignored far too long. Written by a father-son team of geoscientist and attorney, it is the concise guide to the global warming controversy that has been long needed. As a university professor and research geoscientist for thirty years, Dr. Robinson knows that geological science is essential for placing the global warming controversy in proper prospective. One cannot hope to understand how humans might be causing climate change without an understanding of the magnitude and speed natural processed are capable of when it comes to climate change. Earth history is the only yardstick we have to determine whether recent climate change is unusual or not. Yet, inexplicably, a vast repository of geologic data has been ignored in this contentious issue. Global Warming: Alarmists, Skeptics and Deniers was written to correct this oversight.
This book has been years in the making. It follows the outline Dr. Robinson used successfully for many years in a college classes taken by large numbers of students. Using an easy-to-understand question and answer format, the fourteen chapters of the book cover systematically all the major scientific issues of global warming. With more than three hundred references to peer-reviewed science journal articles and numerous illustrations, it shows how the scientific underpinnings of the global warming theory are actually weak and uncertain.
Dr. Robinson is the author of numerous scientific articles in national and international journals. His background in teaching a wide variety of geology courses has shown him how to present difficult scientific concepts in a way that is understandable and interesting to non-scientists. He has chaired sessions at scientific conferences, led seminars for science teachers, served as the head at two different college geoscience departments and was interviewed on a television network. His co-author and son, an attorney experienced in argumentative rhetoric, has helped him hone in on the erroneously based assumptions underlying activists' arguments. He has also served as a sounding board for areas where the writing, intended for a general audience, needed to be less technical. Together, this unique father-son team present a well thought out and fully documented discussion of the global warming theory without impugning anyone's sincerity, motives or personal integrity. Global Warming: Alarmists, Skeptics and Deniers covers the science of global warming, but unlike many other books, not the politics.
Synopsis
Is the earth's climate changing? Yes, and it has been changing since the earth formed 4,600,000,000 years ago. And it will continue to change long after the petroleum age is forgotten.
This book summarizes the science of climate change and the theory of global warming in a way that is understandable to ordinary people using a simple question and answer format. For those desirous of learning more, references to cited peer-reviewed scientific articles are provided. The book takes a geologic point of view, intentionally elevating data above predictions and forecasts, for this is what has made the scientific method so successful in advancing the human condition. The book does not discuss the politics of climate change, the economics, the merits of any particular policy direction or any point of view intentionally meant to favor one political party over another, whether liberal or conservative. Plenty of other books cover such topics.
The book makes it clear that today's climate is changing, just as has been true for the entire history of the earth, climate has always changed. This is the way of the earth. For nearly all of earth history, climate changed without human intervention. Today, however, many who seem to know nothing of earth history argue that today's slight change in climate is due to human use of coal and oil. They say all one has to do is to look at the science. That's exactly what this book does. Let's see where it takes us.
"Beware of false knowledge: it is more dangerous than ignorance."-
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, 1903
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Unintentionally one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."-Sherlock Holmes in Sir Author Conan Doyle's A Scandal in Bohemia, 1891
"The tragedy of beautiful theories is that they are often destroyed by ugly facts."-Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)
"By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a group of impoverished islands inhabited by some 70 million hungry people...If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000."-Paul Ehrlich, Speech at British Institute for Biology, September 1971