Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction

Citation

Manolas, E. (2011), "Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction", International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 109-110. https://doi.org/10.1108/17568691111107961

Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction is written by Professor Mark Maslin, Director of the University College London Environment Institute. Professor Maslin is a climatologist and has worked extensively on global warming issues. He is interested for a wide variety of audiences from the layman to the most specialized scientist.

The book contains nine chapters without counting the very few pages comprising the book's introduction and conclusion which, it may be noted, are not considered as chapters by the author. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the concept of global warming. Chapters 3 to 6 look at the science of global warming. Chapters 2 and 7 discuss the social, historic, economic, and political aspects of global warming. Chapter 8 focuses on possible solutions for global warming while Chapter 9 is the author's vision of a zero‐carbon world.

Chapter 1 answers the question of what global warming is. Chapter 2 offers a brief history of the global warming debate. Chapter 3 assesses the evidence for climate change with particular emphasis on what has happened in the last 150 years. Chapter 4 identifies and discusses the predictions of the main climate models with particular reference to the next 100 years. As a follow up of discussion in previous chapters of strong evidence that human actions have already started to influence our climate, Chapter 5 concentrates on the possible future impacts of climate change. Chapter 6 is about surprises or, in other words, about the possibility that climate change may not occur gradually but abruptly and with startling speed. Chapter 7 is about the politics of climate change. In particular, it is about the concerns and interests of the main contenders in international climate talks with particular reference to the Kyoto protocol, its strengths and weakness as well as its future. Chapter 8 is about solutions to global warming and, in particular, two types of solution, adaptation and mitigation. In Chapter 9, the author provides his vision of a zero‐carbon economy and mainly his ideas about how the world will have to change in order to achieve such a goal.

Owing to its pocket size the book can be easily taken anywhere. The book uses language which is easy to follow without, at the same time, sacrificing the scientific part. Besides, the contents page, the opening pages of the book provide:

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  a list of the 33 abbreviations used in the text accompanied by the necessary explanations;

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  a list of the 35 illustrations contained in the book together with the sources the illustrations come from; and

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  the titles of the four tables used in the book.

Each illustration and title of table in the above lists is accompanied by the respective page number it can be found in the book. The book's chapters are divided into sections which help the reader since they classify the information contained in each chapter. All important terms, concepts and ideas in each chapter are followed by their definition the very first time they are used and thus leaving no gaps to the reader as he reads through the book. There are no references used in the text although the book provides at the end a list of 45 sources for further reading. These 45 sources in the further reading list are classified under seven different headings: history of climate change, science, impact assessments, policy, solutions, general reading, and fiction inspired by climate change. The majority of these publications have been published after 2004. In its last ten pages the book also provides an index of the main terms used in the text. The index is quite detailed and very useful in guiding the reader on the main ideas discussed in the book.

Mark Maslin's Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction is not written simply for the general reader but for the general reader who wants to have an informed opinion about the subject of global warming. This does not mean that if someone wants to have some very basic and important information about global warming such information will not be found in the book. For such information one has only to refer to the list of illustrations and titles of tables and then visit the relevant pages. Some examples: temperature, sea level, and snow cover for the last 1,000 years, historic and predicted global carbon dioxide emissions, main greenhouse gases and their comparative ability to warm the atmosphere, impacts of global warming with increasing global average temperatures. However, Mark Maslin's book, it should be noted again, does a lot more than providing basic information.

This is a good introductory book on the subject of global warming. It introduces the reader to the complexities of both the science and the politics of climate change taking into account the global context, the large picture. It covers a lot of information in a small amount of space. The book is also informed by the most recent literature in the field drawing on material from a range of disciplines. In addition, it presents the findings of the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a language the general reader can easily understand. Knowledge is not for some people a pre‐requisite to responsible environmental behaviours but for others it is. If only for this latter group of people Maslin's book is an important book to read.