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What's a good book for someone who wants to know more about climate change? I recently bought the most scientific, written by scientists book I could find on Am

What's a good book for someone who wants to know more about climate change? I recently bought the most scientific, written by scientists book I could find on Amazon, and the gist of the book is that any amount of warming that is happening is due to geologic cycles and not human activity. The consensus here seems to be that it is due to human activity, so if that's the case can you point me to a good explanation of what's happening? I'm not biased either way, I just want to know the truth according to science, which seems to be really hard to find for some reason.

lutorm 11y ago
Not hard at all. Assuming you have the required stamina, just look at the IPCC Working Group I's reports, like http://www.amazon.com/Climate-Change-2013-Contribution-Intergovernmental/dp/110766182X http://www.amazon.com/Climate-Change-2013-Contribution-Inter.... From there, you can find thousands of references if you really want to track things down.
drewrv 11y ago
I'm curious what book you read because it sounds like it does not agree with what almost all scientists believe. Perhaps you should start with The IPCC Reports.
- galactical 11y ago
  This was the book, chosen because it looked like the most objective one available: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986398306 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986398306
  - drewrv 11y ago
    This book seems explicitly one sided to me, it says right in the blurb: > The authors of Climate Change: The Facts number some of the most prominent dissenters from Big Climate alarmism
    - galactical 11y ago
      It's definitely one sided, I just thought the author list consisting of climatologists, professors, and scientists would be more fact-based than a lot of the other books out there. Which is why I'm frustrated that that does not appear to be the case.
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
b_emery 11y ago
Nate Silver's "The signal and the noise" had an excellent chapter on it. Did a good job getting to the core of the argument, putting it into non-specialist terms, and evaluating the results skeptically, but with scientific rigor. And no agenda. Highly recommended.
brc 11y ago
You see references to the IPCC here. Safely ignore those. The ipcc is a political organisation - it's in the title. It was setup specifically to find evidence for a set theory, not to study the problem. Plus the models that the IPCC uses to forecast disaster have been proven to have zero predictive power. I would continue to read books written by scientists on both sides of the argument, and ignore anything said by a politically connected person or group.
- galactical 11y ago
  I somewhat agree with this. The IPCC book looks like it's got all the information I'm looking for (maybe a little long for my level of interest), but it's from a non-objective organization so it could be as biased as the book I've got, just in the other direction.
  - brc 11y ago
    Every book you read is biased one way or the other, because the issue has created pathways to power. Given that they are all biased, it's safe to ignore the ones created by governments, which can reap the most benefit. The ipcc reports are two things - a bundling of scientific literature, and a policy statement. There is always a gap between the two, and the policy report comes out before the scientific statement, and is developed with the type of diplomatic horse trading that comes with any type of government report, only more so because it is international diplomacy.

lutorm 11y ago

Not hard at all. Assuming you have the required stamina, just look at the IPCC Working Group I's reports, like http://www.amazon.com/Climate-Change-2013-Contribution-Intergovernmental/dp/110766182X http://www.amazon.com/Climate-Change-2013-Contribution-Inter.... From there, you can find thousands of references if you really want to track things down.

drewrv 11y ago

I'm curious what book you read because it sounds like it does not agree with what almost all scientists believe. Perhaps you should start with The IPCC Reports.

galactical 11y ago
This was the book, chosen because it looked like the most objective one available: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986398306 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986398306
- drewrv 11y ago
  This book seems explicitly one sided to me, it says right in the blurb: > The authors of Climate Change: The Facts number some of the most prominent dissenters from Big Climate alarmism
  - galactical 11y ago
    It's definitely one sided, I just thought the author list consisting of climatologists, professors, and scientists would be more fact-based than a lot of the other books out there. Which is why I'm frustrated that that does not appear to be the case.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]

b_emery 11y ago

Nate Silver's "The signal and the noise" had an excellent chapter on it. Did a good job getting to the core of the argument, putting it into non-specialist terms, and evaluating the results skeptically, but with scientific rigor. And no agenda. Highly recommended.

brc 11y ago

You see references to the IPCC here. Safely ignore those. The ipcc is a political organisation - it's in the title. It was setup specifically to find evidence for a set theory, not to study the problem. Plus the models that the IPCC uses to forecast disaster have been proven to have zero predictive power. I would continue to read books written by scientists on both sides of the argument, and ignore anything said by a politically connected person or group.

galactical 11y ago
I somewhat agree with this. The IPCC book looks like it's got all the information I'm looking for (maybe a little long for my level of interest), but it's from a non-objective organization so it could be as biased as the book I've got, just in the other direction.
- brc 11y ago
  Every book you read is biased one way or the other, because the issue has created pathways to power. Given that they are all biased, it's safe to ignore the ones created by governments, which can reap the most benefit. The ipcc reports are two things - a bundling of scientific literature, and a policy statement. There is always a gap between the two, and the policy report comes out before the scientific statement, and is developed with the type of diplomatic horse trading that comes with any type of government report, only more so because it is international diplomacy.