Read complete books and articles on: Global Warming

Global Warming - the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution.

The temperature of the atmosphere near the earth's surface is warmed through a natural process called the greenhouse effect. Visible, shortwave light comes from the sun to the earth, passing unimpeded through a blanket of thermal, or greenhouse, gases composed largely of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Infrared radiation reflects off the planet's surface toward space but does not easily pass through the thermal blanket. Some of it is trapped and reflected downward, keeping the planet at an average temperature suitable to life, about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius).

Growth in industry, agriculture, and transportation since the Industrial Revolution has produced additional quantities of the natural greenhouse gases plus chlorofluorocarbons and other gases, augmenting the thermal blanket. It is generally accepted that this increase in the quantity of greenhouse gases is trapping more heat and increasing global temperatures, making a process that has been beneficial to life potentially disruptive and harmful. During the past century, the atmospheric temperature has risen 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius), and sea level has risen several inches. Some projected, longer-term results of global warming include melting of polar ice, with a resulting rise in sea level and coastal flooding; disruption of drinking water supplies dependent on snow melts; profound changes in agriculture due to climate change; extinction of species as ecological niches disappear; more frequent tropical storms; and an increased incidence of tropical diseases.

Among factors that may be contributing to global warming are the burning of coal and petroleum products (sources of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone); deforestation, which increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; methane gas released in animal waste; and increased cattle production, which contributes to deforestation, methane production, and use of fossil fuels.

Much of the debate surrounding global warming has centered on the accuracy of scientific predictions concerning future warming. To predict global climatic trends, climatologists accumulate large historical databases and use them to create computerized models that simulate the earth's climate. The validity of these models has been a subject of controversy. Skeptics say that the climate is too complicated to be accurately modeled, and that there are too many unknowns. Some also question whether the observed climate changes might simply represent normal fluctuations in global temperature. Nonetheless, for some time there has been general agreement that at least part of the observed warming is the result of human activity, and that the problem needs to be addressed. In 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, over 150 nations signed a binding declaration on the need to reduce global warming.

In 1994, however, a UN scientific advisory panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, concluded that reductions beyond those envisioned by the treaty would be needed to avoid global warming. The following year, the advisory panel forecast a rise in global temperature of from 1.44 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8–3.5 degrees Celsius) by 2100 if no action is taken to cut down on the production of greenhouse gases, and a rise of from 1 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5–2 degrees Celsius) even if action is taken (because of already released gases that will persist in the atmosphere).

A UN Conference on Climate Change, held in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 resulted in an international agreement to fight global warming, which called for reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases by industrialized nations. Not all industrial countries, however, immediately signed or ratified the accord. In 2001 the G. W. Bush administration announced it would abandon the Kyoto Protocol; because the United States produces about one quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, this was regarded as a severe blow to the effort to slow global warming. Despite the American move, most other nations agreed later in the year (in Bonn, Germany, and in Marrakech, Morocco) on the details necessary to convert the agreement into a binding international treaty.

Improved automobile mileage, reforestation projects, energy efficiency in construction, and national support for mass transit are among relatively simpler adjustments that could significantly lower U.S. production of greenhouse gases. More aggressive adjustments include a gradual worldwide shift away from the use of fossil fuels, the elimination of chlorofluorocarbons, and the slowing of deforestation by restructuring the economies of developing nations. In 2002 the Bush administration proposed several voluntary measures for slowing the increase in, instead of reducing, emissions of greenhouses gases.

See P. Brown, Global Warming: Can Civilization Survive? (1997); T. G. Moore, Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn't Worry about Global Warming (1998); S. G. Philander, Is the Temperature Rising?: The Uncertain Science of Global Warming (1998); K. E. Ready, GAIA Weeps: The Crisis of Global Warming (1998); G. E. Christianson, Greenhouse: The 200-Year Story of Global Warming (1999).

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14 of the Best Books and Articles on: Global Warming

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Global Warming Desk Reference » Read Now
by Bruce E. Johansen. 355 pgs.

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Rapidly rising global temperatures or "infrared forcing," popularly known as the "greenhouse effect," has attracted worldwide concern. This book is a concise, college-level compendium of the research on global warming. It surveys the scientific consensus on the issue, describes recent findings, and...
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Rapidly rising global temperatures or "infrared forcing," popularly known as the "greenhouse effect," has attracted worldwide concern. This book is a concise, college-level compendium of the research on global warming. It surveys the scientific consensus on the issue, describes recent findings, and also considers the arguments of skeptics who doubt that global warming is a threat.
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2.

Inter-Linkages: The Kyoto Protocol and the International Trade and Investment Regimes » Read Now
by W. Bradnee Chambers. 281 pgs.

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In 1997 delegates to the third session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), agreed by consensus to adopt the Kyoto Protocol under which industrialized countries would reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions by an average 5.2% from their...
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In 1997 delegates to the third session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), agreed by consensus to adopt the Kyoto Protocol under which industrialized countries would reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions by an average 5.2% from their 1992 levels. To have any hope of achieving these emission reductions and averting global climate catastrophe will require a fundamental shift in the way in which energy is produced and the way it is used. Inter-linkages examines the Climate Change Convention in the context of potential synergies and conflicts that could arise between it and the World Trade Organization, international investment agreements and private and contractual trade law.
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3.

Greenhouse: The 200-Year Story of Global Warming » Read Now
by Gale E. Christianson. 305 pgs.

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In this illuminating history of global warming, a scientific idea that fills today's headlines, Christianson blends the research of a scholar with a novelist's storytelling skills, unfolding his epic through a series of elegantly linked stories.
4.

Global Warming and East Asia: The Domestic and International Politics of Climate Change » Read Now
by Paul G. Harris. 268 pgs.

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This book analyses the domestic politics, foreign policy and international relations of climate change in East and Southeast Asia. The countries of this important region are often disproportionately affected by climate change and, as they expand and develop, their contribution to the problem grows.
5.

The Greening of Global Warming » Read Now
by Robert Mendelsohn. 39 pgs.

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Robert Mendelsohn contends that the results of recent research on the impacts of climate change dramatically weaken the case for expensive, near-term abatement programs.
6.

Global Warming: The Truth behind the Myth » Read Now
by Michael L. Parsons. 257 pgs.

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...GLOBAL WARMING The Truth behind the Myth GLOBAL WARMING The Truth behind the Myth MICHAEL L. PARSONS...noted political scientist Aaron Wildavsky once termed global warming...
7.

Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media » Read Now
by Patrick J. Michaels. 271 pgs.

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An eminently readable and often humorous critique, Meltdown documents hundreds of exaggerations from scientists, politicians and the media, and ties them together with the common thread of rational self-interest.
8.

The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming » Read Now
by David G. Victor. 173 pgs.

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Even as the evidence of global warming mounts, the international response to this serious threat is coming unraveled. The United States has formally withdrawn from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol; other key nations are facing difficulty in meeting their Kyoto commitments; and developing countries face no...
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Even as the evidence of global warming mounts, the international response to this serious threat is coming unraveled. The United States has formally withdrawn from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol; other key nations are facing difficulty in meeting their Kyoto commitments; and developing countries face no limit on their emissions of the gases that cause global warming. In this clear and cogent book-reissued in paperback with an afterword that comments on recent events--David Victor explains why the Kyoto Protocol was never likely to become an effective legal instrument. He explores how its collapse offers opportunities to establish a more realistic alternative.Global warming continues to dominate environmental news as legislatures worldwide grapple with the process of ratification of the December 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The collapse of the November 2000 conference at the Hague showed clearly how difficult it will be to bring the Kyoto treaty into force. Yet most politicians, policymakers, and analysts hailed it as a vital first step in slowing greenhouse warming. David Victor was not among them.Kyoto's fatal flaw, Victor argues, is that it can work only if emissions trading works. The Protocol requires industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases to specific targets. Crucially, the Protocol also provides for so-called "emissions trading," whereby nations could offset the need for rapid cuts in their own emissions by buying emissions credits from other countries. But starting this trading system would require creating emission permits worth two trillion dollars--the largest single invention of assets by voluntary international treaty in world history. Even if it were politically possible to distribute such astronomical sums, the Protocol does not provide for adequate monitoring and enforcement of these new property rights. Nor does it offer an achievable plan for allocating new permits, which would be essential if the system were expanded to include developing countries.The collapse of the Kyoto Protocol--which Victor views as inevitable--will provide the political space to rethink strategy. Better alternatives would focus on policies that control emissions, such as emission taxes. Though economically sensible, however, a pure tax approach is impossible to monitor in practice. Thus, the author proposes a hybrid in which governments set targets for both emission quantities and tax levels. This offers the important advantages of both emission trading and taxes without the debilitating drawbacks of each.Individuals at all levels of environmental science, economics, public policy, and politics-from students to professionals--and anyone else hoping to participate in the debate over how to slow global warming will want to read this book.
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9.

The Global Warming Tragedy and the Dangerous Illusion of the Kyoto Protocol, in Ethics & International Affairs » Read Now
by Stephen M. Gardiner. 18 pgs.

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...The Global Warming Tragedy and the Dangerous Illusion...standard theoretical models of the global warming problem and explain why those analyses...coalition can be found...
10.

Global Warming and Global Politics » Read Now
by Matthew Paterson. 238 pgs.

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Global warming is established as the major environmental issue in the international political agenda. It is commonly understood to be the most difficult problem to solve politically. Whilst there are many arguments about what should be done about global warming, there have been few attempts to...
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Global warming is established as the major environmental issue in the international political agenda. It is commonly understood to be the most difficult problem to solve politically. Whilst there are many arguments about what should be done about global warming, there have been few attempts to explain the politics surrounding it. Global Warming and Politics fills this gap by looking at the major theories within the discipline of international relations, and considering how these might be able to provide accounts of the emergence of global warming as a political issue. After discussing the dominant neo-realist and neo-liberal institutionalist models, the book concludes that both political economy approaches and these developing discursive approaches have much to offer in helping us understand the international politics of global warming. Global Politics and Global Warming will be extremely useful for all those trying to build an understanding of international relations in general and of international environmental problems in particular.
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11.

The Economics of Global Warming » Read Now
by William R. Cline. 399 pgs.

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12.

Economic Theory and Global Warming » Read Now
by Hirofumi Uzawa. 279 pgs.

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Hirofumi Uzawa's theoretical framework addresses three major problems concerning global warming and other environmental hazards. First, it considers all phenomena involved with global environmental issues that exhibit externalities of one kind or another. Secondly, it covers global environmental...
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Hirofumi Uzawa's theoretical framework addresses three major problems concerning global warming and other environmental hazards. First, it considers all phenomena involved with global environmental issues that exhibit externalities of one kind or another. Secondly, it covers global environmental issues involving international and intergenerational equity and justice. Lastly, it deals with global environmental issues concerning the management of the atmosphere, the oceans, water, soil, and other natural resources having to be decided by a consensus of affected countries.
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13.

Climate Change: Evaluating the Socio-economic Impacts » Read Now
by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 109 pgs.

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...PRESENT SITUATION 10 Global Warming Scenarios 10...benefits of measures to contain global warming will be small, and the balance...measure the potential impacts of global...
14.

Global Environmental Change: Interactions of Science, Policy, and Politics in the United States » Read Now
by Robert G. Fleagle. 243 pgs.

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This study examines how threats to the environment--the facts and probable impacts of global environment change--deserve local, national, and international attention.