Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas and the Weather of the Future

by Climate Central

Finally, in clear, accessible prose, a fascinating new book that explains climate change—its implications for the future and what we can and cannot do to avoid further change—to the layperson.

Produced by Climate Central, Inc.—a highly regarded independent, non-profit journalism and research organization founded in 2008—and reviewed by scientists at major educational and research institutions the world over, Global Weirdness summarizes everything we already know about the science of climate change, explains what is likely to happen to the climate in the future, and lays out, in practical terms, what we can and cannot do to avoid further shifts.

Fifty easy-to-read entries tackle questions such as: Is climate ever "normal?" Why and how do fossil-fuel burning and other human practices produce greenhouse gases? What natural forces have caused climate change in the past? What risks does climate change pose for human health? What accounts for the diminishment of mountain glaciers and small ice caps around the world since 1850? What are the economic costs and benefits of reducing carbon emissions? 

Illustrated throughout with clarifying graphics, Global Weirdness enlarges our understanding of how climate change affects our daily lives, and arms us with the incontrovertible facts we need to make informed decisions about the future of the planet, and of humankind.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Climate Change, Environment, Politics, Natural History, Nature

214 pages, Hardcover

First published July 24, 2012

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice easy to read manual for inquiring citizens.

It was published in 2012. The negative predictions seem more real than ever, and the hopeful predictions are as far away as ever. In addition to climate catastrophes, throw in the death throes of democracy, the aggressiveness of Russia and China, autocracies everywhere, a "conservative" movement off the rails, and I am very pessimistic we will ever solve this issue in any meaningful way.

[Bryan Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice, very accessible, super compressed into to climate change.

It should serve introductory audiences very well.

[Jaclyn Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://wineandabook.com/2012/09/04/re...

One of my LEAST favorite political arguments to have with "people of alternate political persuasions" is about climate change. Over the years, I've read multiple books and articles by journalists and scientists that all arrive at the same conclusion: the climate is changing because of choices made by human beings. Yet some people STILL cling to the notion that this fact is subject to debate (?????), and this BLOWS my mind. I feel like I've read enough to understand generally what's happening, but not enough to synthesize all the evidence and explain concisely and persuasively what's going on. Thankfully, Climate Central does EXACTLY that with their new book Global Weirdness.

A few weeks ago, I caught Michael Lemonick on NPR's Fresh Air discussing the book and the goals of Climate Central, which prompted me to put it on my holds list. Check out the interview here.

Climate Central is a nonpartisan nonprofit collective of scientist and journalists, and they do an excellent job of presenting climate science in a balanced, accurate way. Global Weirdness is organized ingeniously: each chapter addresses a specific question or concern about climate science in a researched but accessible, bite-sized way. The authors are also really careful with how they present the info: this is what we (as scientists) know, this is what we don't know, here's what we have questions about or are unsure of, here's our best guess and here's how we arrived at that hypothesis. It was peer reviewed multiple times, and despite the scary subtitle, the version of the future they project, if carbon emissions continue at present levels (or even if they are stopped completely, which, let's face it, isn't likely) sucks, but isn't apocalyptic-sounding (which has been a critique of the green movement in the past).

Some of the best chapters (imho):

Chapter 17: deals with the effect of the carbon we've already emitted into the atmosphere, and what will happen if (when) we keep emitting more. They use a great analogy and include a diagram that's super instructive.

Chapter 49: deals with freshwater and why there's so much talk about our diminishing supply.

Chapters 38 & 44: deals with hurricanes and addresses fears around the severe weather of the future.

One of the other general themes of the book is the difference between climate and weather. Even some of my more enlightened friends have said in the past: "well, if scientists can't predict what the weather will be like next week, how are they really going to try to tell me what the weather will be like years from now?" Global Weirdness definitely addresses this, along with so many other facets of science. The facts are alarming, but the tone of the book is not alarmist.

It's a quick read (I finished it on a day full of heavy commuting...4 hours spent on a train!) and is written in language everyone can understand, even if they don't have a background in climate science. In fact, this would make a great beginning of the year read for any high school science class.

Rubric ruling: 8.5. Absolutely accomplishes what they set out to accomplish. And I haven't seen it priced at more than $15 anywhere, which is super for a hardcover, and really lends credibility to their mission (message over profit).

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My problem with almost all the literature on climate change is that you have to have a scientific background or study a bit to understand the concepts. Not this book. They joke that their target audience is 6th grade although they admit there may still be a few concepts that are too difficult for 6th graders. If you want to learn about climate change but don't want to read a whole book, leaf through this, find the 2-4 page chapter on your question and read up!

This clearly answers all the common questions about climate change. The great value of this book is that it is written in absolutely clear language, using everyday analogies to explain concepts. The one problem I have with the book is that each three odd page chapter isn't listed in a table of contents. Right now, we'd have to leaf through the book to find the chapter on Antarctic sea ice, etc.

Also, I bet there are many of us that are convinced of the problem of climate change without being clear on many specific points. This will be a fantastic cheat sheet for all of us and you don't need to admit that there are concepts you haven't gotten yet. You likely will when you finish this!

Summary: I highly recommend EVERYONE read this book! This is going to be the major crisis of our and our children's generation. We need to understand why so many people are deeply alarmed about this subject.

[Vic Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't let my 3 star rating put you off Climate Central's "Global Weirdness." If you are new to reading about climate change this may very well be the best book to start you off. It covers a wide variety of questions; what do we know? How do we know it? What are signs we can watch for? What can be done? All these and many more question are addressed in this brief, 200pp book. And best of all (if you don't care for near-textbook type writing) there's no chemistry, formulas, or technical jargon at all.

But I've been reading about climate issues for years. I re-took some collage classes to relearn some basic chemistry and physics plus some (on-line) classes on economics, oceanography, and weather/climate. I'm not really put off by those subjects when I come across them in other reading. So I gave the book 3 stars because there was nothing new to me here. If you have some basic knowledge already (e.g. if you know what "albedo" is) you probably aren't going to learn much from "Global Weirdness.

But as a starting point this book would be perfect. It covers a lot of ground with straight forward answers but is written in a way to keep the reader entertained as well. The authors are not without humor and there is no alarmism or finger pointing.

Highly recommended to anyone new to reading about climate change. Accessible, very readable, and without the oppressive doom and gloom the subject sometimes attracts.

[Emma Sea · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fantastic primer for kids or tweens on climate change but was a disappointing book for me. I grabbed it off the library shelf without knowing what I was getting aside from the title, which led me to expect a lot more discussion of actual specific, localized weather impacts when this is never what the book intended to do. It is literally a summary of "everything we already know about climate change in language a sixth-grader could understand."

So, yeah, AWESOME book, just not awesome for me.

[Daniele]

Carino, ma purtroppo molto dati non sono aggiornati. Consigliato per chi si approccia per la prima volta all’argomento

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read. This is a series of 2-3 page summaries of issues surrounding global warming. A couple of examples chosen at random: "Climate change will force people to move, but whether it's a million people or a hundred million is hard to say" and "Global warming is not the ozone hole. The ozone hole is not global warming". At the end, there is an article describing the IPCC and the process by which its reports are created and made public. The articles are all vetted by climate scientists, so are factual and current. It's well-written. The reason for the lower rating is that I know most of what the book is talking about - I have taught a course in climate change - so none of the information is new to me. For people who are not as familiar with the issues as I am I would recommend it.

[Mae Clair · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're interested in climate change, this is a good place to start. Greenhouse gases, severe weather, global warming, extinction events---it's all here. The chapters are short and the material presented in such a way that it's easy to understand and follow. A few chapters seem repetitive in places, but overall the flow from one to the next follows in smooth succession. The book addresses more than just greenhouse gases, also looking at ocean evaporation, sunlight reflection, cloud cover, threatened species and predictions for the future. This is an older book (I think was written in 2012) but I still found it informative and interesting. 3.5 stars.

[Tammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great intro to climate change issues for the layman

[Agustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas and the Weather of the Future, is a good book if you're interested on how the worlds weather is affecting us and how it functions. You learn a lot about the weather and when in time we saw similar climate patterns in the past. If you're concerned about the earth and global warming this would be a perfect match for you. This book is also great for research, so if you ever need to get any information on past, present, and future weather climates and its effects on society and our planet this would help plenty. The theme would obviously be about climate. This book also explains what the climate would be like in the future. This book is very easy to read and understand. It has pictures as well so you're not stuck just reading on and on. This book is also great to read in you're spare time, you learn things your wouldn't expect to know. It also goes into further detail about what would happen if we keep living the way we do. In my opinion this book was a great choice for me, I didn't get bored and it left me on my toes. There is more than one particular author in this book. Since it is science based all the information in it comes from plenty of sources. This book is great to get away and just relax and get some facts. You can expect to read and get a lot of interesting information. You wont be disappointed and I bet you wont be able to put the book down. This book is very easy to ready, and you learn a lot from it. Global weirdness would interest anyone who is concerned about our planets current state and global warming. It is a very fun book to read since most of it is facts, and history. I also liked reading this book very much because it's not like your typical type of book. This book has pictures, making it easy to understand what is being illustrated. The chapters are also very short, a minimum of 5 pages at least. You get the feeling of being free. Instead of feeling stuck on a chapter like you normally would. This book is mainly non-fiction, science, environmental and climate change. You learn something new by reading this book. As a person who personally doesn't enjoy reading, this easy to read book is a perfect match to anyone if you're just like me.

[Aengus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy &%$! We are so (^*$%@! A slim volume written in ELIF style, "Global Weirdness" describes the science behind global warming, the effects of greenhousr emissions, and the likely scenarios (best and worst case( for the the immediate and distant future. It uses lots of easily grasped metaphors (baseball statistics, the way a bathtub drains) to explain scientific concepts so laymen can understand them. Written by actual scientists (as opposed to payed oil company shills with degrees in Creationisr Biology from the Arkansas Bible College),
"Global Weirdness" is terrifying. Useful as a refeerence for debating with global warming deniers.

[Bob Battle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very quick read of less than three hours. Broken up into 2-3 page chapters. It tries to separate fact from fiction and does apretty good job of it.

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bends over backwards to be clear and fair

The purpose of this book is to make what we know about climate change (“global warming”) crystal clear even to a sixth grader. Written in non-sensationalist prose designed to lower the emotional atmosphere of the “debate,” this book could be used as a high school text on the subject. The book’s only weakness is some repetition which might well serve a didactic purpose (especially for members of the US Congress).

The ideas and facts about what is happening to our planet climatically speaking are presented in sixty sound-bite sized chapters with titles like “Nobody Ever Said the Whole World would Warm Up at the Same Rate,” “Some Species Can Adapt to Changing Climate a Lot Better Than Others,” “The Artic Has Been Losing Ice Much Faster Than the Antarctic. That’s Just What Scientists Expected,” and so on. A problem for some readers may be that the facts are so painstakingly expressed in such carefully qualified language that the main truth about climate change may be obscured by a lack of focus.

And what is the main truth? The main truth is that it is getting warmer and humans burning fossils fuels are in some very significant measure responsible for this warming, and this warming is almost certainly not going to be good for humans. I would add at the risk of being labeled an alarmist that the worst case scenario is a runaway greenhouse effect leading to the sterilization of the planet. Admittedly (and the authors of this book make such an admission) this is unlikely to happen. Still, when the downside is so horrific it seems rational to take measures before things get out of hand.

Which brings me to the real nitty-gritty of the climate debate, namely what are we going to do about it, if anything? And the answer seems to be nothing. Since it’s “only” going to be 3.2 to 7.2 degrees F hotter in 2100 than it was in 2000 (IPCC estimate) and we’re going to get there gradually with ups and downs, it’s unlikely that the seriousness of the situation will be appreciated by most people until things become intolerable. By then it may be too late.

What’s to be done? I’m very much afraid that human nature is not capable of dealing with this kind of problem. When something costs money today for saving others tomorrow humans are slow to act. Given any amount of uncertainty and we will not act at all. Very few people are willing to lower their standard of living for people yet unborn. This is in addition to the “argument” that if China doesn’t do it why should we?

That part of the reality doesn’t bother me as much as does the denial from some quarters and the massive amounts of money spent by fossil fuel purveyors to deny global warming. Physicist Richard Feynman is quoted as saying, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.” (p. 6) We have been fooling ourselves with denial. Currently the denial has eased and instead the official line from the deniers is that yes, it’s getting hotter but it’s just a natural cycle. Others are admitting that humans are causing some of it but global warming can be a good thing! This book makes it clear that global warming on balance is NOT going to be a good thing. And of course it could be horrific.

I am hopeful that humanity will wake up in time but I won’t be around when that happens if it does. I hope my grandchildren and yours are wiser than we humans are today. Read this book. It can help.

—Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”

[Gemini · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much happening in this book. Prepare yourselves to be educated on so many factors that come into play w/ the climate crisis—including that name/phrase/title for what's been happening. I don't know how people can be so ignorant about what is going on w/ our planet & how humans are at fault for causing such horrific changes in the environment. What people don't seem to understand is how everything is linked together. I would assume that most of those people aren't reading this book, which is unfortunate. There are so many enlightening things the author writes about so you can get a better understanding of what has happened & what is happening although forecasting is not an easy thing to do because of all the different factors that come into play. If only the mega-corps & gov't of the world were doing more. The only weird thing about this book is how they have so many chapters-which is completely unnecessary. I mean to write a page & a half, then calling it a chapter is just silly. They should consolidate more so that it makes sense because this is unlike anything I have ever seen. I would suggest not just reading this book but passing it on to others whether believers, sceptics or non-believers, it's worth educating more people on the topic.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brevity for the sake of clarity, is the main objective of the book, and it succeeds admirably.

Very few of us are scientists, so having the raw data broken down into 'layman' terms, is not 'dumbing' down the information, it is presenting it in a manner that can be understood, easily, by the audience that it is intended for. Politicians are not presented with line graphs and huge columns of numbers, they are handed big, colorful pie charts, so that they can absorb and disseminate the information quickly. This is not dumbed down, it is just manipulated information.

Climate Central has presented a small, scary book. They have taken the time to take the already over-used terminology that we all know, and explain it to us, so that everyone will understand what's going on. My major fear is terrifying my children by letting them read this book. Most of us won't live to see the end result of most of the scientific hypothesis presented in this work, but our children will, and it does not look promising.

[Fred Dameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all IPCC documents the numbers are low balled. This is a must since the IPCC wants governments world wide to take the problem seriously and not ignore it. How ever, this means that the numbers, years the IPCC says we have to work with, are low. Many of the events that the IPCC says will happen years from now are happening NOW. Another in a long series of warmest years on record, 2016, the end of the Cal drought, the end of the TX drought, the warm spring in the New England and the Mid Atlantic, the lack of winter across the South and SW, all have happened and were predicted for 2020 thru 2025. Three to eight years earlier and that is bad for all of us. Add in the most recent changes in Washington and it WILL get worse. Bottom line: EARTH WILL SURVIVE BUT, WE MAY OR MAY NOT!!!

[Elizabeth Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give it a higher rating but the authors have literal mistakes in their examples. The one I want to point on specifically is in the first paragraph in chapter 18. Sugar and salt do not dissolve in water the same way. Sugar dissolves but salt disassociates under a chemical reaction. Sugar will eventually reappear in water, settling to the bottom if not stirred. Salt does not do that. This is a poor example and the chapter needs clarification. And yes, I do reduce my rating for even one mistake like this because if a climate change denier knows anything about chemistry, they would see this mistake and disregard the rest of the book because the entire book is discussing chemical reactions that are causing climate change.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to understand q&a about climate change causes, what’s happening, what will (likely) happen and what’s avoidable. (I was familiar with most of the info, but many of the scenarios are broken down into common English so anyone could understand - even those who refuse to believe facts.) Since climate change IS real, everyone should be required to read this. It debunks many objections and has an extensive scientific peer review.

[ericka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for the layman, and eminently readable. I bought this book out of a desire to better armor myself against climate-deniers and their idiot arguments. After reading it, I do feel that I will have better on-the-fly counterarguments than "CLIMATE CHANGE IS SO OBVIOUS OH MY GOD," which thusfar hasn't been a totally successful approach to converting people to my point of view.

Published in 2012, but still broadly valid/relevant.

[Cara W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book depressing - because it tells a very bad story - that is real. The earth will get warmer and it will hurt a lot of people, plants, and animals.

The book is written for the general public, in short 2 - 4 page chapters looking at climate change from different angles.

Quick read.

[Xander Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book. Simply written, so scientifically easy to understand for those of us not so adept but still interested and intrigued by the science behind climate change. Possibly outdated now as read six years after publication but nonetheless still an informative read on the basics behind the climate and human related climate change.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the California fires raging, this book feels more relevant than ever. Written in 2012, it accurately predicts the climate challenges we’ve faced over the past 13 years and offers a glimpse of what’s to come in the future. Written for the average non-scientist, it can be understood by anyone and conveys the urgency of the issues we face.

[Aman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good primer for people interested in Climate Change and some of the terms one comes across when talking about climate change. The book gets a bit repetitive at times, but its understandable keeping the concept in mind and is really a good starting point.

[E.C. Frey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captured from the headlines

A complex subject written in easy bite size chapters, Global Weirdness is both dire and hopeful. With pros and cons mixed with warnings and solutions, this book will give you plenty to think about.

[Sophie Wieland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't read this in order (we read it in a random order so the chapters would correspond to a class), but it was fantastic anyway! It's concise, factually-based, and approachable, all while including lots of really lovely metaphors (I think science needs more logical metaphors).

[Carter Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise summary of the climate crisis. Climate Central manages to describe the nuances of predicting the climate with our current technologies. May be a bit outdated, but the principles are the same.

[Ryan Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent information. A little more simplistic than I would have liked, but an excellent primer. Very quick read.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very easy to read book on an important topic.

[Evelyn Osborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’re all gonna die