Firmament: The Hidden Science of Weather, Climate Change and the Air That Surrounds Us

by Simon Clark

A thin, invisible layer of air surrounds the Earth, sustaining all known life on the planet and creating the unique climates and weather patterns that make each part of the world different.

In Firmament, atmospheric scientist and science communicator Simon Clark offers a rare and accessible tour of the ins and outs of the atmosphere and how we know what we know about it. From the workings of its different layers to why carbon dioxide is special, from pioneers like Pascal to the unsung heroes working in the field to help us understand climate change, Firmament introduces us to an oft-overlooked area of science and not only lays the ground work for us to better understand the debates surrounding the climate today, but also provides a glimpse of the future that is possible with this knowledge in hand.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Climate Change, Environment, Physics, History, Nature

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 2022

Reviews

[S.G. Prince]

A fascinating explanation of weather. Covers topics like what causes wind, why weather is so tricky to predict, the history of climate science, how trade winds shaped the modern world, and more. I read this partly due to my own interest and partly for book research purposes (I've been sitting on an idea and want to see if there's a story there). Approachable but it does also go in depth on things. If you're interested in understanding weather, this is a good one!

[Edwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A couple of notes before my thoughts on the book:
1) I received my pre-order copy a week before release for no obvious reason,
2) I have been watching the author's youtube videos and occasionally twitch streams for almost 4 years now.

This book is not so much an explanation of finer points of the causes of weather and such like, (not that it really advertised as such) but a history of the development of atmospheric sciences. Many important characters in the canon of scientific thought appear, and many who, as so often happens, were forgotten despite their important work. The author makes sure to note that the societal circumstances of both science and scientist have a large impact on the history and development of science, but on a similar note I would have liked a little more discussion of the changing philosophy of science over its history to accompany this. There are some equations given, but most of them are illustrative more than explanatory. The content is well conceived and structured.

I found the tone occasionally a little informal for my liking in this medium - which is interesting, because over the last year or so I've noticed the opposite in the author's youtube videos - I suspect that the style of writing a book and writing youtube scripts interfere with one another. I also occasionally found some of the metaphors a little unnatural.

Overall, a very good, fairly quick read. Would recommend.

[Jessie Kuehne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful read!

I was very excited to read material that I don't often interact with, even marking this book as my most anticipated of the year. I was afraid that I would be unable to comprehend parts of the book, but Simon made it easy to follow and relatable. He used easy to understand examples in laymen's terms. Firmament was thoroughly enjoyable and incredibly digestible.

This book is an easy recommendation for anyone who is interest in learning about the history of the weather, atmosphere, and the scientific instrumentation that has made our understanding possible; climate change, and how the elements impact our world.

[Gesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As somebody with a science background but without much knowledge about atmospheric science specifically, I really enjoyed this introduction to the field. Leading from the first theories about weather and climate to the present and future, the book explains the most general concepts about how the atmosphere works, which I found to be a well-balanced way of explaining it. I also highly recommend listening to the audio book (which is how I "read" it).

Note: I was already familiar with the author because of his YouTube channel.

[Floris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve been a long-time fan of Simon Clark’s YouTube channel. I think he’s an excellent communicator, being able to boil down complicated but also very relevant topics into funny and engaging 10-20 minute explainers. He’s also not shy about incorporating popular, gaming, and fantasy culture in his Sci-Comm work, which I greatly appreciate. A lot of that wit and engaging tone is transferred to this book-length explainer of atmospheric science and its history. In fact, Firmament chapters read a little bit like extended YouTube videos. Yes, there are some clever throwbacks woven through them, but ultimately they work as nine standalone stories. At times, the jokes felt a bit weak, like they were missing a funny graphic to hit home, or a trademark whisper into the clip-on mic. But overall, the easy pace and tone of the book makes it as easy to read as binging his videos is.

However: it is not a book for me. The main reason for this is the fact that the stories about the history of this science – pretty much half of the book – are incredibly simplistic. The positivistic framing of this history is sometimes cringeworthy, as yet another individual is described as having revolutionised the way meteorology is done, getting one step closer to the truth that we know today. Clark may say that the history of climate science is a global one, but including two Japanese scientists amongst a swathe of your standard white men from Europe or North America does not convince me of this. All these men (and one or two women) are usually introduced as been “brave”, “pioneering”, “brilliant”, “remarkable”, “ingenious”, who alone make “great discoveries” and inventions to advance the field of meteorology. With “one foot in the past and another in a future that few others could see”, our understandings of the atmosphere apparently take “great leaps forward” because of them.

What irks me the most is the way Clark treats the discipline of history. He is clearly aware of the limits of his expertise: “As I am a physicist by training, not a biologist, I will simply say here…” (33); “I don’t want to go into much more detail on oceans and their dynamics, partly because it is not my area of expertise,…” (95). Yet he doesn’t seem to think twice about making sweeping remarks about the history of science which sometimes goes counter to what historians have written on a certain topic. I am certainly not trying to gatekeep here – I don’t think Clark is trespassing in an area where he shouldn’t be. In fact, I’m glad to see he spent so much time on it in a book like this. But in choosing to base his story on the types of sources he does, and not engaging with thoughtful historical work (and I don’t mean Brian Fagan, whom he quotes at a certain point), he is telling a story that in my opinion is old-fashioned and downright misleading. Why is biology treated as a field a physicist can’t enter without permission, but history is apparently open for anyone to waltz in and just “tell it like it was”?

There are a few bright spots in his historical narrative. He notes how much scientific work in the early modern period relied on the activities of European nations and their colonies, making science inextricable from factors like the slave trade, colonial oppression, and social-Darwinist politics. He rightfully recognises the “debt” that modern science bears with to these activities (76). Another example is his recognition of the way scientific institutionalisation marginalised women and people of colour. A passage on Eunice Foote and women in science since the Enlightenment is particularly good. His references to colonial violence or social inequality are welcome not only for the way they help counter traditional narratives of scientific exceptionalism (ones which he unfortunately also helps perpetuate), but also just provide more richness and context to the developments he talks about.

I want to clarify that for most people, this will easily be a 3+/5 book. My Goodreads score just reflects how the book resonated with me.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firmament was more a history of the discovery of the atmospheric sciences rather than a book about these findings themselves and so - whilst an interesting read - not quite what I had expected. At times it failed to hold my attention but the science was broken down in an accessible manner.

[Jos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simon's enthousiasm and great storytelling made this book a pleasure to read! Even as a climate physics student, I learned a lot of new things about the history of atmospheric science.

[Oliver Schiffmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book because i wanted to relearn all the cool reasons why weather behaves the way it does without the equations bogging me down. That is exactly what i got. The book has some great “wow thats so interesting im going to reread it so i can repeat it to my friends” moments. not five stars because there is also a bunch of history in there which probably makes it a smoother read but i wanted cool science facts not peoples names.

[Aeden Augustus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very amusing and detail-oriented book about atmospheric science and how it is undeniably our past, present & future tool to interpret and mitigate our impact on the planet. This is a meticulously researched volume full of both "hardcore" physical theories and humorous commentary; the author effortlessly manages to keep your eyes(or ears in case you are listening to the audiobook) glue to the page through all the chapters, leaving you craving for more details and anecdotes... Perfect for scientists and non-scientist alike

[Kira · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolutely brilliant book. I am no scientist, but Clark does a fantastic job at exploring and explaining climate science in easily digestible ways; using metaphors and phrases that are easily recognisable in every day life. There is humour, and there is starkness. The book flows so well and ending the book on the reality that is climate change and its effects is pretty goddamn galvanising.
“We’ve had our time to appreciate the beauty here. Now we must protect it.” What a beautiful way to end the book.

[Anne Bils (thebeautyofthebooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book that breaks down the science of weather, climate and so much more to understandable chunks. It is written in an amazign way, includes a few jokes here and there to lighten the load and is definitely more than suitable for people who do not have huge pool of scientific knowledge. Greatly recommend giving this book a go!

[Baldvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mæli eindregið með.
Höfundurinn leiðir mann í gegnum sögu veðurfræðinnar með umfjöllun um frumkvöðla hennar og notar þær sögur til að útskýra þá ferla sem liggja að baki veðurfyrirbæra.
Best væri að lesa bókina hvern kafla í einu, en ég gerði þau mistök að hafa hana sem strætóbók, þannig ég las hana frekar sundurslitið.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars; solid popular science writing on the atmosphere, some interesting factoids

[Liam Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight into the study of atmospheric science!

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

giving prolonged and more technical kurzgesagt video.

love that.

[Harry Harman]

weren’t scientific in the modern sense, as they were based on qualitative interpretations of observed natural phenomena. falsifiable using data.

Extraordinary claims require extra ordinary evidence

for ev ery kilo me tre of al ti tude gained, the air tem per a ture would de crease by around 6 °C. All ob‐ ser va tions showed a lapse rate some where around this value. Com mon aca‐ demic thought was there fore that the at mos phere con tin ued to de crease in tem per a ture fur ther from the Earth’s sur face un til even tu ally the tem per a ture of the vac uum of space was reached – pre sumed to be ab so lute zero: -273.15 °C – at around 50 km (31 miles) in al ti tude.

Sun moves across the sky (about fif teen de‐ grees per hour), Ibn Muʿādh timed how long it took for night to fall af ter sun‐ set and ap plied his knowl edge of spher i cal ge om e try to work out how far be‐ low the hori zon the Sun must be when night truly fell, and thus the high est point above the sur face that it could be seen by. Do ing this, he es ti mated the at mos phere to be around 84 km (52 miles) tall.

Pg 36 image

While the tro po sphere ex tends from the Earth’s sur face to around 10 km, the strato sphere ex tends from around 10 km to 50 km.

Pg 44 graph

How about the height at which the Earth is no longer the dom i nant grav i ta tional pull on these mol e cules of gas? That would put the top of the at mos phere at around 1.5 mil lion kilo me tres above the sur face

In prac tice, there are a few def i ni tions cur rently used to de fine the top of the at mos phere.

the Kár mán line, named af ter aero nau tics the o rist Theodore von Kár mán (1881–1963). This places the top of the at mos phere, and so the edge of space, at 100 km above the Earth

Ac cord ing to the Fédéra tion Aéro nau tique In ter na tionale, any thing that takes place un der the Kár mán line is classed as aero nau tics, while any thing that takes place above it is as tro nau tics. The V2 rocket was the first ob ject to cross this line, and so was tech ni cally the first space ship.

99 per cent of the ac‐ tual mass of the at mos phere lies within just 50 km of the sur face. When com pared to the huge size of the Earth, with a ra dius of some 6,400 km, the at mos phere is truly dwarfed.

With out wind we wouldn’t ex pe ri ence tor ren tial rain, heat waves, fog, thun der, storms. wind en ables all weather, much as blood trans ports oxy gen, nu tri ents, and waste around our bod ies.

The fastest wind speed ever recorded on the sur face of the Earth was in Cy clone Olivia in Aus tralia in 1996. A weather sta tion clocked air briefly flow ing at 113 me tres per sec ond (about 250 mph or 400 kph). ex o planet HD 189733b, which were mea sured to be 2,414 me tres per sec ond (an as ton ish ing 5,400 mph or 8,700 kph).

William Red field (1789–1857), a man with very lit tle for mal school ing but a clear tal ent for sci ence.

1858, when Fer rel pub lished ‘The In flu ence of the Earth’s Ro ta tion Upon the Rel a tive Mo tion of Bod ies Near its Sur face’. 8This tiny pa per, just four pages long. Us‐ ing data col lated by math e ma ti cian and fel low me te o rol o gist James Henry Cof fin (1806–73), it com bined New ton’s sec ond law (that the force act ing on an ob ject is equal to its mass mul ti plied by the ac cel er a tion it ex pe ri‐ ences, or F=mA) with ro ta tional me chan ics nec es sary to cal cu late the de‐ flec tion a par cel of air ex pe ri ences as it moves around a ro tat ing sphere.

Air rushes to oc cupy an area of low at mo‐ spheric pres sure, yes, but in do ing this it is de flected by the ro ta tion of the Earth. This is known as the Cori o lis de flec tion. Fer rel had de rived equa‐ tions that roughly de scribed how winds formed ev ery where. If you knew the dis tri bu tion of tem per a ture and pres sure in your area, even from just a few mea sure ments, you could use Fer rel’s equa tions to cal cu late what winds will blow as a re sult!

ev ery ob ject con stantly emits en ergy in the form of elec‐ tro mag netic ra di a tion, which we call black body ra di a tion. The rea son we don’t see all ob jects glow ing like the Sun, how ever, is that the quan tity of black body ra di a tion emit ted de pends on how hot the ob ject is: the hot ter the ob ject, the more en ergy it emits per sec ond. the quan tity of en ergy emit ted is pro por tional to the fourth power of an ob ject’s tem per a ture, i.e., T4, where the tem per a ture is mea sured in kelvin. 2Kelvin is the unit of ab so lute tem per a ture, how hot an ob ject is rel a tive t

quan tity of en ergy emit ted be ing de pen dent on the tem per‐ a ture of the ob ject, so too is the wave length of ra di a tion emit ted. You may have seen this for your self if you’ve ever heated some thing in a fire.* Ob‐ jects left in a hot fire for long enough will ini tially glow a dull, cherry red, then or ange, and even tu ally, if the fire is re ally hot, a bril liant white. This is black body ra di a tion!

as an ob‐ ject gets hot ter and hot ter, it emits more and more short wave length black‐ body ra di a tion, and less long wave length ra di a tion.

Pg 62 image

the Earth largely emits wave lengths in the in frared part of the spec trum. The Sun, how ever, pumps out ul tra vi o‐ let light. We will see that this dif fer ence in wave lengths be tween sun light and ‘earth light’ is of ab so lutely crit i cal im por tance when talk ing about the at mos phere.

cu mu lonim bus clouds – The flat tops of these clouds beau ti fully mark out the bound ary be tween the strato sphere and the tro po‐ sphere.

at mo‐ spheric mar vels like hur ri canes to cold fronts, heat waves to aurora

Ed mond Hal ley (1656–1742) has been as so ci ated with the comet that re turns to the night sky ev ery sev enty-six years or so. A more ex ten sive list of Hal ley’s achieve ments is de tailed in his splen did slate and gold memo rial plaque in the South Clois ter of West‐ min ster Abbey. He also per son ally fi nanced the pub li ca tion of Isaac New ton’s Philosophiæ Nat‐ u ralis Prin cipia Math e mat ica, quite pos si bly the most in flu en tial work of sci ence ever writ ten.

Like many great fig ures of the En light en ment, Hal ley was only able to pur sue a ca reer in sci ence thanks to the wealth of his fam ily. While his fa ther– a landowner and salt mer chant – lost prop erty in the Great Fire of Lon don in 1666, there was still enough coin in the fam ily cof fers to tu tor Ed mond and send him to study at Ox ford.

Us ing his fa ther’s con nec tions, he ob‐ tained a let ter from King Charles II (1630–85) that se cured him pas sage on a British East In dia Com pany ship to Saint He lena, a speck of British ter ri tory in the mid dle of the south At lantic. Here he spent two years making notes on the at mo spheric and oceanic con di‐ tions.

Pg 75 Hal ley’s map of global wind pat terns from 1686.

In the sci en tific method, one de vel ops a hy poth e sis and then tests it against data. If the data sup ports the hy poth e sis, it can be con sid ered cor rect un til sub se quent data re pu di ates it.

Sci ence likes to think of it self as amoral, apo lit i cal, ob jec tive. In di vid ual sci en tists of ten are. How‐ ever, the de vel op ment of mod ern sci ence was only made pos si ble through the ac tiv i ties of Eu ro pean pow ers in the early mod ern pe riod. This means that sci ence owes a debt in data and money to – among other things – the tri‐ an gu lar slave trade in the At lantic, colo nial in va sions and sup pres sions, and in ter na tional pol icy based on so cial Dar win ism.

In formed by this data, Hal ley was nearly cor rect in his ex pla na tion of the trade winds. He ar gued that as the Sun passed from east to west in the sky, warm air heated by the sun light would rush in from be hind the path of the Sun, forc ing an east-to-west cir cu la tion in the at mos phere. He was nearly there, but not quite.

lin ear mo men tum. an ob ject mov ing faster than an‐ other oth er wise iden ti cal ob ject has more mov ing ness. an gu lar mo men tum can be thought of as an ob ject’s ‘turn ing ness’. An ob ject ro tat ing about an axis will have more turn ing ness if it ro tates faster, mak ing more rev o lu tions per sec ond.

Momentum is conserved. one of the most beau ti ful the o rems in math e‐ mat ics, de rived by Emmy Noether (1882–1935). if an ob ject with a cer tain amount of an gu lar mo men tum were to start de‐ creas ing its dis tance from the axis of ro ta tion, in or der to con serve its an gu‐ lar mo men tum it must start or bit ing faster.

Gas pardGus tave Cori o lis (1792–1843). He was in stru men tal in the de vel‐ op ment of mod ern me chan ics, and in tro duced the terms ‘work’ and ‘kinetic en ergy’ to physics, 8but is of course bet ter known for in tro duc ing the idea of a ‘Cori o lis force’ or ‘Cori o lis ac cel er a tion’.

east–west ve loc ity changes the weight of the ob ject! if you’re trav el ling, say, along a British mo tor way at 60 miles per hour due east– per haps on the M4 from Bris tol to Lon don – you would weigh only about 0.03 per cent less than if you were sta tion ary. This is known as the Eötvös ef fect, af ter Hun gar ian physi cist Baron Roland von Eötvös (1848–1919).

Some coun tries have cli mate, while other coun tries have weather. Com pare, for ex am ple, the British Isles and Cal i for nia. all coun tries have both weather and a cli mate. Cli mate is sim‐ ply the long-term av er age of weather

the ma jor ity of at mo spheric sci ence as we know it to day orig i nated in lo ca tions that have weather, not cli mate. From Tor ri celli in Italy to Fer rel in Mass a chu setts

jet stream is a nar row rib bon of fast-mov ing air, trav el‐ ling from west to east around the globe. Earth has two jet streams in each hemi sphere, one around 30° from the equa tor, and an other about 60° from the equa tor.

the larger a planet gets, the more jets ap pear in its at mos phere. At the ex treme end of the scale, Jupiter has no fewer than seven jets in each hemi sphere!

Know ing that few sci en tists were fa mil iar with the Ja pa nese lan guage, Ooishi didn’t write in his first lan guage but in stead in his sec ond. Cre ated in 1887, Es peranto is an in ter na tional lan guage de signed to be easy to learn.

His work did not go un no ticed in Japan, how ever. Dur ing the Sec ond World War the Ja pa nese mil i tary ex ploited their knowl edge of the jet stream to launch ‘Fu-Go’ bal loons – hy dro gen bal loons equipped with anti-per son‐ nel or in cen di ary bombs, re leased into the jet stream in Japan and then timed to re lease their pay load over the United States. The in ten tion was to in stil ter ror in Amer i can civil ian pop u la tions and wreak havoc by caus ing wild fires. As a weapon, the bal loons were ahead of their time, the first with an in ter con ti nen tal range. They were, how ever, rather in ef fec tive. Only around 3 per cent of the bal loons are thought to have made it to the North Amer i can con ti nent (though this equated still to about three hun dred po ten‐ tial bomb ing in ci dents)

Tim Woollings notes in Jet Stream: A Jour ney Through Our Chang ing Cli mate, there were only two no table strikes by these bal loons. 7The first was at a Sun day school pic nic in Ore gon, where six peo ple were killed. These six were in fact the only ca su‐ al ties of the war on the US main land, and were at the time the long estranged ca su al ties in the his tory of war fare. The other bal loon strike dam‐ aged the power sup ply of the Han ford nu clear weapons plant in the state of Wash ing ton. Within a year, this fac tory pro duced the plu to nium that formed the nu clear pay load of the Amer i can counter-at tack on Na gasaki.

The mon soon oc curs due to the north–south asym me try of the In dian Ocean: This trans‐ ported air then dumps its mois ture over the In dian sub con ti nent, pro vid ing around 80 per cent of In dia’s yearly rain fall in just a few months. In win ter, the cir cu la tion re verses and the sub con ti nent is al most en tirely with out rain.

The ar rival of the mon soon rain, then, is a mo men tous oc ca sion, the sud den shift from hy dro log i cal famine to feast trans form ing a parched land scape into a lus cious one. Farm ers de pend on it, and anx iously await the mon‐ soon’s ar rival. The tim ing is cru cial, as the land can only go for so long with out wa ter. Should the mon soon be late, even by a few weeks, or bring less rain than nor mal, crops – and peo ple – die.

the British Em pire be gan to force its in flu ence on present-day In dia, al most en tirely through the East In dia Com pany, as sisted by state armed forces. the British colo nial of fice in In dia was con cerned with profit, not peo ple. An es ti mated $44.6tn was ex tracted over the en tire colo‐ nial pe riod. an es ti‐ mated 60 mil lion deaths oc curred due to famine.

A hor rific drought in 1899, un pre dicted by colo nial me te o rol o gists and caus ing mil lions of deaths

Brian Fa gan de tails in Floods, Famines, and Em per ors

In Sep tem ber 1985 the Gulf Coast of the United States was hit by one of these storms, named Hur ri cane Elena.* De spite the avail abil ity of vast quan‐ ti ties of data, su per com put ers, and thou sands of pro fes sional me te o rol o gists, Hur ri cane Elena be haved in an en tirely un ex pected way. Rather than progress in land, as was fore cast, the hur ri cane re mained nearly sta tion ary off the west coast of Flor ida for some forty-eight hours

The UK Witch craft Act of 1735 de fined claims to be able to pre dict the fu ture as char ac ter is tic of witch craft. 10 Un til the re peal of the Act (in 1953!), all weather fore cast ers in the United King dom were in the strictest in ter pre ta tion of the law the o ret i‐ cally guilty of prac tis ing witch craft.

a man with one foot in the past and an other in a fu ture that few oth ers could see.

Pg 108 equation

Lewis Fry Richard son (1881–1953) In 1922 he pub lished Weather Pre dic tion by Nu mer i cal Process. method of fore cast ing the weather us ing dy nam i cal equa tions, al most ex actly as mod ern com puter mod els do.

In the 1950s, the first gen eral-pur pose elec tronic com put ers such as the Fer ranti Mk I and the UNI VAC I were re leased

com puter sci en tist Margaret Hamil ton (1936–), then just twenty-five, so fun da men tal to soft ware en gi neer ing that she even gave the field its name. Among other ac com plish ments, she was di rec tor of the Soft ware En gi‐ neer ing Di vi sion of the In stru men ta tion Lab o ra tory at MIT, de vel oped soft ware for the Apollo mis�� sions to the Moon, and has her own LEGO minifig ure.

The UK Met Of fice pre dicts the fol low ing day’s tem per a ture to within 2 °C ap prox i mately 92 per cent of the time.

Due to the Earth’s tilt of ap prox i mately 23.5° be‐ tween its axis of ro ta tion and the or bital plane, these ar eas ex pe ri ence what’s known as the po lar night: pe ri ods when the Sun never rises. They also ex pe ri ence mid night sun in sum mer, a pe riod when the Sun never sets.

Earth is not in fact a sphere. The planet’s ro ta tion causes its rock and man tle to bulge slightly at the equa tor, mak ing it tech ni cally an oblate spher oid.

Earth’s equa tor cir cum fer ence to be about 40,075 km. The po lar cir cum fer ence of Earth is only 40,008 km.

an ar gu ment could be made for some Olympic records such as high jump to be made lat i tude spe cific – af ter all, an ath lete jump ing in Lon don is strain ing against stronger grav ity than an ath lete in, say, Nairobi. The dif fer ence in sur face grav ity is at most half a per cent, but this can still be sig nif i cant in com pet i tive sports.

changes in car bon diox ide con cen tra tion cor re late with changes in the Earth’s av er age tem per a ture de scribed in Chap ter 2. Sci en tists who have stud ied Antarc tic ice cores have been able to mea‐ sure the CO2 con cen tra tions over the past sev eral hun dred thou sand years ex‐ tremely ac cu rately, and com pare these mea sure ments with those of global av er age tem per a tures over the same time pe riod.

Scots man was James Watt (17361819). Watt came from a priv i leged fam ily, work ing in his fa ther’s ship‐ wright yards for a time be fore set ting up a work shop in the Uni ver sity of Glasgow

Scot land largely cre ated the mod ern world. A non-ex haus tive list of things in‐ vented by Scots in cludes: tele vi sion, tele phones, an tibi otics, bi cy cles, elec tro dy nam ics, steamships, tar mac, steam ham mers, the En cy clopae dia Bri tan nica, log a rithms, golf, ice hockey, the re‐ frig er a tor, colour pho tog ra phy, the flush ing toi let, vac uum flasks, ge ol ogy, pneu matic tyres, re cip ro cat‐ ing steam en gines

The first prac ti cal steam en gine was in stead in vented by Thomas New‐ comen (1664–1729) an Eng lish iron mon ger. This cy cle was then re‐ peated around twelve times per minute, pro duc ing the power equiv a lent to twenty horses.

With the con den sa tion tak ing place sep a rately from the cylin der, Watt was also able to make the en gine push as well as pull. Com bin ing this with his par al lel mo tion (a me chan i cal link age that trans lated up-and-down mo tion into ro tat ing mo tion), Watt al lowed the steam en gine to drive ro tary ma chin‐ ery. This would prove to be an earth-shat ter ing ac com plish ment. Watt’s steam en gine, first com mer cially in stalled in 1776, at an iron works near Falkirk, Scot land, could now drive steamships, fac to ries, pumps, and rail way en gines. British in dus try now had the abil ity to con vert coal into raw eco‐ nomic pro duc tiv ity. With am ple coal sup plies avail able within the coun try, Great Britain led the charge into the In dus trial Rev o lu tion.

Some times though, there are fig ures who make a con tri bu tion al most de spite of their cir cum stances, rather than be cause of them.

Cal i for nia In sti tute of Tech nol ogy (Cal tech)

First, car bon diox ide con cen tra tions var ied through out a day – they were lower dur ing the day time when plants sucked in the gas for pho to syn the sis, and higher at night when those same plants respired and pro duced it. Sec ond, car bon diox ide was re mark ably con sis tent. From Mary land to Cal i for nia, CO2 was al ways be tween 315 and 320 parts per mil lion of the air

The ‘Keel ing Curve’, Prior to the in ven tion of the steam en gine, the con cen tra tion was es ti mated to be 280 parts per mil lion (ppm). In 1958, Keel ing mea sured the con cen tra tion to be 315 parts per mil lion. By the time of his death that mea sure ment was 377 parts per mil lion, al most 20 per cent more than when he started.

sci en tists have re cently found that when lev els of car bon diox ide in the at mos phere rise, plants re spond by slightly thick en ing their leaves. 35 While we don’t yet know why they do this, we do know that in so do ing they be come less ef fi cient at suck ing car bon out of the at mos phere.

The IPCC re ports in par tic u lar are the most rig or ously re viewed and metic u lously re‐ searched doc u ments in the his tory of academia.

[Benjamin Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts were fascinating and other parts felt like reading through treacle. Annoyingly I perchance watched a YouTube video on the atmosphere which spoiled much of the plot in a 10 minute reveal.

Even though Simon Clark categorically imputes that humans are affecting the atmosphere he qualifies this with the reassurance that our big blue/green ball will be fine. It's just that we might face our own mass extinction event in the meantime.

[Freya · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5
I’ve been a fan of Simon’s channel for quite a few years now so was v excited to get my hands of this book. Safe to say, I found it very interesting and thought Simon’s explanations were clear and engaging. I felt the book would’ve been helped with more diagrams though- I’m q a visual learner so this would’ve really helped to picture the often multi-step processes that were being discussed. Also would’ve loved to have read more about the colonial history of the intersection between ‘scientific progress’ and colonial oppression in more depth and how these issues persist into the modern day, e.g. the construction of the Mauna Kea telescope on sacred Hawaiian lands. Feel the contents of this book would make a great accompanying YouTube series for people who prefer YouTube as a learning resource!

[Nick Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a previous life, I studied climate science but from its effects on the ground (and the ground's effect on climate, it's complicated). Atmospheric physics however to me feels like witchcraft and the sheer amount of equations still spooks me, even if I find it super interesting. Fortunately Simon Clark breaks it all down in an enjoyable, engaging, and accessible format. His primary job as a science communicator on youtube and twitch (among other things) probably plays a big part of that.

As a tangent, apparently we move in similar circles and have a few mutual acquaintances, although I've never met him myself. The loss is mine.

Firmament mostly focuses on key discoveries in atmospheric physics that shape our modern understanding of the atmosphere and how it affects us. As I said above, atmospheric physics is complicated enough that I see it as witchcraft and just thinking about the maths involved brings me out in a cold sweat. So in that way it's rather breathtaking to see how various people over the years have broken down this hugely complex beast into comparatively simple equations.

The book also does a great job of conveying the frustrating gap between science identifying the greenhouse effect, our own contribution it, and the work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Much of the ground work for identifying the link was there by the early 20th century, probably a lot earlier than most people would think.

I think this book will have a lot of appeal for people, from the uninitiated but curious to those with even quite hefty science backgrounds. I studied in a similar field for close to 10 years and there was still a lot in this book that was both new and interesting to me. And, if you're british, you'll probably be very interested to know why it's so hard to forecast whether it's going to rain or not...

[Alžběta · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Firmament" read like an exciting thriller mixing history and science, beautifully written and flawlessly read by the author himself. Comfortable only with the very basics of science, I wondered whether I'd be able to follow the text, but Simon Clark presents everything so clearly and in such easily digestible bits that I not only understood but enjoyed the book immensely. The author's enthusiasm and humour made "Firmament" one of my favourite books of 2022. I will definitely reread it soon to refresh all the sciency bits and enjoy Simon Clark's beautiful, funny prose and love for atmospheric science.

[Emma Mrmn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.9
TLDR; needs more prentjes

This book is the author’s first, and its a step in a good direction, but I personally don’t think it succeeded to be /effective/ science communication (which is a very hard to accomplish). As a visual learner, i found the lack of images and equations frustrating, but I understand this wasn’t meant to be a full blown textbook.

for me, I wouldn't classify this as /effective/ science communication because I could only understand what the author was explaining because i was following a university level (ableit introductory lol im not smart) course on this topic at the same time, if i weren’t, I would have had to look up you tube video’s constantly (which i still did do, and I recommend doing this anyway). Obviously this is a very personal and subjective observation, another could find this perfectly fine science communication and i won’t fight them on it.

Sometimes the personal comments (in between sentences, disrupting my flow of trying to understand, or the footnotes) got somewhat tiring. It’s a very British book as well, not that there is anything wrong with that, it just is. I feel like this book hasn't reached its full potential bcs it is trying to be a few things at once: a textbook at intro level, a history course, a personal story about how fascinating the atmosphere is (it is btw) and a popular science book. But its not any of those things, its a morph and for me personally it didn’t quite work as well as I had expected (and expectations were high because his videos are very good science communication). I am quite certain though, that his next books will be a lot better.

[Mac n cheese · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content is mostly good, but the narrative is somewhat meandering. Two major flaws which bring this down to a 3/5 are the lack of figures, and the wordiness. Many things could have been said far more succinctly, and I very often found myself wondering just why there was no figure describing the mechanism being discussed. One chapter had half a page of equations which were shown seemingly just to express how complicated atmospheric physics is - but there were no maps to show major air/ocean currents etc.

Lastly, I don't fault the book for this and my rating doesn't reflect it, but if you are a science enthusiast/have degree-level knowledge of some scientific field, then a big chunk of the content will be familiar to you, or somewhat banal.

[Valentina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro ben fatto, che consiglio perchè può essere un buon punto di partenza per capire i meccanismi fondamentali che regolano la nostra atmosfera.

Quello che mi è piaciuto sicuramente di più e il mondo semplice e diretto con cui l'autore spiega alcuni concetti, utilizzando spesso esempi che sono estremamente chiari e comprensibili dal grande pubblico.
Ho trovato l'epilogo un po' slegato dal resto della trattazione, ma per il resto coinvolgente e ben scritto!

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a book full of fascinating info on how the weather works, but it needed pictures or more generous descriptions to convey info clearly. Despite a few really good analogies, as someone who struggles with visualizing geometry, I got a lot more out of the NOAA website pages on key concepts (the jet stream, polar vortex, coriolis effect) than I did from the relevant passages in this book. I also found it dry and struggled to make myself pick it up.

[Jessica Busse · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, and I struggled with what rating to give it based on the fact that I wanted to like it, but in the end, it just wasn't good. The narrative was very scattered. It wasn't really organized along a specific timeline, or by topic. A topic would be mentioned and some variation of "more on that later" would be used. Much of the book read like an extended Youtube video script. Knowing the background of the author, this makes sense, but that still does not make it a good way to write a book.

The personal opinions and hyperbolic statements were often distracting. I also don't really need to know about people's marital troubles, or how they died. This is extraneous information that has nothing to do with their scientific contributions. I feel like I could create a laundry list of things that just weren't necessary and could have created more space for an actual history of the field of meteorology. For example, Eunice Foote's contribution is certainly very important to mention, but an almost page long commentary about women in science at that point in history was misplaced in this book, especially given the absence of women in the rest of the book. Also, the long discussion about the development of the steam engine, while important for the history of the industrial revolution, wasn't necessary for this book. In the chapter called Vortex, I wasn't expecting it to be solely focused on the Polar Vortex. The atmosphere is full of vortices. The focus on the author's own PhD topic came across as very self-serving.

The last chapter, called Change, is where I really started questioning the credibility of the author. As someone with a PhD in Atmospheric Scientist myself, it was disheartening to see someone use a widely criticized piece of journalism as a source of truth, and it was worse to see that alarmist view of climate change called "conservative". If the author wanted to write a book preaching about climate change, then that's what he should have done. The entire tone of the book changed from a (somewhat scattered) book about the history of the field of meteorology to a book that uses scare tactics to preach about climate change. There are ways to approach the topic, since it is indeed an important part of the field of atmospheric science, but this was not it.

Overall, I had hoped to be able to give this book a higher rating, but I struggled to find a good reason to do so. I didn't like the writing style, and the topics were not well organized. It took me almost a year of stopping and starting just to get through this book.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining history of climate science.

I gained a big-picture understanding of the atmosphere and how we know what we know about it. I learned that it's useful to think of the atmosphere as fluid and how chemistry and geography impact the atmosphere; namely the ocean is a carbon sink and black-body radiation from the earth heats the air.

I found parts of it a bit dry and overly technical. Also, some metaphors to make the overly technical topics more accesible were odd; such as the cats and dogs field. But overall Dr. Clark did a great job of making a science that I don't have a particularly strong interest in accesible and memorable. I particularly enjoyed the explanation of how the polar vortex impacted the Great Lakes region in 2019 and why the weather forecast is only about 92% accurate at the moment (It's because of chaos theory; small changes to the inputs can cause great differences in the outputs of equations used to predict the weather). I also appreciated his explanation of how atmospheric science requires more collaboration than many other fields because of how the data collection must be so geographically dispersed.

The last chapter, on climate change, was informative and concise. In it Clark made informed predictions that brings the complex issue into perspective, and he recommended two other books on the topic that I'll add to my TBR that will hopefully have more actionable suggestions.

I ordered this book because I enjoy Simon Clark's youtube channel. Also, I wanted to read a science-focused (as opposed to historical or policy-focused) book about climate change. This book is not really about climate change as much as it is about climate & weather science; it's about as scientific, objective, and apolitical as one could expect from any book on the topic besides a textbook. Despite the technical subject matter, Clark weaves narratives of the science history throughout each chapter, and his voice is strong in the text. It was an enjoyable read, especially the footnotes. I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading history of science, anyone who wants to learn more about climate science, or anyone who enjoys his YouTube channel.

[Allan Olley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a history of the science of the atmosphere (the firmament). Simon Clark has a PhD in theoretical atmospheric physics at the University of Exeter and a YouTube channel where he gives videos on topics including atmospheric physics, general science, the life of doctoral student and so on.

The book is a relatively short, but includes a great deal of information. It manages to both give a comprehensible summary of important concepts in atmospheric science such as the stratosphere and El Nino and some interesting historical incidents from the work and lives of key climate scientists through history. I am not an expert on atmospheric science or the history, so this does not mean much, but I did not notice any major problems. I did notice a focus on people who made some discovery or connection before anyone else but did not succeed in spreading these ideas, this is often interesting and illustrate the role of luck in scientific process but it can distort the historical narrative. An important part of the history of science is the way ideas are communicated and taken up by other researchers, a first discovery that no one ever learns about or takes up is actually less significant than the discoveries that become the basis of later scientific practice.

The ebook I read (which was not actually the Kindle but it seems easier to put the review here) had a problem with the final endnotes of most of the chapters, the preview did not work and instead clicking on it would jump the ereader to the page with the notes. The endnotes were only used to give citation information. The footnotes (parenthetical statements elaborating topics) were integrated into the text of the ebook, an "*" would indicate a footnote and at the end of the next paragraph or so there would be another "*" and the text of the footnote.

[Gethin Manuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE best popular science book on atmospheric science (imo).

I absolutely devoured this book. Both the narrative and the performance were excellent. Clark takes you on a journey through the atmosphere but diverges off to so many interesting lines of thought, which only enhances this book. The first half of the book is generally for setting up the fundamental knowledge about the atmosphere, which is clearly explained. The author achieves this by telling the amazing stories of the early natural philosophers and victorian aeronauts who first theorised about the atmosphere.

During the second half of the book, Clark highlights the enormous complexity of the atmospheric system by delving into complex and lesser known topics which depend upon understanding atmospheric science. I enjoyed hearing about my own research field of outdoor sound propagation receive some attention, as it too depends on understanding the atmospheric giant. Clark still manages to explain each complexity in clear and understandable ways by using thought experiments. Clark finishes by talking about climate change, but from such an objective point of view.

I guess my only critique is that it was too short, especially as Clark closed the epilogue with some brief descriptions of some other atmospheres in our solar system and on nearby exoplantes. It left me wanting more. Best book I've read this year.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was my first atmospheric science reading and by this statement I can reckon that it was kind of a walk throughout multiple aspect: the history of first data collection, the complex mathematical models behind the description of weather and planet atmosphere with examples like polar vortex, jet streams and wind trades (how to get to know with the giant) and eventually the role of industrial revolution with the final part concerning the beginning of actual situation worldwide spreading about global warming and thus climate change.

Clark's Firmament is an optimal first approach to such a complex subject: he wants the reader to know details untold by the media nowadays to bring a simple rather than actual message: reality is not how it appears to be. And still in climate science is like this: despite the incontestable situation of our planet, this challenge has multiple aspects to consider and while Clark might put them all inside this work leading to some neurons of the readers explode, he succeeds in giving the gist of it all.
Beautiful work for such short format: as a physicist interested in this field, I'm like Oliver Twist: I want some more!

Apart from my bias, I appreciated this book for the accuracy of citations and sources used, with many many references to authors and main characters of the history of climate science.

[Edwin Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really great and cautious primer on atmospheric sciences. It walks you through how we know what we know, who were the people behind those discoveries, what their impacts and innovations were, and how they affect us now. Understanding the core science is the best way to immerse yourself in the generally available materials. The next time you see an alarmist or denialist take that makes you really scratch your head you should have a basic understanding of why those takes are bad, misinformed, or just plain wrong.

My favourite parts were the sections on CO2, the direct warming effects experienced from it, and the knock-on effects that can cascade as a result of a warming atmosphere. Clark, of course, dives into how we know what we know, and why it is important. To this date, it's the best explanation of why we should care about increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere I have encountered.

I have been watching Simon Clark on YouTube for a while now and he is definitely one of my favourite climate-related content creators. If you want to understand the climate debate and not just absorb talking points for dunking on your enemies, this is an excellent book for you.