Product Details
The Hot Topic: What We Can Do About Global Warming

The Hot Topic: What We Can Do About Global Warming
By Gabrielle Walker, David King

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Product Description

Last year, awareness about global warming reached a tipping point. Now one of the most dynamic writers and one of the most respected scientists in the field of climate change offer the first concise guide to both the problems and the solutions. Guiding us past a blizzard of information and misinformation, Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King explain the science of warming, the most cutting-edge technological solutions from small to large, and the national and international politics that will affect our efforts.

While there have been many other books about the problem of global warming, none has addressed what we can and should do about it so clearly and persuasively, with no spin, no agenda, and no exaggeration. Neither Walker nor King is an activist or politician, and theirs is not a generic green call to arms. Instead they propose specific ideas to fix a very specific problem. Most important, they offer hope: This is a serious issue, perhaps the most serious that humanity has ever faced. But we can still do something about it. And they’ll show us how.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #560258 in Books
  • Published on: 2008-04-07
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 288 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this excellent primer on arguably the most serious problem facing the world today, Walker (An Ocean of Air) and King, the U.K.'s chief science adviser, present in concise layman's language everything you wanted to know about global warming but were too depressed to ask. They explain how fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide, show how global warming is affecting individual species and changing entire ecosystems, predict how much more climate change we can afford before things become truly catastrophic, and consider economic and political solutions to the problem. They contend that we must rein in greenhouse gases in the next two decades if we want to leave a habitable planet for our grandchildren, and in order to do this, individuals must cut down on carbon emissions and at the same time pressure their governments to do the same by adopting low-carbon technologies such as geothermal, wind, solar and nuclear power. Entertaining as well as deadly serious, this lucid book, which includes an appendix that dispels many myths and misconceptions, explains in the clearest possible way why we should care about global warming and what we can do about it. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"In a world full of misinformation, THE HOT TOPIC is a beacon of clarity." -- Al Gore, joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 and author of An Inconvenient Truth

Review

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE HOT TOPIC

“This is a fantastic book. It’s just what the world needs right now.”—Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers

“A masterful book, wonderfully well-written. It should become the authoritative statement on climate change and what to do about it for years to come.” —James Lovelock, author of The Revenge of Gaia

Customer Reviews

excellent primer for global warming..4
to really understand the problem, and to really understand how one can make a difference and to really understand the forces at work that will prevent any solution this is an excellent primer. It reads in laymen terms so you don't get all boondoggled by the science. It lays out the facts clearly and concisely and examines all the alternate sources of energy and their drawbacks. The Kyoto protocol is examined and the USA's reasons for not ratifying it. A very detailed and interesting read. Maybe I'm just too cynical, maybe I don't have enough faith in mankind, maybe I'm just depressed about this whole global warming and the world we're leaving to our children but I think it might be better to get beyond the argument of global warming, is it? or is it not? are we responsible? or aren't we? maybe..we should move the questions to a higher plain, like what can we do to make sure mankind survives?

good overview of research to date4
Other that An Inconvenient Truth, not too much exists in the pop culture that describes global warming and its possible consequences in a way that is accessible for the general public to understand. More books need to "cross over" to increase public awareness and understanding about this pressing issue. This publication acts as bridge between the scientific community and concerned citizens who may just be interested in the topic. It is an easy read and is laid out in a straightforward manner. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for basic facts about climate change and what humans can do to change the course. However, it may not be captivating for those that are not interested in the topic to begin with.

Must-read4
Apparently some people have criticized Al Gore's "an inconvenient truth" because it contained some (minor) scientific errors. But as a practicing scientist myself I would tend to say that this book is about as iron-clad as possible as to scientific research on climate change. If you have a sceptic in the family, or yourself have some scepticism because some data seem(ed) to contradict global warming (for example, CO2-levels rising AFTER rising temperatures in ice cores), this is THE book to find consistent explanations for the complex bundle of data and the most recent science possible.

Unfortunately, the truth of climate change as it is described is not merely inconvenient. It is bad. Mass extinctions, famines and wars seem inevitably linked to "business as usual" scenarios. For people who do not think global warming will have serious consequences, or at least not in their lifetimes, this is a rather unsettling book. For those who DO believe in the reality of global warming, it is even more unsettling, as we may be setting all kinds of "positive feedbacks" in motion, such as methane release from the arctic which can bring an enormous amount of extra greenhouse gas into the atmosphere compared to which our industrial emissions over the last century seem paltry.

If journalists ever said that you owed it to your children to watch Al Gore's movie, I'd say you owe it to your children (and quite likely and frighteningly, yourself) to read this book and give copies to your friends, company management and elected representatives.

Then why four stars instead of five? The book has some minor inconveniences (for example, distributing various tips for better living throughout multiple chapters instead of having one checklist) and the website where the authors promise to post their updates does not seem to be functional. The lacking star is more of a call to the authors to not only have a important and well-researched message, but to do their utmost to bring the message even more strongly and more easily for people to act upon. For time, unfortunately, seems to be running out.