CLIMATE CHANGE:Picturing the Science

Every day we’re bombarded with articles, videos and links with stories about climate change. We know the earth is undergoing radical adjustments but what does ‘climate change’ actually mean? How do scientists work out what it means? How will our environment be affected? And what can we do to change its course?

Going beyond the headlines, this groundbreaking work by leading NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt and photographer Joshua Wolfe illustrates as never before the ramifications of shifting climate for human society. Photographic spreads and satellite imagery show us retreating glaciers, sinking villages in Alaska’s tundra and drying lakes. The text follows adventurous scientists from the ice caps at the poles to the coral reefs of the tropics.

Schmidt and Wolfe bring together many of the world’s leading experts, on atmospheric science, oceanography, paleoclimatology, technology, politics and the Polar Regions, to present the scientific consensus. This book shows exactly what we know about climate change, how we know it, what we don’t or can’t know about what it portends.
The book is organised into three parts: Symptoms, Diagnosis and Possible Cures. Each chapter addresses a particular aspect of the climate change challenge, from the interactions of the oceans, atmosphere, biosphere and ice to the complexities of political and international cooperation that will be necessary to combat global warming.

An unprecedented union of science and photography, this book promises to be the most informative, accessible book yet available on human-induced climate change.

GAVIN SCHMIDT is a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies as well as co-founder and contributing editor at RealClimate.org.