Climate Change Science

Written by an established climate change scientist, this book introduces readers to cutting-edge climate change science. Unlike many books on the topic that devote themselves to recent events, this volume provides a historical context and describes early research results as well as key modern scientific findings. It explains how the climate change issue has developed over many decades, how the science has progressed, how diplomacy has (so far) proven unable to find a means of limiting global emissions of heat-trapping substances, and how the forecast for future climate change has become more worrisome. A scientific or mathematical background is not necessary to read this book, which includes no equations, jargon, complex charts or graphs, or quantitative science at all. Anyone who can read a newspaper will understand this book. It is ideal for introductory courses on climate change, especially for non-science major students.

Richard C. J. Somerville is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. He is a fellow of three scientific societies: the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He has received awards from the AMS for his research and his popular book The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change. From the AGU, he has received two major honors: the Climate Communication Prize (2015) and the Ambassador Award (2017). Richard is co-author (with Sam Shen) of Climate Mathematics: Theory and Applications (2019, Cambridge University Press) and co-editor of The Development of Atmospheric General Circulation Models: Complexity, Synthesis and Computation (2018, Cambridge University Press).