The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer R Weart

The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer R Weart

A Capricious Beast Ever since the days when he had trudged around fossil lake basins in Nevada for his doctoral thesis, Wally Broecker had been interested in sudden climate shifts. The reported sudden jumps of CO2 in Greenland ice cores stimulated him to put this interest into conjunction with his oceanographic interests. The result was a surprising and important calculation. The key was what Broecker later described as a great conveyor belt'of seawater carrying heat northward. . . . The energy carried to the neighborhood of Iceland was staggering, Broecker realized, nearly a third as much as the Sun sheds upon the entire North Atlantic. If something were to shut down the conveyor, climate would change across much of the Northern Hemisphere. There was reason to believe a shutdown could happen swiftly. In many regions the consequences for climate would be spectacular. Broecker was foremost in taking this disagreeable news to the public. In 1987 he wrote that we had been treating the greenhouse effect as a 'cocktail hour curiosity, ' but now 'we must view it as a threat to human beings and wildlife.' The climate system was a capricious beast, he said, and we were poking it with a sharp stick.

Charting the evolution and confirmation of the theory [of global warming], Weart dissects the interwoven threads of research and reveals the political and societal subtexts that colored scientists’ views and the public reception their work received-- Andrew C. Revkin * New York Times Book Review *

Spencer R. Weart is Director Emeritus of the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780674031890
ISBN 10	067403189X
Title	The Discovery of Global Warming
Author	Spencer R Weart
Series	New Histories Of Science Technology And Medicine
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Harvard University Press
Year published	2008-12-01
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.