Beyond Smoke and Mirrors
Beyond Smoke and Mirrors
£20.99
GBPGlobal climate change is one of the most important issues humanity faces today. This updated, second edition assesses the sensible, senseless and biased proposals for averting the potentially disastrous consequences of global warming, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions on switching to more sustainable energy provision. Burton Richter is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who has served on many US and international review committees on climate change and energy issues. He provides a concise overview of our knowledge and uncertainties within climate change science, discusses current energy demand and supply patterns, and the energy options available to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Written in non-technical language, this book presents a balanced view of options for moving from our heavy reliance on fossil fuels into a much more sustainable energy system, and is accessible to a wide range of readers without scientific backgrounds - students, policymakers and the concerned citizen.
- Dispels confusion about all the potential solutions for averting climate change impacts, presenting both the limitations and the promise of our energy production options
- Assesses the good and bad proposals for moving from heavy use of fossil fuels to a more sustainable energy provision in the future
- Written in an accessible language by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist
Reviews & endorsements
Review of previous edition: '… a wonderfully balanced overview. It opens with a fine summary of the science linking carbon to climate … provides a concise primer on the economics of long-term climate policy, and concludes with a short, sensible, and well-argued set of opinions and policy recommendations.' Physics Today
Product details
November 2014Paperback
9781107673724
379 pages
215 × 138 × 20 mm
0.53kg
38 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- List of units
- List of conversion factors
- List of abbreviations
- 1. Introduction
- Part I. Climate:
- 2. Greenhouse Earth
- 3. Climate modelling
- 4. The past as proxy for the future
- 5. Predicting the future
- Part II. Energy:
- 6. Taking up arms against this sea of troubles
- 7. How fast to move: a physicist's look at the economists
- 8. Energy, emissions and action
- 9. Fossil fuels: how much is there?
- 10. Electricity, emission and pricing carbon
- 11. Efficiency: the first priority
- 12. Nuclear energy
- 13. Renewables
- 14. Biofuels: is there anything there?
- 15. An energy summary
- Part III. Policy:
- 16. US policy: new things, bad things, good things
- 17. World policy action
- 18. Coda
- References
- Index.
