What We Know about Climate Change, updated edition

Concise review of present knowledge is useful for all those who are interested in understanding how we might avoid the catastrophe of increasing global warming.

This booklet, by MIT professor of atmospheric sciences, is a short, comprehensive, and very readable, document about the issue of climate change. I noticed it through the warm recommendation published in a recent issue of "The Economist". I fully agree with the recommendation of "The Economist".

This very accessible book clearly lays out what it is known about climate change in a simple language. The author refrains from making vague or overly dramatic statements, and stick to a scientific style --- compare with the first sentence of David Wallace -Wells' best seller: "It is worse, much worse, than you think". Despite its short length, the book contains substantial information, and provide pointers to further resource on the topic. It may not be as deep as lengthier books, but it is a valuable introductory read on the topic.

The author is a genuine expert in his field. This is a quick read and worth your time. Considering the brevity, the reader will get an unusually clear explanation of factors like chaos and uncertainty. The author makes a good distinction between what is probably true and what is still uncertain. I appreciated his sketch of how computer models work. Interestingly, he points out the shortcomings of the peer review process, which the IPCC tends to claim is a guarantee of accuracy. In fact, much of the research cited by the IPCC is not even peer-reviewed, which would have been worth mentioning. Climate skeptics are presented as a politically motivated campaign to "discredit Climate Science." This is not helpful, especially when vast sums are being spent to hype alternative technologies ("Big Green"). There is an honest debate about the issues raised in this book. The main push-back is against "Climate Panic" and the lack of a workable plan. The track record on the net-zero project is not encouraging. "Big Green" is wildly misrepresenting the benefits of its subsidy-driven projects. In contrast to the quantitative approach in the rest of the book, the author's treatment of mitigation measures is mere hand waving. Climate activists are demanding immense sums without providing the feasibility studies and cost/benefit analysis that "conservatives" want to see. Publications that deal with this issue exist (Bjorn Lomborg and Bil Gates, for example) that have nothing to do with the left/right assumptions of the author.

Breve ma affronta i punti principali: Cosa sappiamo e non sappiamo; Possibili conseguenze; Le possibili scelte che ci troviamo di fronte; Rivalutare alcune scelte politiche.