Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Goals of the Book and the IPCC Report

Part 1:  Climate Change Basics

The Relative Impacts of Humans and Nature on Climate
Taking Action in the Face of Uncertainty: The Role of the Scientist in Global Change Policy Making
Why is it Called The Greenhouse Effect?
Feedback Loops Compound the Greenhouse Effect
What Are the Important Greenhouse Gases and Where Do They Come From?
Isn’t Carbon Dioxide Causing the Hole in the Ozone Layer?
Greenhouse Gases on the Rise
It’s Getting Hotter Down Here!  Surface Temperature Observations:
Is Our Atmosphere Really Warming?
Back to the Future: Deep Time Holds Clues to Greenhouse Climates
But Weren’t Scientists Warning Us of an Imminent Ice Age Only Decades Ago?
How Does Modern Warming Differ from Past Warming Trends?
Signs of Things to Come: A Decade of Western North American Drought
Signs of Things to Come: The European Heat Wave of Summer 2003
A Tempest in a Greenhouse: Have Hurricanes Become More Frequent and Intense?
The Vanishing Snows of Kilimanjaro: An Icon of Climate Change?
The Day after Tomorrow: Will the Ocean’s Conveyor Belt Shut Down?
The Last Interglacial Period as Analogue For the Future
How to Build a Climate Model
James Hansen Biographical Sketch
Climate Models Help Us to Assess Changing Climate Trends
Regional vs. Global Trends
‘Fingerprints’ Can Distinguish Human and Natural Impacts on Climate

How Sensitive is the Climate? Modern Observations
How Sensitive is the Climate? Evidence from Past Centuries
How Sensitive is the Climate? Evidence From Deep Time
Fossil Fuel Emission Scenarios: Predicting the Possibilities
The Next Century: How Will The Climate Change?  Part 1
The Next Century: How Will the Climate Change? Part 2
The Geographical Pattern of Future Warming
Carbon Cycle Feedbacks: Nature’s Response to Increasing Atmospheric CO2
Coral Reefs: Will Ocean Acidification be their Demise?
Melting Ice and Rising Sea Level
Future Changes in Extreme Weather
Stabilizing Atmospheric CO2: Is a Greenhouse World a Better World?

The Rising Impact of Global Warming
Is it Time to Sell that Beach House?
Ecosystems: Worth Saving?
The Highway to Extinction?
James Lovelock Biographical Sketch (
Water: Too Much and Too Little
Is Warming from Carbon Dioxide Leading to More Air Pollution?
War...
Famine…
Pestilence and Death
Earth, Wind, and Fire: Impacts on North America
Too Wet and Too Hot: Impacts on Europe
The Polar Meltdown

Is Global Warming the Last Straw for Vulnerable Ecosystems? How Human Activity has Changed the Rules of the Game
To Adapt or To Mitigate? What is the Best Course for the Coming Century 
It’s the Economy, Stupid: The Cost of Action vs. Inaction
A Finger in the Dike: Adapting to Sea Level Rise
Water Management
A Hard Row to Hoe: Adapting Farming and Agricultural Practices

Solving Global Warming
Where Are All Those Emissions Coming From?
Global Energy Supply: Keeping the Power Turned On
On the Road Again
Building Green
Odorless, Colorless, and Non-toxic, but Still a Threat: Industrial CO2 Pollution
Greener Acres
Forests: Source or Sink for Atmospheric CO2?
One Person’s Garbage is Another’s Carbon Mitigation Strategy
Geoengineering: Having Our Cake and Eating it Too!
But What Can I Do About It?
What’s Your Carbon Footprint?  
Global Problems Require International Cooperation
Can We Achieve Sustainable Development?
The Ethics of Climate Change
The Known Unknowns and the Unknown Unknowns
The Urgency of Climate Change: Why We Must Act Now