Introduction to Modern Climate Change

While I am not a climate scientist, I did teach college chemistry for over 40 years from freshman to graduate chemistry. I've spent about 10 years trying to educate myself about climate change. I have read about 150 CC books (pro and con, at many levels), read countless articles and Wikipedia pages, watched endless videos and lectures (pro and con) on most aspects of CC. Anyone willing to put the work to understand the science will come away with a solid foundation of how climate change works after reading this book. The figures are helpful in understanding the discussions and there are problems at the end of every chapter, with some answers at the end. (picture of my book, read twice)The first 7 chapters explain the science of climate change. If it's been awhile since you took science and math courses, this could be a bit challenging, but well worth it. The writing is clear and the author has many helpful examples. I had previously seen the atmospheric "layers" model, but the author took it one step beyond what I had studied (to "n" layers), and it greatly improved my understanding (though I had to read it 3 times to get there). He used our neighboring planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars) to show how it works in comparison to earth.Dessler covers most CC aspects in a more quantitative way than many of the generic (and sometimes alarmist) books that are out there. He discusses temperature (recent and historical), electromagnetic radiation (wavelength and region of the electromagnetic spectrum), blackbody radiation, the Stephen-Boltzmann law, energy balance, what the greenhouse gases are, the carbon cycle (atmosphere, land and oceans), how CO2 gets in the atmosphere (volcanoes, warming oceans and humans) and how it gets out of the atmosphere (weathering by land, oceans and photosynthesis), time lags between those two directions, radiative forcing, climate sensitivity, fast and slow feedbacks, plate tectonics, the solar constant and how it varies with earth's orbit (Milankovitch cycles). other greenhouse gases and more.Using this foundation, Dessler looks considers Predictions of Future Climate Change, using different emission scenarios (Chapter 8) and Impacts of Climate Change, impacts on our world (Chapter 9), depending on what we do.Chapter 10 looks at our poor understanding of the power of exponential functions, discounting, the discount rate and the social cost of carbon. Some of this was new to me and it's quantitative so I had to read it over about a few times. It considers whether we should invest our money up front (cough up the money to make the necessary changes) or wait and invest later as the emergencies arise (transfer the costs to the next generations).The next two chapters (11 and 12) consider policies we can implement to try and save ourselves (adaptation, mitigation, various geoengineering strategies and economic strategies to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels = fees versus cap and trade, conventional regulations versus market regulations versus voluntary strategies, etc).Chapter 13 was historical background on science and politics. I was familiar with much of this information, but it was helpful to see it all summarized in a few pages.The last chapter (14) looks at the uncertainties involved in CC, deciding a long term goal, costs versus benefits, the IPCC goals of 1.5oC and 2oC (and their carbon budgets), what we need to do to achieve those targets, how much it could cost, elements of a coherent policy and some final thoughts.This is really a comprehensive book for anyone who is not an expert on CC. If you have some background, this book can bring it all together, provide a really good overview and deepen your understanding of CC. If you are just beginning your quest to understand CC, you'll have to work harder, but this is still a shortcut to deep understanding (rather than reading the information scattered over 20 different books on different aspects of CC).My 10 year quest has convinced me there is no other topic more important to the future of life on earth than how our climate is changing and what our options are. This is not a novel about climate change, it is a textbook written at a level that you can teach yourself how climate change works, IF you have a basic understanding of algebra level math and high school level science. It's worth the effort. Our future and our children's, grandchildren's and great grandchildren's future depends on what we do right now!

Very good quality paper. Had to buy it for one of my classes and it is a good book.

I took Dr. Dessler’s class in 2020. The book matches his class exactly. Reading this with the class or just by itself is super informative and accessible to anyone, no matter how much or little they already understand climate change.

Got it for a class, wasn't as expensive as other textbooks, and was easy to read.

Two things struck me about the book:1. He claims that 60 cm of sea level rise would inundate 9% of Florida containing almost two million people. Following his reference to its reference, the area is for 80 cm not 60 cm. Checking its flood map against a population density map of Florida, the area shown, at the southern end of Florida, contains almost nobody — Miami is low, but not that low. Dessler is either incompetent or a deliberate liar.2. His chapter on the effects of climate change contains no positive effects — the only reference to any I could find consisted of two sentences early in the book conceding that there might be some in some regions. The book never mentions CO2 fertilization, which is a direct result of increased CO2, very well established by experiment, and large — doubling CO2 increases the yield of most crops by about 30%. It never mentions the increase in the area of Earth warm enough for human habitation. Part of one sentence, not in the chapter on effects, mentions the reduction in cold weather mortality, with no suggestion of the fact that mortality from cold at present is much larger than from heat or the fact, clear from both physics and the IPCC report, that greenhouse gas warming is greater in cold times and places than in warm.The book is competently written but it presents a badly biased, and in part dishonest, picture.

I got a Kindle sample because the author has a PhD in a relevant area. I was looking for science since I am an engineer PhD. I got to page 626 and I found the tropics, which he claims are conveniently defined as the region between 30 deg N and 30 deg S, and this region covers half the surface area of the planet. Now given all the bad information being dissent recently, I wanted to check this claim out. So I did a search on DuckDuckGo and never found anything about what percentage of the earth’s surface was in the tropics. But what I did find was a scientific definition which was approximately +/- 24 degrees. Now I am an Astronautical Engineer, and I am trying to learn if climate change has scientific backing, but making so egregious error seems inexcusable. I am glad that I did not buy this book! I would not recommended it to anyone.

Watched interviews with Steve Koonin and then Desseler back to back on Rogan. Desseler came across to me as a salesman for solar and wind and lost me when he declared humans 100% responsible for warming. He kept painting Dr. Koonin as a defense attorney for carbon when all he does is ask questions that they have no reasonable answers to, yet we're supposed be alarmed and rush to change everything at a cost which we do not know. I'll keep my $40 and wait 10 years and see.

For someone who is a "scientist" this book is extremely sensacionalist, and does not present the actual climate science, but interpretations that are trying to sell a catrastophist idea of the future of the world. Do not waste your money with this crap.