Abstract
Reading the 5th edition of Global Warming: The Complete Briefing for this review feels very timely as the 2015 round of United Nations climate talks is drawing to a close in Paris, with governments aiming to achieve a universal agreement on how to tackle the threat of global warming. This book provides an authoritative summary of this topic, taking it back to the first principles of why and how the climate is changing, outlining how the evidence for global warming is undeniable and explaining why this governmental action is necessary. This new edition by Houghton provides an update on the highly praised 4th edition (2009), which was reviewed for The Holocene by Chambers (2010). It is not a coincidence that the 5th edition comes hot on the heels of the publication of the 5th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report as this book aims to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date summary of this report accessible to both scientists and non-scientists. The reliance on material from the 2014 assessment report is evident with references throughout to the advances made since the fourth edition and the previous assessment report. Houghton is a perfect guide to lead readers through the many aspects and complexities involved in the global warming debate, having acted as the chair or co-chair of the IPCC between 1988 and 2002 and during the publication of the first three assessment reports.
The book is very well presented with full colour figures throughout. Scientific figures, many extracted from the IPCC report, are supported by schematic diagrams of key concepts, processes, systems and cycles. Many photos illustrate points made in the text and provide visual examples of the impacts of climate change. All of these figures strongly support the text; however, one minor drawback of their abundance is that the reader is on occasions flicking between pages to view the appropriate figure referred to in the text.
Each chapter has a similar layout and follows a clear structure. The well-written main text is supported by a large number of supplementary text boxes. These either provide further information on topics that are slightly tangential to the flow of the main text or describe in greater depth the more complex concepts such as the biological pump in the oceans and numerical models. This structure allows the reader to explore the chapters at an appropriate depth for their needs but still gain a broad understanding of all the areas addressed by the book. Summary tables within the chapters also provide useful assimilations of the key themes. The tables on the impact of climate change in Chapter 7, for example, really emphasise the wide-ranging imprint of global warming on the planet. Each chapter ends with a short bullet point summary followed by a series of questions to help readers think about and further explore the key messages of the chapter. Answers to the questions and electronic copies of all figures are provided on the publisher’s website, which makes this book a perfect resource for undergraduate teaching on global warming. Unsurprisingly, the suggested further reading and references rely heavily on the IPCC 5th Assessment Report; however, the notes sections include details of other sources utilised within the chapters. Therefore, as well as providing a routeway to the IPCC report, this book guides readers towards the large amount of peer-reviewed literature that underpins it.
The book is divided into 12 chapters, but they can be grouped based on overarching themes and links. Chapter 1 provides a clear introduction for the rest of the book, setting the scene with tangible observations of our changing climate, such as the increased frequency and intensity of weather extremes. It outlines some of the key themes addressed in the book and how a multidisciplinary approach is required. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 address the scientific basis behind global warming by describing the natural operation of the greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases and how they can be impacted by anthropogenic changes. The evidence for recent unnatural climate changes in the context of long-term climatic variability over the last 100, 1000 and 1 million years is also outlined. The level of detail is high with the complexity of disentangling and quantifying human-induced climate change from natural fluctuations and the concepts of cycles and positive and negative feedbacks within the climate system being emphasised throughout the chapters.
The next set of chapters (5, 6 and 7) addresses future climate changes, exploring how they are predicted, what they predict and their potential impact. How models of climate are constructed and validated, their increasing complexity to incorporate the numerous couplings and feedbacks within the climate system and their potential improvement in the future are all addressed in detail. The importance of using Representative Concentration Pathways, which have replaced emission scenarios, to drive the models of future changes, is also addressed. Before predicted climate changes, both in temperature and precipitation, the hydrological cycle and – crucially – extreme events that can have the largest impact on human lives are described in detail. Chapter 7, outlining the potential impacts of future climate change, is understandably one of the most substantial chapters in the book. The author leaves no stone unturned providing great descriptions of impacts, possible adaptions and costs of changes to sea level, coasts, global water use and resources, agriculture and food supply, ecosystems and human health. The chapter provides a stark reminder of the large-scale impact future climate change would have but does not present this in a sensationalist fashion.
Chapters 8 and 9 concentrate on why we should act upon climate change and how uncertainty is a key consideration when taking action. Chapter 8 moves dramatically away from the scientific focus of the prior chapters and the author outlines a more personal view of why we should act discussing themes of balance, sustainability, harmony, values, stewardship and responsibility and a religious outlook is apparent throughout. While these considerations and debates are important, this digression away from the factual tone of the rest of the book seems out of place and I feel could be addressed better in a separate publication. An impartial tone returns in Chapter 9, which focuses on why scientific uncertainty is a key consideration of the IPCC that has to be acknowledged in the global warming debate and weighed against the costs associated with action. The importance of this concept to the author has been clear from the start of the book: there are discussions about uncertainty in model predictions and acknowledgements that the climate can change naturally and that not all of the changes we are seeing can be solely attributed to global warming.
The focus of Chapters 10 and 11 is on what action can be taken to avoid dangerous climate change. The discussion of the history of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and action at a governmental level is especially interesting and pertinent with the talks in Paris coming to a close. Reading about the challenges of agreeing how to stabilise emissions and concentrations and agreeing temperature targets in the face of differing political outlooks highlights how complex these talks will have been. Chapter 11 provides a substantial analysis of two of the key sources of greenhouse gas emissions, energy and transport, and outlines what action can be taken to move towards a zero carbon future. After feeling a strong sense of impending doom reading Chapters 6 and 7, this chapter strongly demonstrates that all is not lost and that technological advances can help combat climate change. It does however emphasise the key role that governmental policy will play in forcing these adaptions. The closing Chapter 12 sets the challenge of future climate change in the context of other significant global problems, such as population growth, resource consumption and global security, but there is a realisation that all of these could be exacerbated in the face of global warming. Themes such as sustainability and stewardship are returned to, but I think Chapter 12 provides a more appropriate rallying cry for action than Chapter 8, closing with inspiring quotes and a call for action from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the launch of the IPCC Synthesis Report in 2014.
This book undoubtedly lives up to its billing as ‘The Complete Briefing’, comprehensively outlining the many areas encompassed in the debate regarding global warming in a clear, accessible and informative manner that I feel cannot be matched. This new edition was definitely required in light of the advances made in the recent IPCC Assessment Report, and you can really see how that work has been integrated into this updated version. It is an essential resource for anybody wishing to learn more or who is educating students about the vast, complex and interdisciplinary topic of global warming.