The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the
Debate, Andrew E. Dessler and Edward A. Parson, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006, pp. 190.Among policy issues struggling for attention on political agendas,
climate change is particularly consequential, by virtue of its large-scale
negative consequences for all human communities and ecosystems and the
high policy costs of remedial action. The stakes are singularly high, yet
the general public is not well informed about the reality of climate
change. Even the concerned citizen seeking information gets lost between
tendentious sketches in the mass media, on the one hand, and practically
illegible specialized literature, on the other. Dessler and Parson's
work is a welcome middle ground that provides clearly comprehensible
scientifically validated information on all aspects of the issue. The book
summarizes and evaluates current information on climate change, focusing
primarily on multilateral scientific assessments conducted by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It offers a balanced review of
the state of knowledge, and carefully delineates the bounds of scientific
agreement and uncertainty.
BOOK REVIEW • The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate (second edition)