What We Know About Climate Change (Kerry Emanuel)

By Wayne Brown

(This is my Amazon Review)

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.

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PS: I appreciated his mention of next-generation nuclear as a factor in eventually reducing dependence on fossil fuels. This subject is often omitted in discussions of energy alternatives.

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