Reviewed by Regina Raboin, Science Reference Librarian
As the reference & instruction librarian for Tufts’ Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning department and Environmental Science, I’m always searching for essential resources that help students and faculty gain a solid overview of a topic. The Climate Solutions Consensus: What We Know and What to Do About It (NCSE/Island Press, 2010) achieves this by bringing together the intricate science, policy and practical applications surrounding the most important social, cultural, environmental and political issue of our time.
Authors David Blockstein, Director of Science Education and Senior Scientist with the National Council for Science the Environment (NCSE) and Leo Wiegman (A ’80), founder of E to the Fourth Communications Strategy and Mayor, Croton-on-Hudson, NY, have written a book pulling together findings and subsequent policies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other summits and symposia. The beginning of the book outlines “Thirty-nine Reasons Why We Have to Act Now”, providing succinct, important global climate change facts and tenets. Blockstein and Wiegman also discuss how the phrase, global warming is too narrow to be used as a synonym for global climate change, but is useful for describing overall increases in average surface temperature of the Earth. This is an important distinction as numerous factors contribute to global climate change.
Throughout the book, the authors use definition, explanation and resources to assist readers in understanding the complex issues covered in the text. Topics such as atmospheric carbon, biodiversity, greenhouse gases, global and local action and science and public policy are clearly and concisely explained with online resources, climate solution actions and works cited/consulted sections providing additional resources and further education. Each chapter includes a “Connect the Dots” section, linking theory/policy with application.
The most appealing chapter of Climate Solutions Consensus, “Strategies for Stabilization, Mitigation, and Adaptation”, presents thirty-five immediate climate actions, describing the policy, research, and education needed to achieve each action item.
Well-documented and accessible, Climate Solutions Consensus, would work as an excellent text for a college/university course in global climate change or environment; it would also be useful as a resource for municipal or citizen environmental/climate change groups looking to educate their community and begin developing policies and actions to address global climate disruption.
Location: Tisch Book Stacks QC903 .B56 2010