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Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming
Michael Mann
Lee R. Kump, Pennsylvania State University

ISBN-10: 0136044352
ISBN-13: 9780136044352

Publisher: Prentice Hall
Copyright: 2009
Format: Paper; 120 pp
Published: 06/12/2008

Suggested retail price: $25.80
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For any science or social science course in need of a basic understanding of IPCC reports.

Periodic reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) evaluate the risk of climate change brought on by humans. But the sheer volume of scientific data remains inscrutable to the general public, particularly to those who may still question the validity of climate change. In just over 200 pages, this practical text presents and expands upon the essential findings in a visually stunning and undeniably powerful way to the lay reader. Scientific findings that provide validity to the implications of climate change are presented in clear-cut graphic elements, striking images, and understandable analogies.

 

Desk copies will be approved for professors who have adopted Dire Predictions for their course. Review several pages by clicking on the Take a Closer Look tab above.

 

Adopters, to request a desk copy, click on Request a Printed Exam Copy (above on the right).

• Authoritative material is provided by esteemed climate scientists Michael E. Mann  and Lee R. Kump. Mann’s work, along with that of other IPCC report contributors,
was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2007.

• The scientific bases for climate change, impacts, adaptation and vulnerability of natural and socioeconomic systems, and mitigation of climate change are covered.

• The authors avoid complicated chemical and mathematical data, focusing instead on building important concepts through analogy, example, and graphic representation.

• Complicated material from the IPCC reports is simplified for the lay reader. Readers will be familiar with the key concepts employed, including scientific uncertainty, how to build a climate model and use it to predict future climates, and geoforensics: piecing together the clues about past climates.

• PowerPoint slides of key graphics from the book may be downloaded by adopters from the Instructor's Resource Center Website.

Introduction to the Goals of the Book and the IPCC Report

Part 1:  Climate Change Basics

The Relative Impacts of Humans and Nature on Climate
Taking Action in the Face of Uncertainty: The Role of the Scientist in Global Change Policy Making
Why is it Called The Greenhouse Effect?
Feedback Loops Compound the Greenhouse Effect
What Are the Important Greenhouse Gases and Where Do They Come From?
Isn’t Carbon Dioxide Causing the Hole in the Ozone Layer?
Greenhouse Gases on the Rise
It’s Getting Hotter Down Here!  Surface Temperature Observations:
Is Our Atmosphere Really Warming?
Back to the Future: Deep Time Holds Clues to Greenhouse Climates
But Weren’t Scientists Warning Us of an Imminent Ice Age Only Decades Ago?
How Does Modern Warming Differ from Past Warming Trends?
Signs of Things to Come: A Decade of Western North American Drought
Signs of Things to Come: The European Heat Wave of Summer 2003
A Tempest in a Greenhouse: Have Hurricanes Become More Frequent and Intense?
The Vanishing Snows of Kilimanjaro: An Icon of Climate Change?
The Day after Tomorrow: Will the Ocean’s Conveyor Belt Shut Down?
The Last Interglacial Period as Analogue For the Future
How to Build a Climate Model
James Hansen Biographical Sketch
Climate Models Help Us to Assess Changing Climate Trends
Regional vs. Global Trends
‘Fingerprints’ Can Distinguish Human and Natural Impacts on Climate
Part 2:  Projections of Future Climate Change
How Sensitive is the Climate? Modern Observations
How Sensitive is the Climate? Evidence from Past Centuries
How Sensitive is the Climate? Evidence From Deep Time
Fossil Fuel Emission Scenarios: Predicting the Possibilities
The Next Century: How Will The Climate Change?  Part 1
The Next Century: How Will the Climate Change? Part 2
The Geographical Pattern of Future Warming
Carbon Cycle Feedbacks: Nature’s Response to Increasing Atmospheric CO2
Coral Reefs: Will Ocean Acidification be their Demise?
Melting Ice and Rising Sea Level
Future Changes in Extreme Weather
Stabilizing Atmospheric CO2: Is a Greenhouse World a Better World?
Part 3:  The Impacts of Climate Change
The Rising Impact of Global Warming
Is it Time to Sell that Beach House?
Ecosystems: Worth Saving?
The Highway to Extinction?
James Lovelock Biographical Sketch (
Water: Too Much and Too Little
Is Warming from Carbon Dioxide Leading to More Air Pollution?
War...
Famine…
Pestilence and Death
Earth, Wind, and Fire: Impacts on North America
Too Wet and Too Hot: Impacts on Europe
The Polar Meltdown
Part 4: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change
Is Global Warming the Last Straw for Vulnerable Ecosystems? How Human Activity has Changed the Rules of the Game
To Adapt or To Mitigate? What is the Best Course for the Coming Century 
It’s the Economy, Stupid: The Cost of Action vs. Inaction
A Finger in the Dike: Adapting to Sea Level Rise
Water Management
A Hard Row to Hoe: Adapting Farming and Agricultural Practices
Part 5:  Solving Global Warming
Solving Global Warming
Where Are All Those Emissions Coming From?
Global Energy Supply: Keeping the Power Turned On
On the Road Again
Building Green
Odorless, Colorless, and Non-toxic, but Still a Threat: Industrial CO2 Pollution
Greener Acres
Forests: Source or Sink for Atmospheric CO2?
One Person’s Garbage is Another’s Carbon Mitigation Strategy
Geoengineering: Having Our Cake and Eating it Too!
But What Can I Do About It?
What’s Your Carbon Footprint?  
Global Problems Require International Cooperation
Can We Achieve Sustainable Development?
The Ethics of Climate Change
The Known Unknowns and the Unknown Unknowns
The Urgency of Climate Change: Why We Must Act Now
   

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  • (IRC Download) Instructor Resource Manual for Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming
    Mann & Kump
    © 2009 | Prentice Hall | On-line Supplement | Estimated Availability: 09/01/2008
    ISBN-10: 0321625579 | ISBN-13: 9780321625571

    (IRC Download) Instructor Resource Manual for Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming
    Mann & Kump
    © 2009 | Prentice Hall | On-line Supplement | Estimated Availability: 09/01/2008
    ISBN-10: 0321625579 | ISBN-13: 9780321625571

    Downloadable files:

    • Graphics.pgs1_50 (zip) (9.9MB | zip file | Type: Presentations)
      JPEG images of tables and figures from pages 1-50 in "Dire Predictions."


    • Graphics.pgs51_80 (zip) (8.7MB | zip file | Type: Presentations)
      JPEG images of tables and figures from pages 51-80 in "Dire Predictions."


    • Graphics.pgs81_130 (zip) (13.5MB | zip file | Type: Presentations)
      JPEG images of tables and figures from pages 81-130 in "Dire Predictions."


    • Graphics.pgs131_188 (zip) (11.8MB | zip file | Type: Presentations)
      JPEG images of tables and figures from pages 131-188 in "Dire Predictions."


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