Impartial books on global warming?

Question

Are there any good books that give both sides of the global warming story?

Answer 1

Responsible Choices

The choices we make and the products we buy test our commitment to maintain a healthy planet. When we burn fossil fuels—such as oil, coal, and natural gas—to run our cars and light our homes, we pump carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air. This thickens the heat-trapping blanket that surrounds the planet, causing global warming.

Choosing modern technology can reduce our use of fossil fuels and help protect the planet. These ten steps will help curb global warming, save you money, and create a safer environment for the future.

Drive Smart!

A well-tuned car with properly inflated tires burns less gasoline—cutting pollution and saving you money at the pump. If you have two cars, drive the one with better gas mileage whenever possible. Better yet, skip the drive and take public transit, walk, or bicycle when you can.

Buy Local and Organic

Did you know the average American meal travels more than 1,500 miles from the farm to your plate? Think of all the energy wasted and pollution added to the atmosphere - not to mention all the pesticides and chemicals used to grow most produce! So go to your local organic farmer to get your fruits and veggies.

Support clean, renewable energy.

Renewable energy solutions, such as wind and solar power, can reduce our reliance on coal-burning power plants, the largest source of global warming pollution in the United States. Call your local utility and sign up for renewable energy. If they don't offer it, ask them why not?

Also, support a national renewable electricity standard (RES). The Energy Bill signed in 2007 lacked key components that address our energy security and global warming emissions: a renewable electricity standard of 15% by 2020 and a tax package that will provide investment incentives for clean energy alternatives. Use our action center to urge your members of congress to support the renewable electricity standard and tax package!

Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.

Especially those that burn the longest each day. Compact fluorescents produce the same amount of light as normal bulbs, but use about a quarter of the electricity and last ten times as long. Each switch you make helps clean the air today, curb global warming, and save you money on your electricity bill.

Saving energy at home is good for the environment and for your wallet.

Start with caulking and weather-stripping on doorways and windows. Then adjust your thermostat and start saving. For each degree you lower your thermostat in the winter, you can cut your energy bills by 3 percent. Finally, ask your utility company to do a free energy audit of your home to show you how to save even more money.

Become a smart water consumer.

Install low-flow showerheads and faucets and you'll use half the water without decreasing performance. Then turn your hot water heater down to 120°F and see hot-water costs go down by as much as 50 percent.

Buy energy-efficient electronics and appliances.

Replacing an old refrigerator or an air conditioner with an energy-efficient model will save you money on your electricity bill and cut global warming pollution. Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances or visit their website at www.energystar.gov to find the most energy-efficient products.

Plant a Tree, protect a forest.

Protecting forests is a big step on the road to curbing global warming. Trees "breathe in" carbon dioxide, but slash-and-burn farming practices, intensive livestock production, and logging have destroyed 90 percent of the native forests in the United States. And you can take action in your own backyard — planting shade trees around your house will absorb CO2, and slash your summer air-conditioning bills.

Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!

Producing new paper, glass, and metal products from recycled materials saves 70 to 90 percent of the energy and pollution, including CO2, that would result if the product came from virgin materials. Recycling a stack of newspapers only 4 feet high will save a good-sized tree. Please...buy recycled products!

Mount a local campaign against global warming.

Educate your community about how it can cut global warming pollution. Support measures at the national, state, and local level that:

Make automobiles go further on a gallon of gas;

Accelerate the use of clean, renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind;

Increase energy efficiency and conservation; and

Preserve forests around the world.

Answer 2

It's called the IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).  It's pretty much as neutral, objective, down-the-line-scientific as you can get.  It is written in highly technical language though.

It provides a broad coverage of the current science together with analysis of all proposed theories on what's going on.

Incidentally, in case you were curious, two theories which have been essentially proved false by the IPCC are: (1) global warming is not happening; (2) human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are not causing global warming.  There are a wide range of other theories still possible, though (not just "two sides"), ranging from "We can stabilize carbon emissions and everything will be pretty much normal" to "It's too late to fix things due to positive feedback effects, all the coastal cities are going to flood in 50 years, and we should start moving now".

Answer 3

I have yet to see anything like that.

The way believers think and the way sceptics think is so different that it's like a religious person and an agnostic debating whether god is real or not.  

I don't think skeptics will take the leap of faith no matter how many comittees develop a concensus that it is probably significant and real.  The more comittees are formed, the more skeptics will resent the politicisation of science.

Answer 4

"Exodus" by Julie Bertagna

read it....

Answer 5

"An inconvenient book" by Glenn Beck.

Answer 6

I think it will be very difficult to find such a book. A book describing "both sides" of global warming would be like finding an unbiased book about "both sides" of evolution vs creationism.

Most of the theories from the skeptics are already debunked, very hypothetical or just plain absurd. Non of them can explain the warming, so the main tactics is only to undermine the current  theory by pointing at some uncertainties in it. There are uncertainties in every complex field of science, but that doesn't mean everything we know about these issues are wrong.

I doubt this is the kind of book you're looking for and I don't think you'll consider it "unbiased" but I do recommend it. It's the closest I can get to help you.

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/globalwarming...

Answer 7

As others have so correctly stated, this is a difficult issue to find any information that is unbiased. This is VERY much like a religious or political disagreement, with................well, I won't disparage the skeptics who claim it's all a hoax, some of who use Youtube as an "authority". ( And Superman comics to explain the Physics of Flight ).

Just read, read and then read more, but add one element to your thinking. Instead of reading it as Global Warming, think of it as "Environmental Anomalies".......occurrences that are documented, with proof that are happening. Ask yourself "Why"  they might be happening.

I'll start you off with one, that the skeptics never seem to want to address.

The fabled Northwest Passage, is ice free for the first time in RECORDED history. Add to this the other 121 anomalies worldwide and decide yourself.  I wouldn't worry too much about the "who caused" it argument..................were past the

point of no return anyway.