Communicating and Learning About Global Climate Change: An Abbreviated Guide for Teaching Climate Change, from Project 2061 at AAAS and NOAA Climate Program Office (PDF)
Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Sciences
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A report by an independent panel of experts convened by the National Research Council. It explains general themes about the ecological consequences of climate change and identifies examples of ecological changes across the United States.
Saul is a MacArthur genius and inventor, who takes the energy challenge both seriously and personally. “There are many more books and speeches and documents …that are available today to further discuss humanity’s influence on the environment …The principal difference here is that I’ve approached telling this story as an engineer would approach a challenge. ‘Tell me what I have to do and I’ll make it work’ might well be the call cry of engineers. This document is thus set out as a resource and an open document for other people to critique and improve until we can specify the task for engineers. Once we know what we have to do, we will certainly do it.” Highly recommended.
Here’s how Mackay leads off this invaluable book and online resource. “I’m concerned about cutting UK emissions of twaddle—twaddle about] sustainable energy. Everyone says getting off fossil fuels is important, and we’re all encouraged to ‘make a difference,’ but many of the things that allegedly make a difference don’t add up. Twaddle emissions are high at the moment because people get emotional (for example about wind farms or nuclear power) and no-one talks about numbers. Or if they do mention numbers, they select them to sound big, to make an impression, and to score points in arguments, rather than to aid thoughtful discussion.” Also highly recommended.
It is more than three years since the drafting of text was completed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). In the meantime, many hundreds of papers have been published on a suite of topics related to human-induced climate change. The purpose of this report is to synthesize the most policy-relevant climate science published since the close-off of material for the last IPCC report. The rationale is two-fold. First, this report serves as an interim evaluation of the evolving science midway through an IPCC cycle - IPCC AR5 is not due for completion until 2013. Second, and most important, the report serves as a handbook of science updates that supplements the IPCC AR4 in time for Copenhagen in December 2009, and any national or international climate change policy negotiations that follow.
The report summarizes the science and the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. It focuses on climate change impacts in different regions of the U.S. and on various aspects of society and the economy such as energy, water, agriculture, and health. It’s also a report written in plain language, with the goal of better informing public and private decision making at all levels. Key findings: 1. Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced. 10. Future climate change and its impacts depend on choices made today.
