Science Nature Books

This is by far the best short treatment I've read on moon phases for kids. The illustrations and explanations are clear and understandable, and my five -year-old is able to "wrap his brain around" the idea of the moon rotating around the earth rotating around the sun...not the most intuitive concept around. In most other similar books I've looked at, they seem to assume you can already picture it in your head...this one adds the viewers' perspective in addition to the plantet's. Very helpful.

I am a second grade teacher and this book enriched our textbook wonderfully. The illustrations and text were easy for the children to understand (and even taught me a few things as well!) We read several of Franklyn M. Branley's books during our year, but this one seems to be a class favorite.

This is an awesome book that can be used in the classroom when studying space, planets, and the solar system. As a huge object in the sky, the moon sparks a lot of curiosity and this book helps children understand more about it.

It really helps the young inquiring mind learn about the moon. My almost 5 year old always wants this read. Also it tells you how to do a demonstration to show younger kids why the moon looks the way it does, why it changes. I'm glad we got this book!

This book on precious stones is brillant.I liked the quality and structure of the book.It's not a cheap paperback.Color photos and an abundant supply of them.Scientific data and historical background presented.It's ideal for those of us ,who are Reiki practitoners .This gem book is not Wicca related.Yet,it is quite facilitative for wiccans who use the healing stones and perform healing exercises.The depth of gemstone information is a farraginous mixture from almagest times until today.

This book is by far the best single source for gemological data for the price, anywhere. Pictures are excellent too, more than the other books I have reviewed. The only thing that would make it better, is to make it larger.

I was expecting a bit more from this book! The reviews I read before purchasing this book all raved about how "complete" and "up to date" it was! It's obvious that the people responsible for those reviews don't have much experience in the Gemstone world! First off, the print in this book is FAR too small. The information is very crammed and the author barely brushes the surface when describing individual gemstones. There are also far too many gemstones left out of this book. Gemstone pictures represent about half of the book and are also very incomplete! If this book were larger (larger font), it would be far less crammed and much easier to read. If you are someone looking for a BASIC intro to Gemstones (the more popular ones), this book MAY suffice. However, if you are a Gemstone buyer, collector or hobbyist, this book will prove to be extremely incomplete. I'm really disappointed in the insufficient descriptions of individual gemstones and how crammed, small AND difficult to read, the text in this book proves to be.

Best book I've bought on gems. Tons of great color pics of rough and faceted stones. This should be the first book you buy on gems (I have about 6 of the top gem books and this one bests them all).

This is a fantastic book. I learned a great deal reading this resource. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about gemstone origins, types of cut, crystal formation, or if you just want to look at the pretty pictures of all of the most beautiful stones in the world yet discovered.

These are great educational books where children have no idea that they are learning.

My 4 year old son fell in love with the earlier books in this series - Hurricane, Ocean Floor, Electricity, Human body, Water Works, Bees. They are rich in detail, and are very engaging for young exploring minds. This one (MSB Kicks Up a Storm) pales by comparison. Not nearly as much detail. Lacks the quality of illustrations and side-commentary that make the earlier ones so special. This is a run-of-the-mill kids book with nothing much to distinguish it. I have read elsewhere that this series took a downturn when it became a TV show. It certainly reads like a comic-book version of a TV show. Take my son's advice - stick with the earlier books in the Magic School Bus series.

It's high summer at school and hot, hot, hot. Carlos is working on a rain catcher, but there's no rain. Ralphie stares out the window and concludes that what they all need to cool down is a big thunderstorm. The only problem is that the kids don't know how weather is made. Is it water? Is it moving air or the heat from the sun that creates weather?

Well, of course, there's nothing to be done about it but to get out there, take chances, get messy and make mistakes!

The children learn all about weather but not before they are turned into water droplets, ride on falling ice crystals and get whooshed about in a thermal updraft. Shicka-Shicka Kaboom! Ralphie gets carried away as your children will be.

Four Stars. These books are very educational, but they are not the easiest read-alouds. (I read them to my 3 and 5 year-olds anyway.)

**See the `Search Inside' Excerpt page for an example of reading level. Certainly young children will not be able to read them.

In his book, 'An Inconvenient Truth', Al Gore writes about a
"hockey-stick" graph, with "global average temperature" on
one axis, and time on the other axis. "GLOBAL WARMING" IS
SCIENCE FICTION. Temperature varies from point to point.
What people call temperature, is what mathematical
physicists refer to as a value assigned to a point in a
temperature field. There are potentially an infinite number
of readings one may obtain in a given region of space. But
to assign a single temperature reading to a given region of
space is misleading. For example, putting a thermometer
under a bed, beside a window, or on top of a radiator in a
given room may give you a different reading, with or without
you in it. A temperature reading should only be assigned to
a single point, and not a space. For to assign a single
temperature reading to a region of space, such as a room, or
a city, is misleading. The earth is a very big place. For
example, on a hot day in India, it may be a cold night in
Canada. A global average temperature reading is essentially
meaningless since there appear to be a countless number of
places, or points, upon the earth, or slightly above the
earth, where a temperature reading might be taken. If your
population size is infinite, or vast, how large should your
sample size be in order to obtain a meaningful statistic,
such as an average? If you cannot determine what the global
average temperature is today, or was yesterday, why would
you claim global warming is taking place? Why would
academics, or politicians, lie? ("Fifty thou a year, buys a
lot of beer." - Timbuk 3).


The 'Kyoto Accord' will help establish the creation of a
global economic planning agency. Have you noticed that the
manufacturing sector in North America has been disappearing
has factories are closed "here", only to open up "there"?
The Wealth of a Nation is determined by what that nation can
produce. The Living Standard of a Nation is determined by
what that nation can consume. Don't confuse WORK with INCOME.
They who advocate "enviro-mentalism" are not really concerned
with weather patterns, but are interested in economics. If
they really cared about helping the global poor, would they
not open up factories overseas without closing them
domestically? Instead, they are behaving as if transportation
costs are negligible. Do not most Americans live within 30km
of their jobs?


Consider, as another example, the irrational belief that
enviro-mentalists (such as Al Gore) are advocating, that it
is possible to save electricity by not using it. A magnet
rotating inside a coil of wire will generate an electrical
current in that wire: engineers call this INDUCTION.
A TURBINE is essentially a giant magnet placed inside a giant
coil of wire: In order to generate electricity, the giant
magnet must be rotated, according to scientists. (Where
these giant magnets come from, is another story.) In theory,
the pressure of steam, water, or air against the vanes of a
wheel turn the magnet inside the turbine, generating
electricity; In nuclear power plants, nuclear energy is used
to heat water, converting the water into steam, and the
resulting steam pressure is used to operate the turbines which
provide households with available electricity. The turbines
are not going to stop producing electricity, just because you
stop using it. By definition, the only way you can SAVE
ELECTRICITY is BY STORING IT, as in a rechargeable battery.
If you are a customer of a hydroelectric company, you can save
money by not using electricity. However, if you choose not to
use the electricity which the turbines generate, that
electricity will be wasted, like an untappped natural gas leak.
Gasoline is made from oil: Conserving gasoline makes more
sense than conserving electricity, so why don't "they" ban
landscaping (lawn mowers)?


In the name of "enviro-mentalism" a philosophy of "act local,
think global" is emerging, which in practise means the creation
of a local "slave labour" population and a "no-fly list",
restricting travel for some. An elite "work" force of "symbol
analysts" is emerging, university-educated "citizens" who will
manage the "locals". Imagine a dog with a leash around his
neck, which leash is attached to a stick in the ground. The
owner/manager tells the dog, "You are free to roam. as you are
able (allowed) to". That is the future that enviro-mentalists
are advocating: The new economy is about serving females, and
offering males (the boyim) opportunities to serve females. The
future looks a lot like the past, only without the black oil
and the gasoline-powered lawnmowers. The future is FEMDOM.
Fight the future. Resistance is not futile. Ever read the
play, Lysistrata?

This book is badly written and poorly reasoned, a shallow, tendentious screed that promotes environmental apocalypticism at the expense of common sense and sound policy. Gore seems to think that until recently, the Earth's climate was stable and that CO2 emissions are driving temperatures to unprecedented levels. In fact, the world is still quite a bit cooler than it was during the Middle Ages, when greenhouse gas emissions were neglible. When people realize how much Gore's absurd proposals would cost, and that they would accomplish little more than to drive American industry into the arms of the Chinese, even those who are conned by his reasons will have second thoughts.

I am horrified to hear a reviewer, in this day and age and with the united voices out thousands of the world's preeminent scientists shouting it to the rafters, that he/she doubts the existence of a global climate crisis. What more evidence does one need? When our children are dying from starvation and flooding and our grandchildren from disease, people such as these will standing on the last dry hill denying to the end and perhaps saying "It's God's Will" when in fact it was OUR will. The same people praise George Bush when he slowly tries to strip the US of its liberties and freedoms; in the face of his criminal, heinous, dictatorial behavior and outright lies.
Please, dear readers, PLEASE buy this book. Buy a used copy of the paperback for a few bucks if the cost is too high. It may not be perfect but the warning is real and the threat is real. Don't listen to those who have thrown away their reason because they've been brainwashed by Rush Limbaugh or from their facist fathers in the pulpit. Reason is what lifted us from the Dark Ages, is what gave birth to democracy around the globe. It is what will save us.

The distresses with Gore's propaganda book for global warming are manifold. The first and worst sin Gore commits is he's NOT FAIR AND BALANCED in his struggling argument that global warming is real, caused by man, and the single-biggest threat facing the world. If Gore was FAIR AND BALANCED in his presentation, he could persuade more readers to give him the benefit of the doubt. Gravely for him, his presumptuous, one-sided and absolutist/elitist argument for global warming--where he brainwashes the reader to believe that global warming is 100% fact through arrogant declaration but no foundations--actually sours the reader and makes Gore appear as a fanatical, ideological DEMAGOGUE with an agenda and shabby credibility.

The most flagrant trespass in Gore's book is it's constructed to indoctrinate grade school/high school kids in the Religion of Global Warming. This is indisputable if we look at the layout of Gore's propaganda: it's short on text, full of colorful graphs, size 30 fonts on some pages, and full of pictures. With this shortcoming of substance, it's clear Gore's slideshow-turned-book was NEVER designed to make an intelligent argument about global warming's allegedly looming threat. It was designed to proselytize impressionable kids at the K-12 levels to believe in the Religion of Global Warming.

The predicament of failure of substance is found everywhere in Gore's propaganda book. He never has many sources to credibly validate the legitimacy of graphs and projections he cites!!!! Even gloomier for Gore's trustworthiness is that his sources come from biased, agenda-driven organizations whose "statistics" you cannot trust--if you're being intellectually honest, which the majority of sycophant-reviewers here refuse.

For instance, a purportedly "authoritative" chart claiming to show 2005 was the hottest year EVER in the history of humankind was conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an ideological group sponsored by the UN!!!! Their whole mission statement is to prove that global warming is to be blamed on human activities, so any statistics emerging from their partisan group must be discounted. However, unfair and unbalanced Gore has the insolence to cite this statistic as "authoritative."

Another misconstruction in Gore's argument of ideology is to blame man and global warming for Africa's abysmal problems with genocide and civil wars!!!! Despite the insanity of this supposition, Gore shamelessly alleges that this is so, yet if we analyze his thinking, it can easily be discreditable. Gore's accusatory misconstruction is we (read: US and the West) are single-handedly to blame for the murderous genocide and afflictions in Africa because of our alleged contribution to global warming!!!!

Gore charges the US "helped manufacture the suffering in Africa," as he bases this antagonistic accusation on the supposition that US greenhouse gas emission caused the drying up of Lake Chad--which he then misuses to account for the genocide in Darfur!!!! To any intellectually honest person, of course, the ethnic cleansing and civil war in Darfur are mainly caused by Muslim Janjaweed fighting the non-Arab rebels who are in turn fighting the Sudanese government. With self-hating, anti-American allegations like these, Gore's credibility itself suffers.

Yet another, equally heavy reprimand Gore deserves is for the irrational conclusions and methodology he continually abuses to arrive at his presumption that the scientific community has a consensus that global warming's manmade. In example, Gore mendaciously cites a Science magazine study of every massive, peer-reviewed article on global warming from scientific journals and magazines. He cites this utterly dissolute study to pretend to prove that there's consensus among EACH AND EVERY SCIENTIST ON THE PLANET that global warming is manmade. However, killing Gore's believability is the mortifying fact that said Science magazine study only reviewed TEN PERCENT of every available article on global warming. With this contemptible restriction on what a proper population sample of articles would be, Gore assumingly and pitifully declares that there is basically complete, 100% consensus on the fiction that every single scientist on earth is in unison about global warming.

If this is reliably the case, as Gore forges it to be, then why in the hell are there so many scientists who outright dispute Gore's BS allegations?!?! Some prominent critics of global warming are French geophysicist Claude Allegre; director of the Office of Climatology at Arizona State University Robert Balling Jr.; Associate Professor of Geology and Environmental Science at University of Auckland Chris de Freitas; and so on and so forth. These scientists only scratch the surface; for a more comprehensive list of authorities discrediting global warming, simply do a Google search or check Wikipedia.

Gore's book stumbles in its ineffective struggle to convince the reader of the conclusiveness of global warming. Instead, Gore and his fellow, global-warming co-conspirators simply incriminate themselves as ideologues menacingly dismissing the REAL, BIGGEST threat to the world: Islamic terrorism. Gore often speaks of his kids' kids hating our current generation for not addressing global warming, but they'll likely hate our generation more if we succumb to Gore's advice and pursue the unreliability of global warming while ignoring terrorism!!!!

I gave this 5 stars because it is a gorgeous book, well written, with convincing research. However, I caution parents that the data is a bit alarming and may give sensitive children nightmares. Ice is melting in mountains and near the poles, and ocean levels will rise and whole cultures will have water shortages.

Many adults find Gore's data distasteful. They do not want to think about climate trends that may doom our descendants, maybe even ourselves or our children. They want to live in the happy world that they remember from childhood. And they hate the idea that our greatest enemy may be our selves.

I suspect that many of the folks who gave negative reviews did not really read the book carefully, perhaps not at all. It does not take long to read though - very understandable, lots of photos and other graphics.

This book is suitable for many adults - those who struggle with small print, for instance, and those with limited time who want to read something that is important but not too complex. Young people will also benefit from it as long as they do not feel helpless to change things.

Recommended by a friend, but I did not enjoy the book. The author seems to place the crude perspectives of the jungle inhabitants on a moral pedestal. Great for tree huggers and naturalists, but I am neither.

If you've seen Apocalypto you'll like this excellent book!

In this disarmingly honest ethnography the spirits take the front row, they seem to rule the life of the rainforest Indians by ruling over the shaman. Some shamans decide to change their old ways. They throw away their spirits and embrace the spirit, the one spirit that created all other spirits. Some famous anthropologists think they should not change, but keep on living with their spirits in their old ways.

In a reflective moment toward the end of his life, Jungleman, the talented Yanomamo shaman who told the stories recorded by Mark A. Ritchie, confesses, "now even I have stopped many of the old ways. We don't kill any more or drink bones or rape or take ebene." Ebene is a hallucinogenic drug growing on the ebene tree, used by the shamans to assist in contacting the spirits, Ritchie explains. Now this is a testimony of the power of transformation in a Yanomamo's way of life, of the violent old ways replaced by the new ways. It is as simple as that. The shaman left the old way of the spirits and lives the good life.

Jungleman continues his meditation: "The only sad thing is my son. He still has that disgusting spirit of the deer. Whenever friends come to visit, he disappears into the jungle and doesn't come back for days. But not even the peace and beauty of the jungle can hide the war of fear that runs wild in him." What a sad situation. The shaman cannot force his son to leave the old ways, it has to come from within.

Any regrets? Jungleman: "I wish I had known the truth about Yai Wana Naba Laywa when I was a young man - it would have saved me so much pain and misery. But how could I? My spirits lied so much to me and tricked me. They were so beautiful, so wonderful, so hard not to want. They were the best at telling me split-truth. Now I'm at the end of this life, and I'm ready to begin my real life with Yai Pada." Yai Wana NAba Laywa and Yai Pada are the same being, Ritchie explains, they are the foreign spirit for Yanomamo.

The Yanomamo lived in pain and misery as long as their world was dominated and ruled by the spirits of the rainforest.

Shoefoot said, "We Yanomamo are tired of people coming to our lands to make money studying us." "I am not an animal to be studied." But "If you don't like people to come and study you, what kind of people do you want to come into your land?" "We want people who will help us improve our way of life, not just write books about us. We want people who will really care about us, like the man who came to my village and put his arm around me when I was covered with dirt, sweat, saliva, and mucous. This man shared in our suffering. He cares about our children. He showed us something we knew nothing about - love."

Shoefoot said about white people that keep telling them to keep their old ways, "They mock my people. I've lived my whole life ere in this jungle. If they think they know the best way to live here, let them come and show us. And tell them not to bring any guns with them. And no clothes. We'll even show them how to grow yucca before we send them off to their wonderful life in the jungle." He continues, "People who talk like that do not know of the pain of my people who still live in misery every day. Am I a dog, that I should have my wife and children live in pain all the time because of what your people in your land say?"
Plain and simple, trading places would be a good way to go before giving advice. And if somebody is masochist enough to enjoy hell, why should that be the standard of a good live for everybody else?

The leader of a village at Mavaca, Kaobawa, "became angry with his spirits because of all the misery that kept coming to his people. All his brothers died, and his children. His spirits kept telling him to kill. Finally he threw them away in disgust. He thought that they might kill him, but he didn't care."

Jungleman about his deliverance from the spirits that lived with him all his live: "Don't throw us away, Father," the Jaguar Spirit begged me...We all know that when your usefulness is over, they will come and take you away - kill you, is what I mean. ... They were trying to kill me...My spirits pounded on my chest... Even though I knew I should expect it, I couldn't believe that my closest friends in all the world were doing this to me. Even Charming was with them... I lay on the ground in the cloud of brightness and I saw my whole life, and I saw how completely tricked I had been...Everything they said was a lie. And such clever lies too!...I had been used by my spirits for their pleasure."

"Yai Wana Naba Laywa reached out and grabbed me. I felt so safe. That's why it doesn't hurt, I thought. He stood over me, pulled me away from my spirits, and said to me, `Don't worry. You'll be all right. I'm here to protect you.' Then with a big voice the spirit said to my spirits, `Leave him alone. He's mine.' They scampered in every direction, like a heard of terrified hogs. And he was right; I was his."

"At that moment I felt safer than ever in my life." Jungleman wanted to throw his spirits but they wanted to kill him, so he had some help and the spirit (Yai Wana Naba Laywa) "suddenly decided to free me from my spirits." This is a story you can find in other forests of our green earth, if you want a second opinion. It rings true to me. It is "gripping" and "hard to put down," and yes, "gut-wrenching."

Do missionaries preserve or destroy cultures? If you have ever thought about this question this book gives interesting insight for thought from the perspective of a Shaman from a tribe in Venezuala over a period of 30 years. A very helpful, confronting and encouraging book.

I first read this book in 2000, from a public library. It is an enduring read with a compelling story-line. I bought my own copy recently because I knew I would want to re-read it many times. So far, it has been passed around at work - I'm not sure who has got it right now.

The biography of a Venezuelan tribe, from the point of view of a shaman, Jungleman, during a time of great transformation - externally and internally. At times critical of the colonialism of anthropologists, the account is honest in its description of the brutality of the tribe's practices, and provides a unique insight into things spiritual, to which Westerners are typically blind.

I really like this book...our pastor recommended it and at first I wondered how it would apply...it is a great picture of these people's transformation from negative spiritual influence to positive (i.e.demonic forces and God) and how even in the middle of the jungle God still sought them out!!! Powerful!!

Excellent breed descriptions with mutiple pictures of most to show color variations. Tells you who's on the endangered list and how many eggs to expect over a year. Which are the best broodys and which won't sit at all. Wish I'd had this before I began my backyard flock.

This is such a great book, I was surprised at how beautiful and bright the pictures were! There are many many breeds in here as well as quite a few ducks/gees & turkeys. I wish there were a few more pages of pheasant (there is only 1) but that's not why I bought the book anyway :) If I had one complaint it's that I wish they had out a photo of the eggs laid by each breed along with thier pictures, then it would be perfect!

I am writing a fiction book about chickens. After reviewing several reference books from the library, this one stands alone as the MUST HAVE. I'm ordering a copy for myself for more research to finish the manuscript and for the sheer pleasure of reading about these fascinating species.

Overall just an okay book; more informative books are available about poultry breeds & avian species; nice photographs, however, this book would have been much better & more handy if it were published as a small 6" x 8" size field-guide; having made this such a big & bulky book was unnessary & a distractor for practical use of this publication!

I found the book helpful in identifying feather and colours in chickens. I did learn some background information on breeds I had not known. Unfortunately the book is very American based and I live in Australia. Most of my flock are not identified in the book which was a shame as I wanted to learn more. I loved the illustrations which I was able to link to my hens.

I wish I had the time to write all of the errors & problems I see with this text so far, but at this writing I'm only in chapter two & have to study twice as hard because so many of the "explanations" don't explaing anything at all! I have to search online or use Cliffs Study Solver.

For instance, when the text is attempting to explain balancing chemical equations (pg. 59) the give an example of an equation of the reactants, the equation of the resulting product, but they do not even touch on the way you need to think to see the math, a little further down they try to explain it, but I see consistantly that information needed right after a new concept is presesnted is either insufficient or is presented later, after more confusing info is thrown at you before the authors completley convey a concept.

I have also found errors, such as pg. 29, problem 1.29, We are asked to list the pure substances present in ice, liquid water and it's vapor. Well I didn't need chemistry to know the answer was water, but we are left complelety befuddeled with the texts inclusion of bromine!!

This is a hard subject, but with a clear text you could grasp all concepts. This text is ridiculously inept at clear explanations.

Most of the answers in the back and in the solution manual are incorrect. I've contacted the publisher about this problem and they just said that they would take note. They really should issue a free booklet of corrected answers. And the fact that students pay extra for the solution manual with incorrect answers is terrible. The explanations in the text are actually good - but it's useless to try working the problems if you can't check your answers! This text was a waste of money and most professors are switching back to Chang's Gen. Chem. text.

As other reviewers have stated, this is a remarkable resource for insect identification. I would like to comment on the quality of the images. I found that a remarkable effort and attention to detail that went into these images. In far too many books the conversion of images from digital to print looks like the author doesn't know or doesn't care how his images look. For Lang Elliott this was not the case. He meticulously ensured that the printed images have remarkable depth of field and colors. I found any number of them to be remarkable pieces of photographic art. I felt guilty for only paying $13.57 for this book.

This book has provided hours of fantastic entertainment for the family. We love looking at the pictures, listening to the sounds and then trying to identify the crickets that we find.
This book should be in every family's library. Get your kids outside and play!

This book and included CD was the answer for learning all the insect sounds on my field recordings and nocturnal adventures. Good pictures for seeing what you heard really looks like, as well as good descriptions with the general range of each species noted. Excellent quality recordings on the CD.

I have long wanted to know what insects I am hearing every summer and now have a chance of knowing which ones they are. The imagery is fantastic. The range maps will be a blessing to my students as they try to determine what type of katydid or cicada and so on they have nabbed for their bug collection.

The audio CD is great too! The only drawback there is that the holding compartment in the back of the book is poor. Right after I got this book I was taking it to school and the brand new CD fell out of the pouch and onto the pavement. Now its scratched and I don't know what to do. I usually make a backup of all my CDs right away but failed to do so with this one!

This book came to my attention when I wrote in my blog about the microphone I positioned in my backyard. I use it to listen to crickets and lots of other creatures out back, sometimes all night long.

Gorgeous photos, tons of info, and a cd of insect songs as well. If you're at all interest in these critters this is a must have book. Who knew there were so many different kinds of crickets out there?

Just today I used this book to teach a decoding lesson to my first graders. They were captivated by the lively illustrations and quite entertained by the clever humor. This book lends itself well to a quick, low maintenance, yet creative activity. We began to make our own book in a similar fashion. Students completed the sentence, "The _____est thing in the world is ______." They came up with some very creative responses and then illustrated them. We are looking forward to putting our book together right away and sharing it! This book could be used at different levels up through 3rd grade to target a variety of skills.

This is a great book to teach about the suffixes -est and -iest. It is also good for talking about descriptive writing. After we read it, the kids create their own books to describe, and they are always wonderful. This is a good way to get kids pumped up about writing.

Great books to help teach primary kids the concept of adjectives (describing words, word choice). The pictures and the silly "riddles" are wonderful. For example: The quietest thing in the world is a worm in eating peanut butter. Students will love to make up their own "Most Thing".

My daughter, who is about to turn 3, decided this would be a great book to take home from the public library. And the ONLY reason she wanted to take it home was because of the slice of pizza on the front cover. It easily became a quick favorite that she wanted me to read to her quite often. She affectionately refers to this as simply, "Pizza book!" So, Pizza book it is!

But thankfully the pizza wasn't the only thing that caught her attention. Because this is to help kids develope their own examples of ______est words, it has lots of great illustrations. So, there's a dragon eating a slice of pizza on the front cover, right? Get to that in a book and it turns out that "The HOTTEST thing in the world is a fire-breathing dragon eating a pepperoni pizza." Or, (one more example simply because I won't tell the whole book) is a little boy who fell asleep while doing his homework. There is an earthworm (or a bookworm) who has just taken a big bite out of his sandwich. And so the example in that one is, "The QUIETEST thing in the world is a worm chewing peanut butter." Lots and lots of crazy, but hilarious pictures. Is it meant to be a little silly? Yep. But can it be used to teach kids a thing or two when it comes to helping their vocabulary? You bet!

So, with my daughter's great urgency, I would definitely recommend "Pizza book" or as it is really called, "Things That Are Most In The World." It is a nice break in the day, and you and your kiddo will laugh and point at some of the CRAZIEST things you've ever seen. You'll have a lot of fun!

There is so much material in this well written, concise book that there is some danger it can overwhelm you. Pearce has a gift for conveying understanding without technical language, and is always interesting, so you will not get bogged down if you do not get overwhelmed. You do not even need much of a scientific background. I had to review carbon cycle (Wikipedia was great), but that is very atypical of Pearce's effort.

The point of the book is that climate in the past has changed dramatically over decades, or less, and while we know a lot, there is so much uncertainty in our climate modeling, and so many factors at play, that the "consensus" projections are conservative, almost best case scenarios. So far we have been lucky since carbon dioxide levels are at record highs, at least for the last 55 million years, and we sure would not want to be living in the climate of 55 million years ago when a "sudden" release of methane caused widespread species extinctions. Ice is melting faster than originally expected, as scientists discover new mechanisms which are likely to accelerate this melt, even if worldwide temperatures rise no faster than expected. In fact, one of the things that impressed me is that AVERAGE worldwide temperature need not change that much for there to be catastrophic side effects: major changes in ocean levels of course, but also major continental changes in weather conditions, including long term drought, or almost ice age cooling in large parts of the northern hemisphere while the tropical and southern hemispheres are getting warmer.

The instigator of climate change in the past, before the man made increase in carbon dioxide levels, has been the sun. In the first billion years of earth's existence, the sun emitted half the solar radiation it does today, and 500 million years ago it was 10% less. There are regular cycles of changes in the amount of solar energy reaching the earth due to cyclic changes in earth's orbit and tilt. Recently, another cycle averaging about 1500 years has been discovered, traceable to cycles in the amount of solar radiation emitted. The variability in solar energy reaching earth during these various cycles is not that great in itself, it is the feedback mechanisms which vastly exaggerate the effects: earth's climate is a very unstable system

Best book I have read on Global Warming (so far: as of summer 2008) and I have read more than a few good ones. This is the most up to date, comprehensive review of every significant aspect of global warming for the general public that I have read. All that you need to know and well organized review of a very complicated subject. This is where I would begin. It emphasizes the abrupt changes that are likely to occur in all weather predictions. Does NOT cover the intricacies of computer modeling. It does NOT cover the findings from the 4th IPCC but it covers the ground up to that point thoroughly. Pearce is the environmental writer for New Scientist and I would go to his articles for the latest since the publication of this book. My only qualms is that for a book of this quality the publisher should pull out all stops for the next edition and include graphs and maps and an annotated bibliography for those wishing to do further study without necessarily going to the original sources. I expect this could become the standard reference for high school and college intro courses.

Recommended reading for every adult and teen. I can't stress strongly enough that this should be read along with "Under a Green Sky" and "Hell and High Water." These books are partly about climate change and the effect of human activities. Even if we act now, the "express train" to a climate hostile to human life takes a long time to slow and may soon be unable to reverse. Unfortunately, "politics as usual" generally lack a sense of urgency. Too little may truly be too late ....

According to Dutch scientist Paul Crutzen, sometime in last two centuries the Earth left the relatively benign holocene and plunged into the uncharted waters of the anthropocene. "A single species is in charge of the planet," writes science journalist Fred Pearce, "altering its features almost at will."

While dyed-in-the-wool climate change skeptics such as columnist George Will continue to deny that Earth's climate and biological support systems are changing in response to human impacts such as surging greenhouse gases, deforestation, and ocean acidification, Pearce leapfrogs beyond them, and even beyond many mainstream climate scientists to detail the many ways in which Earth's systems are being pushed to the brink of tipping points, any one of which could have massive, irreversible impacts.

Among those tipping points:

Vanishing arctic ice. Instead of reflecting most of the sun's energy back into space, increasing areas of water will absorb the heat, potentially creating a runaway warming at Earth's high latitudes.

Ice sheets in Greenland and in the antarctic. As scientists learn more about how rapidly surface meltwater can cascade down to lubricate the beds of glaciers, massive loss of ice cover and massive sea level rises appear more likely.

Deforestation changes one of Earth's major carbon sinks to an enormous carbon source.

Enormous amounts of greenhouse gases that have been locked up in permafrost are starting to bubble out, creating another vicious cycle.

The same could easily happen with the vast quantitites of extremely potent greenhouse gas methane that until now has been locked up in heat-sensitive seabed deposits.

The ocean conveyer belt that distributes heat from the tropics could be overwhelmed by an influx of fresh water from increased rainfall and melting ice, and stall, bringing northern Europe's relatively benign climate to an abrupt end.

What is predictable, Pearce argues, is that human activities have pushed Earth's climate system from the relatively stable and predictable holocene to the precipice of a new, unstable, rapidly changing, and unpredictable epoch.

If governments, businesses and individuals are having a hard time coming to grips with the kind of gradual warming, slow sea-level rises, and somewhat increased climate variability predicted by mainstream climatogists, represented by the IPCC, what can we expect if we need to respond to the threat or reality of vast and sudden climate changes?

If you agree that forewarned is forearmed, please read this book, and soon!

With Speed and Violence: why Scientists Fear Tipping Points In Climate Change
By Fred Pearce
July 13, 2008

Mr Pearce works for New Scientist and has published several books on this subject including Turning Up The Heat way back in 1989. Here he looks at all the Doomsday scenarios out there, the ones we have all heard about: Gulf Stream shutting down, Greenland melting suddenly, the Amazon drying up, etc.

To his credit has been around a while and knows the players -- Hansen, Broeker, et. al. This gives him access where others might not get it. He has also been around scientists long enough to develop their trait of hedging their conclusions with a lot of maybes, possiblies, this suggests.

To his discredit he has abandoned most of the restraints here. Maybe (heh) he feels he has to in order to make his point, that he has to scare us into action. This reveals his reason for writing the book. He is not here to teach us but to get us on board, to prod us into action. His final chapter is his list of things we must do:


Adopt efficient appliances;
Improve automotive efficiency;
Increase use of public transport;
Effect a 50-fold increase in wind;
A 50-fold increase in biofuels;
A global program of insulating our buildings;
Cover an area the size of New Jersey with solar panels;
Effect a 4-fold increase in our use of natural gas for generating electricity;
Capture and store 1,600 gW-worth of carbon;
Halt deforestation;
Double nuclear power capacity;
Increase low-till/no-till agriculture times 10.

The few changes I would make to this list are to the nuclear part (bad idea for now) and the New Jersey part (why not just go ahead and cover New Jersey itself?) The rest make good sense in general terms. If we all use less we will experience an increase in efficiency which will give us room to grow without fouling our own nest. Our individual bills will go down, too.

One big problem I have with his text is his consistent conversion of square meters to square feet. The measurements are taken in the metric system and values of, say, solar output are quantified in terms of watts per square meter. Every time a square meter comes up, he writes it as 10.8 square feet. Is this because New Scientist is a British magazine? Then why not use BTU per square foot? It is because no one measures it that way. Moreover, a watt is a metric unit, one joule per second. A calorie will raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree centigrade; a BTU will raise the temperature of 1 pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit. Thus, watt per square foot is a hybrid unit, like combining Greek and Latin into a phrase -- it just isn't done. His fear of writing the word "meter" in a book for the English-speaking world is misplaced. It makes him look silly and besides makes it more difficult for the reader, with his obscure "watts per 10.8 square feet".

Another lesser problem is the hyperbolic language. I don't need or want to be scared. I am a practicing atmospheric scientist so I actually prefer the kind of understatement I find in the journals. They leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusion, they don't tell you what to think about what you've just read. I am not the typical audience.

Nonetheless I side with Carl Sandburg: we should take it easy on "that old anvil, the people." We The People are tossed this way and that by the experts, all wanting some kind of action on our part. "If you knew what I know, you'd feel like I do," seems to be behind the idea that "the public must be educated on this." For me, our ignorance outweighs our knowledge on this subject by about 10 to 1.

We are just starting to probe the truth. Let's wait until the facts are a little better-established before we go around saying the sky is falling. I'm not talking about where the carbon came from or how to decrease it. I'm talking about the climate. Yes, the carbon is there and, yes, we should reduce it simply for efficiency's sake. Waste is bad, this seems obvious to my engineering brain.

But I can guarantee that climate change will be neither speedy nor violent. Weather can be observed but climate had to be invented, sort of like motherhood and fatherhood. By definition climate is a long-term matter. You can't say it has changed until a long period of time has passed. Currently we use 30-year normals updated every 10 years. This is not speedy. Climate is never violent. Is an average temperature of 75F "violent?" How is an average annual rainfall of 35 inches "violent?" See what I'm saying? Climate is a statistical concept.

Rather, it is the weather that is often speedy and violent. This blending of weather and climate is becoming a real problem. They are not the same! This brings me to my final point. Any meteorologist knows all about models. Our models are vital for our business. Note I said "models" in plural. I consult half a dozen synoptic-scale models, a few regional- or meso-scale models as well as different conceptual models every day. Ordinarily they do not agree. One says the storm will go left, the other right. One calls for intensification, the other weakening. Every model has its weakenesses and biases.

One thing we all learn in this trade is not to "jump on it." If a model has something interesting on Day 6, just note it for now, there is plenty of time to wait and see if it is still there tomorrow for Day 5. When it gets to Day 3 we can start to mention it and adjust our probabilities, slowly at first, just nudge them in the right direction. The climate modelers need to learn this. Every graduate student seemingly has his own model these days and when he tweeks an interesting result, publishes. Soon it is in the news and the public is set up for another whipsaw when it turns out not to be true. This is called "yo-yoing" in our forecasts and we avoid it by being conservative.

A model is just a model. What good does it do to know that temperatures world-wide will increase by 3.5F? This is a meaningless statistic. What is needed is a plausible physical mechanism whereby that statistic is turned into actual weather on the ground. Here is an example: let the air temperature over the Gulf Stream in my front yard increase by 3.5F. Now what? Well, since e-sub-s has increased, relative saturation will decrease and net evaporation from the water surface will increase. This will tend to cool the surface waters to the new wet-bulb temperature, which has increased by maybe half the total amount, say 1.75F. So we have the air 3.5 warmer and the sea surface 1.75 warmer -- the air has warmed more than the sea surface. Therefore static stability in the column has increased over the water and hence we would expect to see less cloudiness at sea by day. At night when the air cools a little, stability will decrease and cloudiness will increase. All this is exactly as observed today. The cloud fraction is small over the sea during the day and is a maximum around surise when we also experience a slight but noticeable peak in our hourly rainfall. So my simple model predicts sunnier days with more sunrise showers, along with a temperature increase that is strongly moderated by the nearby water mass -- not 3.5F but 1.75F. Why does no one talk in this straightforward way? Where is the violence here?

These connections are mostly missing in the climate models. We need to know more before we can say what it means.

Enough! Read more on the topic, educate yourself, decide for yourself what is right and good. Take no one's word. The climate experts are guessing when it comes to the weather.