HOW OUR CLIMATE WORKS

Despite the title, a serious primer.

Palmer, a professor at the University of Edinburgh and the author of The Atmosphere: A Very Short Introduction (2017), emphasizes that he has not written a textbook, but readers who pay attention will still learn a great deal. Climate scientists study geology, astronomy, physics, and meteorology in order to explain what’s happening in our atmosphere. What’s happening is “weather,” which we experience when we go outside. This is not the same as “climate,” which describes weather patterns over the years. Six chapters—on temperature, energy, air, water, cycles, and time—describe how it happens. The sun radiates energy. Some of this heats the Earth’s surface and atmosphere; some is reflected for various reasons and in ever-changing amounts that produces ever-changing weather that requires explanation. Palmer reminds readers that Earth’s axis tilts about 23 degrees as it orbits the sun. When the axis tilts toward the sun, more radiation strikes the earth, and it’s summer. No less important, the atmosphere insulates our planet by absorbing solar radiation. The major gases (nitrogen and oxygen) don’t do much, but others—carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor—soak it up. Few readers are unaware of greenhouse gases, especially the torrent of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels that is raising global temperatures. Governments worldwide, the U.S. excepted, support measures to reduce fossil-fuel burning—but, so far, they have failed, and temperatures continue to creep up. Palmer mostly sticks to science, so readers will encounter a steady stream of not-dumbed-down chemistry, physics, meteorology, and summaries of recent international conferences on reducing emissions.

Unvarnished facts for the concerned citizen.