Doom and gloom titles make me avoid the books and films that have them, but I think I must be an exception because green books and films sure do like those fear-inducing names. Do you like scary books? Or at least scary-sounding ones? Then pick up the latest enviro-book with a forbidding title: Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming — The illustrated guide to the findings of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Written by science professors Michael E. Mann and Lee R. Kump, Dire Predictions is intended for the layperson who wants to understand the wonky science behind climate change without going back to college for a science degree. Basically, the book takes the findings of the IPCC — you know, the United Nations panel that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore — about global climate change and puts it in a language the average person has a chance at following.

For those who belatedly wish you listened during high school science classes, Dire Predictions can help you catch up on the basic stuff! The basic principles of atmospheric circulation, the reason for the four seasons, and many other basic scientific stuff’s all covered — and illustrated! — in this book.

That said, Dire Predictions at times reads like a dry textbook — so you may find your eyes glazing over from time to time. Despite the authors’ efforts to make the book easy-to-read and engaging, Dire Predictions, while readable, is still loaded with rather dense, wonky prose and geek speak.

Still, read the book and you’ll have excellent science-based rebuttals to the arguments brought up by the few remaining climate change skeptics. Just don’t get too depressed by the gruesome and dire consequences that’ll result if we don’t work to combat climate change now. Some tips from the blogosphere on keeping positive in the face of climate change:

>> Shannon Moore, aka smoo, at Local Warming urges you not to get depressed about global warming: “Global warming is depressing. But here’s the paradox- I can’t afford to get depressed about it. Once I get depressed I feel overwhelmed and hopeless and do nothing. The reality is that we people can only take so much bummer before we start breaking down. So regardless of the reality of the situation I choose optimisim because I function better on it. ”

>> Umbra of Grist recommends a coping strategy she calls “selective caring”: “It’s the way we all keep positive. How can we eat breakfast every day, given what’s happening in Darfur? Through deciding where we can make a difference, and understanding that there are other areas that we can know about, but not act upon, whether through choice or circumstance.”

What is your emotional coping strategy when scary thoughts about global warming pop up?

[crossposted on BlogHer]

1 Comments