Undersold

A renewable energy engineer and colleague of mine recommended a book to me today called The Weathermakers. It (allegedly) tackles climate change issues in a clear and concise manner running through all of the potential impacts from loss of species to changing rainfall patterns and examines all theories and arguments. It is also apparently written in a story type manner which makes for good, gripping reading (easier to digest than Al Gore's latest I am told).

He also told me a little story: coming back from a meeting in Edinburgh on the train, he was reading the book and was approached by a guy who recognised it and came to talk to him. Turns out that this guy was one of the people involved in the preparation on the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports of recent years. For those who haven't heard of IPCC, it is an international body of 000's of climate change scientists who come together to forge scientific consensus on climate change issues (often the basis for media coverage of the subject).

What this guy from the IPCC said what that the scientists have to tone down and conservatise all of their predictions for the purposes of writing the report (due to political and legal ramifications) and that most of the scientists involved believe the concequences are far more serious and rapid than the information their reports contain. Which is pretty concerning!

Hopefully I will have a look at the book over coming weeks, and will post my first review here.