Climate Change

This second edition of Climate Change is an accessible and comprehensive guide to the science behind global warming. Edmond A. Mathez and Jason E. Smerdon provide a broad, informative introduction to the science that underlies our understanding of the climate system and the effects of human activity on the warming of our planet.

Edmond A. Mathez is curator emeritus in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the American Museum of Natural History. A leading expositor of earth systems science, he co-curated the museum’s Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, the 2008 exhibit Climate Change: The Threat to Life and a New Energy Future, and the 2014 exhibit Nature’s Fury: The Science of Natural Disasters.

Jason E. Smerdon is a Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, an Earth Institute faculty member, and the co-director of the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development, all at Columbia University. He is a leading researcher on climate variability and change over the last 2,000 years.

Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, this new second edition. . . is ideal and highly recommended as a climate change curriculum textbook.

This excellent updated text on climate change was written by scientists in geophysics and climate change....Recommended. All readers.

Katharine Hayhoe, Co-Director of the Climate Science Center, Texas Tech University:
Informative and insightful, this textbook clearly explains the basic science of the Earth's climate system and the human influence on it. Superb illustrations bring the science to life, and the historical stories that accompany the key concepts paint a vivid picture of not only what we know, but how and why we learned it.

Gavin Schmidt, climate scientist:
This book has great coverage of all the salient issues—the history of climate science, the climate science of (pre)-history, the scientists' own histories, and, most importantly, what this means going forward. The writing is clear while also comprehensive and the look and feel of the book make it a text you want to dive in to at random, confident that you'd find something interesting.

Scott Mandia, cofounder and chairman of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, Professor of Physical Sciences at Suffolk County Community College:
A superb textbook, easily one of the best currently available. Very few texts are written as thoughtfully as this one. Mathez and Smerdon hit a home run!

Kim M. Cobb, Georgia Power Chair and ADVANCE Professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology:
Mathez and Smerdon present a concise, accurate description of the workings of our climate system that is rich with historical context, vivid graphics, and concrete examples. The beauty and wonder of our atmosphere and oceans are on full display, even as many of their mysteries are revealed for the nonspecialist. Readers will not only understand the fundamental causes and implications of climate change, but they also will understand the diverse set of tools and approaches that scientists use to study the climate system in all its complexity. This book is a treasure trove of insights for anyone with an affinity for science and an interest in the future of our planet and its inhabitants.

Lonnie G. Thompson, Distinguished University Professor, School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University:
This text should have great appeal for teaching an introductory undergraduate course on climate change science as well as a broad survey for graduate students. The book is well written with concepts adequately explained. Mathez and Smerdon have done a great job at hitting many of the very important concepts for understanding past, present, and future climate change as well as what we can and should do about it. I particularly liked the “back of the envelope” sections that let students confront some quantitative thinking without getting bogged down in mathematical details. The many illustrations and beautiful photos should make the book appealing to students as well as the general public.