Global Climate Change: The Science, Economics, and Politics

"Global Climate Change - The Science, Economics, and Politics", is a collection of ten separate articles covering different aspects of global warming. The book is very strong on the economics of global warming, less strong on the politics, and weak on the science. In many ways, the book reads like a balanced, academic discussion of the pros and cons of costs and benefits between business as usual, weak mitigation efforts, and strong mitigation efforts. This attempt at balance weakens the book's message considerably, in that it leaves the reader wondering what the author's personal opinions really are on the subject. The book was published by the Bush School of Government and Public Service, in the "New Horizons In Environmental Economics" textbook series, which explains why it's basically an economics textbook (dry reading) focused on cost/benefit analysis. Four stars given as an economics book, but as a general book on climate change, I'd probably give it only two stars because there are so many superior books out there already covering the science and potential effects of global warming.