Atmosphere, Climate, and Change (Scientific American Library)

What's the reliability behind the claims and counterclaims of environmental doom resulting from the greenhouse effect, the global impact of pollution, and holes in the ozone layer? While many media reports focus on recent trends, such as variations in average temperature over a decade or two, these accounts tell us little or nothing about how changes in climate actually occur, or what long-term significance they may have. In Atmosphere, Climate and Change, world renowned experts on the chemistry of the atmosphere Thomas E. Graedel and Paul J. Crutsen take us behind the scenes of local climate change to reveal the workings of the atmosphere in its larger context, as a component of Earth as a system. By exploring the causes of long-term climate change and the sources and pitfalls of scientific prediction, they give us a new understanding of what changes are likely to occur in the future and what can be done about them.

Thomas E. Graedel is Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ. Among the most frequently cited atmospheric scientists, he is also convener of the Global Emissions Inventory Project and President elect of the Atmospheric Sciences Section, American Geophysical Union.

Paul J. Crutzen is Director of the Air Chemistry Division of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. The author of hundreds of publications and the recipient of many scientific awards, he is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern chemistry.