Introduction to Modern Climate Change

This textbook is tightly focused on the problem of anthropogenic climate change. It is unique among textbooks on climate change in that it combines an introduction of the science with an introduction to the non-science issues such as the economic and policy options. Unlike more purely descriptive textbooks, it contains the quantitative depth that is necessary for an adequate understanding of the science of climate change. The goal of the book is for a student to leave the class ready to engage in the public policy debate on this issue. This is an invaluable textbook for any introductory survey course on the science and policy of climate change, for both non-science majors and introductory science students.

Andrew E. Dessler is a Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1994. He did postdoctoral work at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (1994–1996) and then spent nine years on the faculty of the University of Maryland (1996–2005). In 2000, he worked as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he collaborated with Ted Parson. Dessler's academic publications include three books: The Chemistry and Physics of Stratospheric Ozone (Academic Press, 2000), The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate (with Ted Parson, Cambridge University Press, 2006, 2010) and Introduction to Modern Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2012). He has also published extensively in the scientific literature on stratospheric ozone depletion and the physics of climate.