Thoughts of a Lapsed Physicist

Global warming and climate change were first brought to public attention in 1979 when NASA’s Jim Hansen testified on the topic before the US Congress. It was given increased attention by former US Congressman and Vice President Al Gore in his 2006 book ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. Nevertheless, as a political issue for politicians to run for election on, it remained relatively quiet – until recently. Suddenly, several of the people seeking the Democratic Party nomination for US president in 2020 have identified climate change as an important part of their appeal to voters. In fact, one candidate has identified climate change as his primary electoral focus.

I certainly believe that climate change is one of the two biggest challenges facing the world today, along with the need to control nuclear weapons. This is reflected in Chapter 10 of my recently published book ‘Water, Energy, and Environment – A Primer’ (see my previous blog post). The book was published by International Water Association Publishing.

The chapter identifies and discusses six questions that I believe must be addressed as we confront climate change:

• Is there a physical basis for understanding global warming and climate change?
  • Is there documented evidence for global warming and
  climate change?
  • Can global warming and climate change be attributed to
  human activities, and what are those activities?
  • What are the potential short- and long-term impacts of
  global warming and climate change with respect to water
  supply, environment, and health?
  • What is the anticipated time scale for these impacts?
  • What can be done to mitigate the onset and potential
  impacts of global warming and climate change?

I provide the link to this chapter below (it is an Open Access free download) to bring increased attention to this issue and contribute to the needed broad public discussion that may finally be getting underway. The chapter can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.2166/9781780409658_0165.