Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

Oatsvall (independent scholar) offers a fresh history of how policy makers at the dawn of the nuclear age (1945-60) dealt with the interconnections between nuclear technologies and the environment in their decisions involving the testing of nuclear weapons. Using archival collections, published primary sources, websites, and secondary sources, he thoroughly explores how officials of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations understood their responsibilities to secure the national defense by producing better atomic bombs while also protecting public health through limiting the amounts and occurrences of fallout. At the same time, these policy makers were assessing the limits and capabilities of nuclear technologies for civilian uses. Oatsvall makes a strong case that many advances in the environmental sciences were made because of the efforts to understand nuclear technologies. Yet the degree to which decision-makers put citizens at risk from dangerous levels of fallout in order to advance nuclear technologies will likely be disturbing to many readers. Nevertheless, Oatsvall is convincing in arguing that nuclear weapons stimulated the advent of ecology as a coherent field because advances in nuclear weapons required new understandings of Earth systems. The book represents solid scholarship with thorough documentation (50 pages of notes), and is well written.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

This recently published report on global warming by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was prepared for the Katowice Climate Change Conference (COP24) held in 2018. It would be wrong, however, to consider it outdated. The report's value lies in its provision of an important baseline to show what and where progress is currently occurring. The text absolutely demonstrates how woefully inadequate the Paris Climate Agreement is at preventing an increase of 1.5oC or more, even with all signatories honoring their commitments. It establishes the stark contrast between 1.5oC and 2.0oC temperature change with regard to land development, sustainable development, eradication of poverty, energy use, and equity, among others. It provides projected changes in environmental factors, offering a "report card" of sorts to see how effective efforts have been in mitigating this threat these past six years--not very. It establishes differences in global warming's effects on various regions. Though the report is necessarily voluminous, readers will find it easy to navigate to sections of importance to them, whether in overview or in more detail. Statements and predictions are accompanied by confidence levels to help readers judge. This is an important document for policy makers, scientists, and citizens concerned about climate change, lending urgency to thinking, planning, and actions.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

In this work, Gergis (Australian National Univ.) provides a meaningful perspective on climate science and climate solutions. As a leading authority on climate science, Gergis possesses deep knowledge about the physical workings of the climate system and the historical evolution of the climate in recent decades. Her narrative provides an accessible summary of the primary findings and positions of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which produces regular scientific synthesis reports, to which Gergis has contributed as a lead author. The primary contribution here, however, is the interweaving of scientific content with honest personal storytelling. The author demonstrates her understanding of the despair that readers might feel when faced with the facts of anthropogenic climate change. She also expresses an unmistakable sense of optimism, grounded by the reality that sustainable solutions are currently available, and already making a difference. Cited examples of successful historical environmental outcomes requiring international cooperation (e.g., stratospheric ozone recovery following the Montreal Protocol of 1987) bolster the author's conclusion that we can address global climate change if we are willing to undertake and continue the difficult, and collective, work required to do so.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.