climate change

2020 Year-End Science Book Roundup

by

This blog marks a transition for me. For more than 20 years, I have been reviewing science books written for the library and bookstore crowd. For a few of those years, I even managed a four-figure supplemental income from selling my reviews to major metropolitan newspapers. Then, one-by-one, book review pages began to disappear or … Read more

Catching up, part 3, science book roundup 2019

by

As I begin collecting titles for an early 2020 science book roundup, I have four left over from 2019, three from the life sciences and one celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of arguably the greatest human and technological achievement of the twentieth century. That achievement, as you probably have guessed, was the first human landing on … Read more

A Roundup of Recent Popular Math Books Plus One More

by

As my regular readers know, I am happy to be getting back to blogging after a hiatus due to complications following cataract surgery. This is the second catch-up blog about books for lovers of science and technology. This one covers four books about math and mathematicians and one about the nature of science itself.. My … Read more

Review of A Bright Future by Goldstein and Qvist

by

A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow by Joshua S. Goldstein and Staffan V. Qvist (New York: Public Affairs, January 2019) Reviewed for The Science Shelf by Fred Bortz Despite disinformation campaigns by politically and financially well-connected groups, mainly in the United States, it is clear that … Read more

Epidemics, Meltdowns, and Climate Change — Books about Catastrophes, Disaster, and Existential Threats

by

As promised in last week’s blog, our spring roundup of science books continues with three books (or four, depending on how you count them) about catastrophes. It is a topic that is important in my own writing history. My third book Catastrophe! Great Engineering Failure–and Success (1995) was a Selector’s Choice on the National Science … Read more

Review of Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett

by

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett Reviewed by Dr. Fred Bortz See other reviews at the Science Shelf Book Review Archive This review originally appeared in The Dallas Morning News and is the copyrighted property of Alfred B. Bortz. Individuals may print single copies for their own use. For permission to publish … Read more

Make no myth-take about climate change risks

by

I have been an admirer of Richard Muller for some time, though I had no idea that he was among the climate change skeptics. One of the reasons I admire him is that he follows the evidence, and in doing so, he came to a conclusion opposite to what his funders had hoped for: “that the Berkeley (Earth Surface Temperature) project would conclude that global warming is a myth.” No myth. No myth-take!

Read more