Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change

Gr 10 Up–With 40 new articles (“Climate-Gate,” “Obama Administration”) and extensive revision to the rest of the content, this updated version of the 2008 edition offers students and, to use the editor’s quaint term, “laymen” close looks at recent developments. The set also examines broad historical, scientific, national, geographical, political, and thematic pictures of climate change’s mechanisms, effects, and controversies. Along with topical entries ranging from “Abrupt Climate Changes” to “Community-Based Adaptation,” the alphabetically arranged articles include separate discussions about each country and each state in the U.S., biographies of major climatologists, and profiles of a large number of relevant academic and other organizations. The previous edition’s color section has been dropped (though the online version of the work features color and multimedia enhancements), but the articles are interspersed with generous quantities of charts, tables, and black-and-white photos. Most articles close with cross-references and citations for further reading aplenty—backed up by an extensive guide to general subject resources and a comprehensive index, both in Volume 3. A high overall level of technical and mathematical detail makes this most suitable for academic environments, though advanced students can manage it. The amount of new material on such a high-demand subject gives this revision a leg up over both the first edition and older resources such as Steven I. Dutch’s Encyclopedia of Global Warming (Salem, 2009), which is for the same audience as this work.-–John Peters, Children’s Literature Consultant, New York