Floods, Droughts, and Climate Change [Paperback]

Mark Nissen

5/12/11
Floods, Droughts, and Climate Change Review

The book "Floods, Droughts, and Climate Change" talks in depth about each of these subjects and also talks about how they can affect each other and other possible changes they could lead to. The authors also discuss how these are affected by other parts of the climate such as winds, water currents, tectonics, volcanism, and glaciers.
The authors are clear to point out the amount of change on an area a flood or drought could have. Floods have the capabilities to talk lives by sweeping through a town. Also, floods can happen in the blink of an eye with heavy amounts of rain or snow melt. Despite a floods power they are something that are very important for many people with floods abilities to deposit valuable nutrients in soils that help to grow valuable crops for many people around the world. Despite a floods ability to talk life droughts over time have killed many more people. Droughts are when there is "a persistent moisture deficiency below long-term average conditions that, on average, balance precipitation and evapotranspiration in a given area." Droughts have a large effect on the agriculture of an area and often droughts have led to a food shortage. Finally, droughts can lead to permanent changes in a areas climate by killing plants and changing part of the geography of the region.
Next, the authors discusses how geology can affect the climate, such as how tectonics has affected our current climate by affecting where areas are located, creating mountains, or creating areas were volcanism is present. The raising of mountains actually leads to a cooling of the earth by placing C02 on the bottom of the ocean. After this C02 is lost the atmosphere cools. Volcanism can affect the climate by releasing so much heat at one point that it can warm the climate, but that would need massive amounts of eruptions and magma left on the surface. Volcanoes can also release gases that contain heat and sun rays in our atmosphere instead of letting them escape to outer space.
Next, the authors talk about how wind, ocean currents, and air currents affect the climates of the world. All of these factors help to spread heat and nutrients throughout the earth. This leads to supporting life forms in areas that would not be there without these factors.
Finally, they focus on how the temperature of the earth is slowly rising and how that affects our world. If the world does in fact warm like they are predicting it could have a large impact on many animals and could affect food chains which would in turn affect whole ecosystems. The main factors for this change come from greenhouse gases the authors believe. They show this through the relationship between the increase in carbon dioxide and the global temperature.
This book is very well written and is easy for people to understand. I believe that if you are interested in this topic you would enjoy this book. Also, the authors do a good job of presenting this book that presents information on the subject while still including interesting stories that have come from these issues. However, I do believe that you will only enjoy this book if you are interested in this subject, if you are not at times it can be a very slow read and will not hold your interest.

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review  3.0 out of 5 stars