Book Review: "How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate"

categories: Media, Science, Solutions, Wildlife & Biodiversity

Published July 29, 2009 @ 04:45PM PT

$Cover of \"How We Know What We Know About the Changing Climate$ "How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate" is above all about the process of learning: How to observe phenomena in the world, collect information about them, and draw logical conclusions based on the evidence. In short, it's about how science is done, and in particular how children and scientists can and are working together to learn more about how the climate is changing right now, all around us.

Written in clear, engaging prose by children's author Lynne Cherry, and illustrated abundantly with photographs by Gary Braasch, the book is aimed at children in grades 4 through 9. Although the books strikes me as a little text-heavy for the younger members of that set, it's meant to be one that teachers and students use together to explore how scientists gather data about the natural world, and analyze it for clues on global warming's progress and impacts. (A teacher's guide for the book is available, and the great resource section at the end of the book includes information on student and citizen science projects.)

Kids love animals, so cannily, the authors often describe how young students and citizens have worked actively with scientists on critter-centered projects, like Monarch Watch, the Thousand Eyes Project, and Frogwatch.

Toward the end, the books gets into some "what next" content: "Taking Charge of Your Climate Footprint," "The Power of Friends and Community," and "What You Can Do," a pragmatic list of personal actions children can take, and encourage the adults in their lives to take as well -- from asking parents to turn off idling car engines, to eating less meat.

It's all good advice for living a more ecologically sound life, but I'm especially happy to see that Cherry and Braasch have not skimped on the bigger picture, either. The book's final chapter describes how citizens, scientists, and adults use the law -- in this case the Endangered Species Act -- to make change for the better part of policy as well as personal preference.

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Comments (1)

As the climate warms, certain food crops become unable to survive where they are currently grown. For example, farmers in the central valley of California where much of the country's food is grown are finding it harder to grow fruits and nuts as the temperatures rise. When food crops become more scarce, like certain berries and nuts have been, their prices increase and more and more people can't afford to buy them thereby causing their availability to decline faster due to lowered demand. Global warming also changes weather patterns, and drought can be a serious consequence of those weather pattern changes thereby resulting in calamitous crop failures and food shortages (like during the Dust Bowl in the 1930's in the Great Plains). Cold weather is also necessary for some plants to go dormant during winter months in order for them to resume producing fruit in the summer, and the cold also helps to keep insect populations in check.

Posted by Jeffrey Hill on 07/31/2009 @ 10:06AM PT
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