Earth Day 2010

A Reader's Respite has been taking a short vacation from the blogging business, but what better day to return to the fray than Earth Day 2010!

This year we eschewed our traditional promises of recycling and starting a compost bin.  Instead, we decided to edu-ma-cate ourselves about the planet we inhabit.

That's right....A Reader's Respite has gotten sick and tired of having to change the channel every time the talking heads on CNN start babbling on about global warming and all the intricacies thereof.  This year, it was time to sort the whole thing out.  How else, after all, were we ever going to have an intelligent argument with the television?

But making sense of the controversy that surrounds global warming is, at best, a daunting task.  There are thousands of books available on the topic and they run the gamut  from Impending Doom  to Giant Hoax.  Additionally, the myriad of facets that make up global warming are enough to make the average person's head spin:  greenhouse gases, polar ice caps, solar variation, carbon sinks, El Nino, global dimming, and renewable energy are just a few of the terms bandied about during any discussion of climate change.

Pass the Tylenol.  It's enough to induce a headache.

So it was fortuitous that we recently made the acquaintance of author William Stewart who has successfully endeavored to make sense of it all.  Climate of Uncertainty is a uniquely accessible, balanced explanation of what the brouhaha is all about.  Stewart easily breaks it down, explaining not only the science of it all but why it's important - environmentally, financially and politically - and how all of these parts come together and effect our world.

Most important, however, is Stewart's ability to remove partisan politics from his work.  Because very little about climate change is known for absolute certain, the topic is consistently skewed by business and media to their own ends.  Reading Climate of Uncertainty is your weapon against misinformation.  Armed with solid climate change basics, it's then up to you to formulate your own opinions and keep yourself informed.  Trust us, this little book (it's only 192 pages) packs a big punch.

And really, what better present could you give your planet on Earth Day?




Where on earth (pun intended) did we find this little gem of a book?  Courtesy of the author who, in addition to being pretty darned smart about this climate change stuff, but also happens to be a nice person.