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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000001731516 | TD885.5.O85 F57 1990 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
A sensationalistic but highly readable pop-science look at the "triple menace" of high levels of ozone pollution, global warning, and the erosion of the ozone layer. The epilogue, imagining American life in 2004, is pure fantasy--the US is nowhere close to committing to first-rate mass transit and railroads. Annotation(c) 2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Reviews 2
Publisher's Weekly Review
Three elements of global change, stress the authors, are 1) depletion of the ozone layer in the stratosphere, 2) climate warming caused by the build-up of carbon dioxide and 3) increasing concentrations of ozone in the lower atmosphere. The first should be the most readily controllable since it is the only one that involves a chemical entirely made by humans (chlorofluorocarbon). Ozone in the lower atmosphere, long regarded as a regional problem, is increasing two to three times faster than the rising levels of CO; it threatens forests, food crops and our health. Fishman, an atmospheric chemist, and environmental journalist Kalish explain the chemistry of air pollution and the origins of ozone. A significant source is nitrogen oxide emissions from motor vehicles, which serve as a reservoir for ozone; these must be curtailed to solve the ozone problem. The authors discuss weather forecasting and suggest that an early sign of global warming may be the changeability of the weather--more heat and drought, more extremes. They present a plan of action to stem, if not control, the greenhouse effect. This is a fine companion volume to Michael Oppenheimer and Robert Boyle's Dead Heat. Illustrated. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
This book, joined by others such as David D. Kemp's Global Environmental Issues: A Climatological Approach (CH, Dec'90), suggests that after the decline in environmental concern during the 1970s, the following decade chronicled its resurgence and that, with Earth Day 1990, the 1990s may become a period of intense and productive study, world-wide. The present volume seeks to focus attention on "the trilogy of global change" (p.296), that is, depletion of stratospheric ozone, carbon dioxide-induced global warming, and rapidly increasing levels of tropospheric ozone. While addressing the synergistic effect of the destruction of stratospheric ozone and increases in near-earth ozone (i.e., more ultraviolet radiation penetrates to the surface, causing skin cancer, damage to organs of vision and genes, and increasing photochemical production of smog resulting in damage to lungs and leaves), the authors argue that the concentrations of toxic ozone in the lower atmosphere that are produced by human activity are the most threatening to life on the planet. The crisis can be dealt with in part by enacting and enforcing strict laws limiting nitrogen oxide emissions from cars and other burned fossil fuels. All levels of readers. -E. H. Christianson, University of Kentucky
Table of Contents
| Preface Generations of Air: What Will We Leave Our Children? | p. vii |
| Acknowledgments | p. xiii |
| Chapter 1 The Smoke-Filled Room | p. 1 |
| Chapter 2 The Concept of Global Change | p. 21 |
| Chapter 3 The Trilogy of Global Change | p. 57 |
| Chapter 4 Traces | p. 99 |
| Chapter 5 Hot Air | p. 127 |
| Chapter 6 The Forests of Oz(One) | p. 169 |
| Chapter 7 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes | p. 195 |
| Chapter 8 Governmental Policy | p. 227 |
| Chapter 9 South of the Border the Tropical Ozone Dilemma | p. 251 |
| Chapter 10 The 1990s | p. 277 |
| Epilogue | p. 301 |
| Index | p. 305 |
