'Dire Predictions' book offers easy guide to global warming science

Global warming, increasing greenhouse gases and melting ice sheets are all dire predictions by the Nobel-Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but understanding the scientific assessments, future impacts on our lives, and the things we can do to mitigate the situation is not easy. Now, in a new book, two Penn State climate scientists present the information from the most recent IPCC reports in easily understood, sometimes amusing explanations and illustrations.

"Dire Predictions, Understanding Global Warming: The Illustrated Guide to the Findings of the IPCC" has the answers to all your questions about global warming with the graphs, images and layout expected from international publisher DK, which specializes in popular illustrated reference books such as "The Way the Universe Works." The authors of "Dire Predictions" are Michael E. Mann, associate professor of meteorology and director of the Earth System Science Center, and Lee R. Kump, professor of geosciences, both at Penn State.

"It was gratifying to see how the DK folks helped us take the scientific information and make it leap off the page," says Mann.

And leap it does, from various images of the Earth and a multitude of maps to a page of mosquitoes emphasizing the increase in infectious diseases with global warming, with something in nearly every page that will stop you to read the text.

"Working with the DK artists -- what they call their 'information architects' -- translating the information-packed diagrams produced for a more scientifically literate audience by the IPCC into more accessible visuals for the general public was very interesting," says Kump.

The book is very successful from the point of view of the reader. Dynamic images outline topics such as an undersea diver and coral reefs pointing to "How Human Activity Has Changed the Rules of the Game," or polar bears and a golden toad illustrating the "Highway to Extinction?"

The authors divide the book into five parts beginning with "Climate Change Basics." Here, specific questions like "What are the important greenhouse gases, and where do they come from?" and "How does modern warming differ from past warming trends?" open several articles. The second part, "Climate Change Projections," presents "Fossil Fuel Emissions Scenarios," "Future Changes in Extreme Weather" and "The Geographic Pattern of Future Warming."