Global Climate Change

A Primer

Orrin H. Pilkey and Keith C. Pilkey

Narrated by Caroline Miller

Available from Audible

Book published by Duke University Press

An internationally recognized expert on the geology of barrier islands, Orrin H. Pilkey is one of the rare academics who engages in public advocacy about science-related issues. He has written dozens of books and articles explaining coastal processes to lay readers, and he is a frequent and outspoken interviewee in the mainstream media. Here, the colorful scientist takes on climate change deniers in an outstanding and much-needed primer on the science of global change and its effects.

After explaining the greenhouse effect, Pilkey, writing with son Keith, turns to the damage it is causing: sea level rise, ocean acidification, glacier and sea ice melting, changing habitats, desertification, and the threats to animals, humans, coral reefs, marshes, and mangroves. These explanations are accompanied by Mary Edna Fraser’s stunning batiks depicting the large-scale arenas in which climate change plays out.

The Pilkeys directly confront and rebut arguments typically advanced by global change deniers. Particularly valuable are their discussions of “Climategate,” a manufactured scandal that undermined respect for the scientific community, and the denial campaigns by the fossil fuel industry, which they compare to the tactics used by the tobacco companies a generation ago to obfuscate findings on the harm caused by cigarettes.

Orrin H. Pilkey is James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Geology at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, and Founder and Director Emeritus of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, based at Western Carolina University. Pilkey has written and edited many books, including, most recently, (with Rob Young) The Rising Sea and (with Linda Pilkey-Jarvis) Useless Arithmetic, an indictment of mathematical models used to predict environmental change. He is the author or co-author of many books in the Living with the Shore book series that he co-edited for Duke University Press. Pilkey is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Francis Shepard Medal for excellence in Marine Geology, the Priestley Award for distinguished contributions to environmental science, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North Carolina Coastal Federation, and the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Keith C. Pilkey is an attorney with a longstanding interest in geoengineering and corporate influence on science policy.

REVIEWS:

“Pilkey and Pilkey’s excellent introduction to the science behind climate change pulls no punches regarding the scepticism which has plagued research over recent years. From its forthright opening salvo that ‘global change is upon us. Of this there is no doubt’ (p. ix), Global Climate Change: A Primer fills a gap in the literature by merging a lucid and easily comprehensible guide to climate change science with a staunch riposte to the global warming denial lobby.”

—Paul Tobin, Environmental Politics

“The book does a good job of explaining the foundations of climate science to an interested novice. The chapter on climate change sceptics stands out for its passionate description of how industrial groups spread doubt among the public. ”

—New Scientist

“If the last two summers haven’t convinced you of climate change, perhaps a new book by Orrin and Keith Pilkey, Global Climate Change: a Primer, will.... There is so much to this thin volume that even a casual look is enough to raise eyebrows.”

—Salisbury Post

“Global Climate Change offers an accurate, comprehensive introduction to a controversial subject.”

—Kirkus Reviews