"This is a book that the author was compelled to write and that everyone needs to read. The climate debate is fierce and polarized, resulting in serious public confusion. Dr. Parkinson has a reasoned, nonadversarial way of illuminating key contentious issues that must be clearly understood before policymakers consider launching initiatives with potentially huge economic and environmental consequences."---Stephen P. Leatherman, Florida International University"Claire Parkinson is an accomplished, respected, and widely published scientist whose opinions on climate change and its solutions are well worth our attention....Parkinson provides an excellent overview of Earth history, the factors affecting Earth's climate and environment, and how those factors have changed over time....She recommends that humanity exhibit extreme caution when considering geoengineering projects. At this juncture in Earth history, the stakes could not be higher as 6.8 billion people currently rely upon the Earth system for survival."---Lonnie Thompson, The Ohio State University"This essential book offers a much-needed assessment of our present understanding of climate change. Written with care and attention to detail, it delivers a compelling message that could influence how humankind responds to climate change. It also provides a balanced perspective and unique insights into today's scientific process that should be required reading for scientists, the media, and the public alike. Books by others...cannot begin to compete with this book's insights into the scientific process (gained by Parkinson's more than thirty years in the scientific trenches) or with the balance in the presentation.---John E. Walsh, University of Alaska and University of Illinois.Decisively cutting through the hyperbole on both sides of the debate, distinguished NASA climatologist Claire L. Parkinson brings much-needed balance and perspective to the highly contentious issue of climate change, Offering a deeply knowledgeable overview of global conditions past and present, the author lays out a compelling argument that our understandings and models are inadequate for confident predictions of the intended and unintended consequences of various projects now under consideration to modify future climate.In one compact volume, Parkinson presents a coherent synopsis of the 4.6-billion-year history of climate change on planet Earth---both before and after humans became a significant factor---and explores current concerns regarding continued global warming and its possible consequences. She ranges over the massive geoengineering schemes being proposed and why we need to be cannous about them, the limitations of current global climate models and projections, the key arguments made by those skeptied of the mamstream views, and the realistic ways we can lessen destructive human impacts on our planet. While discussing all of these polarizing topics, the author consistently shows respect for the views of alarmists, skeptics, and the vast majority of people whose positions he somewhere between those two extremes. The book clarifies some of the most contentious points in the climate debate and in the process treats us to a fascinating discussion interweaving Earth history, science, the history of science, and human nature. Readers will be rewarded with a genuine understanding of a complex issue that could be among the most important facing human kind in the coming decades. Read Less