The best books on how climate scientists discovered the threat of global warming

This was the first (and still the best) book I ever read on how scientists collect and use the data for forecasting the weather and predicting climate change. I am particularly impressed with its scope–it starts with early attempts by 17th and 18th-century scientists to agree on how to measure things like wind and rainfall and ends with today’s world of satellites and computer models.

The book really brings alive the work of a massive network of scientists around the world collecting and analyzing observations about planet Earth.

Stephen Schneider was one of the leading scientists in the early days of climate modeling and one of the first climate scientists to understand the importance of science communication. I think of this book as both a memoir and a political primer for anyone interested in how warnings from climate scientists get attacked and undermined in the media.

The book is particularly good at explaining how the UN’s international reports on climate change came together and why mainstream media networks consistently miss the story when reporting on climate science.

This book reads like a scientific detective story, and I found it hard to put down. Wally Broecker is one of the world's leading oceanographers, and in this book, he gives us an inside account of an incredible scientific discovery: the global ‘superhighway’ of ocean currents that transport water around the entire planet over the course of a thousand years.

While fascinating in its own right, the story is vital for understanding climate change, as the ocean operates as a planet-wide heat pump, and changes in the ocean circulation patterns bring dramatic and abrupt shifts in regional climates. 

This book pairs particularly well with Stephen Schneider’s book, as it picks up where that book ends. When I met Michael and heard him talk about his experiences, I didn’t think this book would surprise me, but I still found it shocking. Michael is one of the world’s leading climate scientists, and his work was fundamental in identifying the early signs of rising global temperatures in the 1980s and 1990s.

But in this book, it’s not the science that is shocking, but the behavior of politicians, lobbyists, and conspiracy theorists, who have turned their attacks on the science into personal and vindictive attacks on the scientists themselves. Michael’s accounts of his battles against misinformation make for important reading for anyone who wants to understand why we’ve been so slow to act on climate change.

No list of books on this history of climate science would be complete without this one, even though the book is about far more than climate change. I think this should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand misinformation and media culture. In example after example, with meticulous research, the book shows what happens when science gets in the way of profit.

I found the book especially strong at exploring the underlying patterns in which industry groups work to undermine the credibility of scientific results, injecting enough doubt to forestall regulatory action. I particularly like the chapter on climate science, although if you read the earlier chapters first (on acid rain, ozone holes, and second-hand smoke), none of what they describe will surprise you.