Feeling the Heat that describes what would happen if the melting of north polar ice shuts down the Gulf Stream.
Dear Science Readers,
Here in Pittsburgh, summer seems slower than usual to make its appearance this year. I wonder whether we are in for another summer like the last one, with very few hot days and enough rain to keep the lawn alive without watering.
I prefer that kind of summer to the unusually hot, humid summers that were so prevalent in the 1990s and early in this decade. But it's probably just a localized fluke or a normal fluctuation. The overall trend toward global warming seems to be continuing. It's enough to inspire doomsday predictions like the one in a book called Feeling the Heat that describes what would happen if the melting of north polar ice shuts down the Gulf Stream.
That's admittedly an extreme scenario, but it isn't out of the question. It was on my mind when I ran across a thought-provoking article by Dr. Charlotte Laws called "Another Doomsday, Another Dollar", which calls for new approaches to economic modeling that include the dollar cost of long-term insults to the environment. I asked her for permission to republish the article here because it discusses two interesting books about the environmental consequences of the interplay between science and politics,
Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning; How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in This Century On Earth and Beyond by Cambridge professor and Britain's Astronomer Royal Martin Rees and
Science, Money and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion by Daniel Greenberg. 
(It also includes a picture that is a refreshing change from my "mug" and the oversized "Dr. Fred" neckwear that I use as a trademark for my school visits.)
You may not agree with Dr. Laws, but it's hard to dismiss her arguments completely. So read her article, and send me an e-mail to let me know if you'd like more "guest reviews" here. Your recommendations about guest reviewers would be welcome, too.
Since I've just added a number of new subscribers, this is a good time to add some new features to The Science Shelf. I'll tell you about those shortly, but first, I want to address an issue that one of those new subscribers, a very good friend, was concerned about.
My friend followed a link I sent him about one of the books on my World Year of Physics page, and he wondered if I knew that he had visited.
I assured him that I get no information about who has clicked on my Amazon.com links. All I know is how many times people have looked at different books on a given day. I can't gather information about the buying habits of individual website visitors even if I wanted to.
If you're used to buying from Amazon.com, you'll note that they will use cookies to identify you as a customer. They then use your buying and searching history to suggest recommendations. They consider you their customer, not mine, unless you have entered through my site.
If they send you an e-mail suggesting an interesting book, they won't tell me about it. And if you click the link they send in that e-mail, I won't get any commission for the sale. The only way to give credit to The Science Shelf is to use the gateway to Amazon.com on my home page or click on one of my website links. And if you do that, I still won't know it was you unless you want to tell me.
Now that my roundup of books for the World Year of Physics has been published in three major papers, I have also made it available on line. As usual, the online version includes links to other reviews. It also includes a paragraph about a
re-released book that arrived too late for my newspaper columns, 
Einstein's Universe: The Layperson's Guide by Nigel Calder. Visit that page, and discover the reason why so many people find physics and Einstein so fascinating.
I also finished 
my review of The Botanist and the Vintner: How Wine Was Saved for the World by British writer and journalist Christy Campbell. As I write this, only an excerpt of the review appears here, but the full review will be available at the link above as soon as it is published in a newspaper.
Among the many books in the May 2005 Box of Books are two titles that I have been assigned to review by late August. If you read Hitler's Scientists, you saw hints of the fascinating paradoxes in the life of Fritz Haber, a Jew by birth and a German patriot in World War I, who led the development of chemical warfare. The
publicity for the new biography, 
Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare by Daniel Charles, describes Haber's "tumultuous life ... as a parable of modern science." You can preorder the book from the May Box of Books page or by using the link above.
I'm also looking forward to reading 
Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope by Fred Watson.
When I finish those, I'll turn to 
Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are by Frans de Waal, which will be published in October. I haven't read beyond the publicity, but I love its cover--a man on a bench reading a newspaper and eating a banana.
I'll close by repeating last month's "word from our sponsor" and the usual reminders.
I'm not very good at making sales pitches, because I think that the value of a service ought to be apparent. But I realize that even my most loyal readers need a reminder that they can help me recover the cost of this site and generate a small amount for my efforts without spending a penny more than they normally would. I have added a prominent gateway link to Amazon.com on the main page of The Science Shelf. If you have some book shopping to do, or if you want to buy anything else that Amazon sells (even a George Foreman grill for those spring and summer cookouts), please use your Science Shelf bookmark -- you do have it bookmarked, don't you? -- and click that link to Amazon.com. Or this one.
Please consider updating your bookmarks or favorites to replace your old Amazon.com entry point with that URL (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/drfredsplac).
And remember, if you learn about a book through a page on the Science Shelf site, you can make sure my efforts are rewarded by using the links on the Science Shelf page to buy that title.
Thanks!
I'm always glad to hear about your finds to share with other visitors to The Science Shelf. Please e-mail me the author and title, and I'll create a page for that book. I will either keep the recommendation anonymous, use your cyber-alias or, if you permit, your real name and/or e-mail address. Add a sentence or two or a more detailed review (up to 1000 words) and I'll consider it for publication here. See the Science Shelf guidelines page for more information.
Please feel free to send this URL (www.scienceshelf.com/news.htm) to your friends. And don't forget, you and they can join the Science Shelf's e-mail list to be alerted to the latest news at the site. Please be assured that I will not share your name or e-mail or use them for other purposes.
Happy summer science reading!
Fred Bortz
I also write children's science books, which you can learn more about at "Dr. Fred's Place".
Thanks for your interest. Please e-mail me comments and suggestions about my reviews or this website.
Note: All materials on this site are the copyrighted property of Alfred B. Bortz. Individuals may print single copies of reviews or columns for their own use. For permission to publish or print multiple copies of any of the materials on this site, please contact the author by e-mail.
