Sources for Chapter 12

The books, Web sites, journal articles, and interviews listed on this page are sources of information other than facts and concepts found in most beginning college-level meteorology textbooks, which the author used or that could help readers better understand the concepts described. For more on various topics, including further reading and links to related Web sites, follow the links labeled “Explorations.” Links labeled “Outtakes” are to text from early drafts of the book that were dropped before publication.

In the notes below “the author” refers to Jack Williams, author of The AMS Weather Book.

Pages 276–277

• Polar stratospheric clouds photo: Nacreous and polar stratospheric clouds on the Atmospheric Optics Web site.

Pages 278–280

• The story of Inupiat whale hunters caught as sea ice breaks up provides details about an incident described in Charles Wohlforth’s book The Whale and the Supercomputer. Elizabeth Grossman reviewed the book in Grist, available online.

Page 279

• Arctic Ocean sea ice losses graphic: National Snow and Ice Data Center’s (NSIDC) latest and archived Arctic sea ice reports.

Page 280–281

• Invention of CFCs: Charles F. Kettering, “Biographical Memoir of Thomas Midgley, Jr., 1889–1944 (PDF file)” (presented at the National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting, 1947).
• Midgley’s demonstration on CFC safety: “Chemists in Atlanta,” Time Magazine (April 21, 1930).
• Threat to ozone layer: Mark Bernstein, “Thomas Midgley and the Law of Unintended Consequences,” Invention & Technology Magazine (Spring 2002) tells the story of Midgley’s invention of CFCs, ending with the discovery of the ozone hole.
• Susan Solomon, “Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: A Review of Concepts and History,” Reviews of Geophysics 37 (August 3, 1999): 275–316, traces the story of scientific understanding of ozone from the 1880s, through the research that discovered what causes the Antarctic ozone hole, and on to the late 1990s.

Pages 281–284 and 285–286

• Explorations: The Ozone Hole

Page 285

• Profile of Susan Solomon: Based on the author’s telephone conversations and e-mail exchanges with Solomon; The Chemical Heritage Foundation’s story “Meet Susan Solomon” (2001); the National Academy of Sciences’ InterViews series of recorded conversations with Solomon (2002).

Page 287

• Early interest in warming: The basic story of scientific interest in the effects of adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is told in Spencer Weart’s The Discovery of Global Warming, on the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics Web site.
• James Rodger Fleming, The Callendar Effect: The Life and Times of Guy Stewart Callendar, the Scientist Who Established the Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climate Change (Boston: The American Meteorological Society, 2007).
• New interest in warming: Weart’s “Roger Revelle’s Discovery,” in The Discovery of Global Warming, Second Edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), tells a fascinating story of how science works, leading up to the 1957 paper by Roger Revelle and Hans Suess showing that the oceans cannot absorb unlimited carbon dioxide.

Page 288

• Carbon cycle graphic: Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory’s Global Carbon Cycle Web page; United States Carbon Cycle Science Program home page, United Nations Environment Programme’s Present Carbon Cycle graphic.

Page 289

• Global cooling fears: You sometimes hear “scientists were saying in the 1970s that global cooling, not warming, threatened the earth.” While there were many newspaper and magazine stories, television shows, and even a few books saying scientists feared a new ice age, few scientists were saying this. The lack of any scientific “consensus” on cooling is well documented in Thomas C. Peterson, William M. Connolley, and John Fleck, “The Myth of the 1970s Global Cooling Scientific Consensus (PDF file),” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) (September 2008): 1325–1334.

Pages 290–291

• Natural and human drivers of earth’s climate two-page graphic: The large scene at the tops of the two pages is a visual summary of material covered in The AMS Weather Book, Chapter 2, on earth’s energy, and Chapter 5, on global patterns.
• Note at the lower, right corner of page 291: Richard A. Kerr, “Pushing the Scary Side of Global Warming,” Science 316 (June 8, 2007): 1412–1415.
• The figures with the smaller images across the bottoms of the pages and on the right side: S. Solomon, et al., Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
  • Human-caused climate forcings: “Summary for Policymakers” in Climate Change 2007, 4.
  • Direct heating: Tokyo and global average figures from “Changes in Atmospheric Constituents and in Radiative Forcing,” Chapter 2 in Climate Change 2007, 185; solar radiation (under image of sun) from “Changes in Atmospheric Constituents and in Radiative Forcing,” Chapter 2 in Climate Change 2007, 189; end-of-century projections from “Summary for Policymakers” in Climate Change 2007, 13.
• The report’s “Summary for Policy Makers,” “Technical Summary,” and individual chapters are available as PDF downloads from the IPCC Web site.

Page 292

• Northwest Passage: Explorers seek passage between 1610 and 1906 from Jack Williams, The Complete Idiots Guide to the Arctic and Antarctic (New York: Alpha Books, 2003), 108–109 and 111–114. Twenty-first century passage from Williams, The Complete Idiots Guide to the Arctic and Antarctic, 279–281, and Wikipedia’s Northwest Passage entry, with numerous references to other sources.
• Establishment of the IPCC:  Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming.

Page 293

• Global effects of Arctic warming: Susan Joy Hassol, Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 34–45; Mark C. Serreze, et al., “Perspectives on the Arctic’s Shrinking Sea-Ice Cover,” Science 315 (March 16, 2007): 1533–1536; the author’s conversation with Serreze at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), in Boulder, Colorado, and subsequent e-mail exchanges.

Page 294

• Tundra graphic and text: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Active Layer at the Soil Surface page.

Page 295

• Sea ice and polar bears: The Arctic Ocean Ecosystem Web page on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Dive and Discover Web site; “Sea Ice: A Refuge for Life in Polar Seas?” on the NOAA’s Arctic Theme Page.
• Protections for polar bears: In May 2008, the U.S. government put polar bears on the threatened species list (see the National Geographic story of May 14, 2008). On January 11, 2009, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had finalized a Special Rule under the Endangered Species Act providing for the conservation of the polar bear. See the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Web site on this Special Rule and other information about polar bears.

Page 296

• Antarctic sea ice: Based on the NSIDC’s Sea Ice Index Web page, the author’s interview with Walt Meyer at the NSIDC, in Boulder, Colorado, and subsequent e-mail exchanges.

Pages 296–299

• Floods from melting ice: See Explorations: Ice Sheets and Glaciers.

Page 300

• Kyoto treaty: Joby Warrick, “Climate Pact Rescued in Final Hours,” Washington Post (December 13, 1997): A01; William K. Stevens, “Inching Forward on Emissions Curbs,” New York Times (June 14, 1998); Kim Murphy, “Russia–EU Trade Pact Boosts Kyoto Prospects,” Los Angeles Times (May 22, 2004); Steven Lee Myers, “Russian Legislators Vote to Ratify the Kyoto Protocol,” New York Times (October 22, 2004).

Page 301

• American Meteorological Society, “Climate Change: An Information Statement of the American Meteorological Society,” BAMS 88 (adopted by AMS Council on 1 February 2007).
• Kerry Emanuel, et al., “Statement on the U.S. Hurricane Problem,” on Kerry Emanuel’s MIT home page.
• Hurricane threat to New York City: “NYC Hazards: Coastal Storms & Hurricanes,” on New York City Office of Emergency Management’s Web site; Willie Drye, “Hurricane Could Devastate New York, U.S. Economy, Experts Warn,” National Geographic News (May 19, 2006).

Page 302

• Ana Unruh Cohen profile: Based on the author’s interview with her at the Washington, D.C., AMS office, attendance at the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing on the Economic Impact of Global Warning: Green Collar Jobs (May 22, 2007), and e-mail exchanges.

Page 303

• Sacramento flood danger: Sacramento Area Flood History page of the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA) home page; Governor Schwarzenegger’s flood emergency press release (March 17, 2006).
• The personal side of weather: Based on the author’s telephone interviews with Robert Ricks.

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