Introduction to Modern Climate Change

Andrew E. Dessler is a Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1994. He did postdoctoral work at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (1994–1996) and then spent nine years on the faculty of the University of Maryland (1996–2005). In 2000, he worked as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he collaborated with Ted Parson. Dessler's academic publications include three books: The Chemistry and Physics of Stratospheric Ozone (Academic Press, 2000), The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate (with Ted Parson, Cambridge University Press, 2006, 2010) and Introduction to Modern Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2012). He has also published extensively in the scientific literature on stratospheric ozone depletion and the physics of climate.

1. An introduction to the climate problem; 2. Is the climate changing?; 3. Radiation and energy balance; 4. A simple climate model; 5. The carbon cycle; 6. Forcing, feedbacks, and climate sensitivity; 7. Why is the climate changing?; 8. The future of our climate; 9. Impacts; 10. Exponential growth; 11. Fundamentals of climate change policy; 12. Mitigation policies; 13. A brief history of climate science and politics; 14. Putting it together: a long-term policy to address climate change.