

Case in point, dramatic satellite images of the Larsen B Ice Shelf made headlines around the world when it collapsed in 2002. But the effects of climate change across the continent of Antarctica is a lot more complex and a lot less clear than most people appreciate. Antarctica appeared to be relatively unaffected by climate change until more recently. The continent is classified as a cold desert. But precipitation in the form of snowfall is expected to increase due to higher humidification. This effect could in principle delay sea level rise from melting Antarctic ice sheets. But wind currents and other factors have changed noticeably and it remains to be seen how this vast, poorly understood region will react under changing conditions humans have never witnessed.



One common critique of climate change is that is local weathermen can't accurately predict if it will rain next weekend, how can the public have faith in complex computer models that make predictions on far greater time scales? The answer is, scientists can make prediction about long term climate, becuase climate and weather are not the same thing. No one can say is it will snow on Christmas day wherever you are in 2050, but we do know it will get warmer in the spring and cooler in the fall because climate is forced by seasons. It should come as no surprise that it can be forced by factors like high altitude aerosols that reflect solar radiation, or greenhouse gases that retain it. Events like the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo was a grand experiment that allowed researchers to test the accuracy of high altitude aerosol layers vs GHG models. Empirical observations from real world phenomena give researchers the opportunity to test models with many variables. As those models have become more sophisticated and their results confirmed, climate scientists have grown more confident in their long range predictions.

Flammable bubbles of the potent greenhouse gas methane, once sequestered away in permafrost and sea floor, now rise to the icy surface. This is visual representation of a mostly unseen changes in the chemical and thermal properties of the Arctic ocean. Methane breaks down into other GHGs causing more warming releasing more methane. It's a powerful feedback process already underway. For decades the subtle changes were mostly noticed by a handful of scientists and indigenous people. But it's all connected and growing: those changes now threaten the seasonal blooms of plankton which form the basis of a rich food chain ultimately affecting fisheries and sea life all over the planet.

If a picture is worth a thousand words then Schmidt and Wolfe’s new book is worth the modest asking price many times over. The number of breathtaking images and fascinating lessons that can be drawn from them exceed the scope of any review. Suffice it to say the book is well worth the price for the images alone. The illustration are clear, text does not run into or overlap them, diagrams are straightforward, and the information that goes along with the pictures is easy to follow for even a casual reader, not to mention completely apolitical. The latter is not an accident: as the title suggests the authors choose to let the science and pictures make the case for them. In my opinion they succeed wildly.

Dr. Gavin Schmidt is a senior climate scientist at NASA Goddard Space Science Institute and a founding member of the popular blog Real Climate; Josh Wolfe is an up and coming young photographer with a longstanding interest in the natural world. One or both authors may pop in below, time permitting, to respond to a few reader comments.