The Atmospheric Environment: Effects of Human Activity

(Hardback)

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Description

This introduction to the physics and chemistry of Earth's atmosphere with an account of relevant aspects of ocean science, treats atmospheric science and the climate as an integrated whole, and makes explicit the policy implications of what is known. Its critical account of steps taken by the international community to address the issue of climatic change highlights the challenge of dealing with a global issue for which the political and economic stakes are high, where uncertainties are common and where there is a need for clear thinking and informed policy.

Reviews

"Michael McElroy's impressive new book is a bargain, for it is really two books in one. Approximately the first half is an accessible general atmospheric science text, and almost all the rest of the book is a comprehensive introduction to atmospheric chemistry... The entire book is authoritative, balanced, up-to-date and exceptionally well-written."--Richard C. J. Somerville, American Journal of Physics "The breadth of this book sets it apart from most other introductory texts on either atmospheric chemistry or climate change, which are typically more restrictive in their focus to one of those two areas... Overall, this is an excellent book... McElroy has done a service to the community in creating a textbook with the potential to help create a future pool of educated people with a thorough yet broad background in the complex web of interactions related to human effects on the atmospheric environment."--Drew T. Shindell, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Author Bio

Michael B. McElroy is Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at Harvard University, where he also serves as Director of the Center for the Environment. He participated in the early Mariner missions to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn and the Viking mission to Mars. The author of more than 200 papers on atomic physics and planetary atmospheres, he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Academy of Astronautics, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.