Our Affair with El Niño (eBook)

How We Transformed an Enchanting Peruvian Current into a Global Climate Hazard

S. George Philander (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2018
296 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-18792-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Until 1997, few people had heard of the seasonal current that Peruvians nicknamed El Niño. But when meteorologists linked it to devastating floods in California, severe droughts in Indonesia, and strange weather everywhere, its name became entrenched in the common parlance faster than a typhoon making landfall. Bumper stickers appeared bearing the phrase "Don't blame me; blame El Niño." Stockbrokers muttered "El Niño" when the market became erratic. What's behind this fascinating natural phenomenon, and how did our perceptions of it change? In this captivating book, renowned oceanographer George Philander engages readers in lucid and stimulating discussions of the scientific, political, economic and cultural developments that shaped our perceptions of this force of nature. The book begins by outlining the history of El Niño, an innocuous current that appears off the coast of Peru around Christmastime--its name refers to the Child Jesus--and originally was welcomed as a blessing. It goes on to explore how our perceptions of El Niño were transformed, not because the phenomenon changed, but because we did. Philander argues persuasively that familiarity with the different facets of our affair with El Niño--our wealth of experience in dealing with natural hazards such as severe storms and prolonged droughts--can help us cope with an urgent and controversial environmental problem of our own making--global warming. Intellectually invigorating and a joy to read, Our Affair with El Niño is an important contribution to the debate about the relationship between scientific knowledge and public affairs.

Autor

George Philander is Knox Taylor Professor of Geosciences (Meteorology) at Princeton University. He is the author of Is the Temperature Rising: The Uncertain Science of Global Warming (Princeton).

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.6.2018
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Mikrobiologie / Immunologie
• Schlagworte: Abidjan • Accademia del Cimento • Adrian Gill • Alan Lightman • American Meteorological Society • anchovy • Anticyclone • Atlantic Ocean • Atmospheric circulation • Atmospheric model • Atmospheric noise • atmospheric sciences • augury • Calculation • California Current • Carbon dioxide • Claude Lorrain • Climate • climate change • climate model • Climate of Peru • climatology • Continental Drift • coriolis force • Cumulonimbus cloud • disaster • Divergent (novel) • Drought • earth • Earth's energy budget • Ecuador • effects of global warming • El Niño–Southern Oscillation • energy crisis • Equatorial waves • evaporation • Extratropical cyclone • Extreme weather • Forecasting • General Circulation Model • George Hadley • global cooling • global warming • Greenhouse Effect • Greenhouse Gas • Heat • Henry Stommel • Hurricane Gilbert • Indian Ocean • Intertropical Convergence Zone • Jacob Bjerknes • Kelvin wave • Kirk Bryan (oceanographer) • Luke Howard • Maritime Continent • Measurement • meteorology • mid-Atlantic ridge • Moisture • monsoon • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration • National Weather Service • Numerical weather prediction • Oceanic basin • Oceanography • ozone depletion • Ozone layer • Pacific Ocean • Paleoclimatology • Plate Tectonics • Prediction • Roaring Forties • Runaway greenhouse effect • Salinity • Scientist • scripps institution of oceanography • Sea Surface Temperature • Somali Current • subtropics • Surface Water • Svante Arrhenius • Thermocline • thermohaline circulation • Tidal force • trade winds • Tropical Africa • Tropical Atlantic • Tropical Cyclone • tropics • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change • water vapor • Weather • Weather and Climate • Weather forecasting • weathering • Weather map • Weather Prediction Center • World Meteorological Organization • year • Zimbabwe
• ISBN-10: 0-691-18792-4 / 0691187924
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-18792-1 / 9780691187921