Storms

I finished this book this weekend. After the last one about how continuous growth is incompatible with a finite planet I thought about just reading a novel to clear my head, but I couldn't do it with this one waiting on my shelf...
The author, Dr. James Hansen, has studied planetary climate physics for decades. He started with Venus and moved on to look at earth sometime in the 70's (if I'm not mistaken with the dates...), and is a well known author on the topic of the climate crisis. 

This book came out in 2009, so it's not recent in its reflections on USA's politics (although the situation didn't particularly improve since then to say the least). 
Putting that aside, it is a valuable source of "planetary climate dynamics and geoclimate for dummys". The fundamentals of what we know about climate, how it works, how it has evolved in the past, and the associated inertia are clearly explained. As a researcher I very much enjoyed that. I also enjoyed the honest discussion about the author's view of the role of the science community in public discussion and how that view evolved through his career.
The way scientists communicate among themselves is not necessarily adapted for wide ranged public discourse. In science discussion and questioning ones assumptions is key, so that we can advance our knowledge and comprehension of this. Among peers this is done in a good will spirit, we have a common ultimate goal and questioning one's ideas and clearly presenting the incertitudes in one's work is a necessary virtue and not an admission of defeat.
That does not hold for communicating with the larger public. One will probably face some actor that are not good willed, quite the opposite. In order to the effective in this new media, the scientist must be more assertive about his/hers results and recommendations. This switch is not easy to do and carries a risk for those who must search for funding continuously...
Despite that, the author found that what was at stake was more important than his inconvenience or discomfort.
If USA-Bush-politic shenanigans and some climate physics explanations and graphs don't put you off, I very much recommend the book.