Two hundred years of soil moisture at Kew? Smog in the valley of Mexico? From details such as these, Hugh Lamb built up an extraordinarily detailed picture of the world’s changing climate. In the second edition of Climate, History and the Modern World (Routledge, £60 hbk, £15.99 pbk, ISBN 0 415 12734 3), Lamb explains how the climate works, and then pieces together records from around the world to show broad trends. In the 13 years since the first edition, climate has moved to the fore – people are now alive to the dangers of ozone depletion and long-term changes in the climate, but he mourns the sloppiness in the way that the changes are reported. Weather forecasters, for example, suggest that Britain is having a “bad” summer if it doesn’t resemble a Mediterranean.
More from 51¶¯Âþ
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending 51¶¯Âþ articles
1
Mathematicians stunned by AI's biggest breakthrough in mathematics yet
2
How I used psychology to come back from the worst year of my life
3
The Selfish Gene at 50: Why Dawkins’s evolution classic still holds up
4
Photos reveal unexpected details from the world's first atomic test
5
We may finally know why dinosaurs like T. rex evolved tiny arms
6
The distant world that is our best hope of finding alien life
7
The 3 things you need to know about protein, according to an expert
8
The ‘doomsday’ glacier’s giant ice shelf is about to break away
9
Mystery of the ancient giant stone jars of Laos may have been solved
10
Epic dreaming is leaving people exhausted and distressed
