The Science Behind Global change

Simple diagrams of how water, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycle through natural systems and the human economy are a regular feature at nature centers and in elementary school text books. If you would like to move beyond the ecological PR to a concise, carefully balanced, semi-technical treatment of the science that underlies such issues as climate change, acid rain, photochemical smog, and the ecological effects of fertilizer runoff, this book is a good place to start. At the core of the book are detailed accounts of the carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen cycles. While readers who have followed general press accounts of climate change and acid rain will be familiar with some aspects of the carbon and sulfur cycles, it is unlikely that many will have seen all the pieces put together, or seen their interrelationships laid out with such clarity and critical insight.