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The Cryosphere-Princeton primers in climate: A Book Review
Book review by Gabriel Thoumi, special to mongabay.com
January 23, 2012



The Cryosphere by Dr. Shawn J. Marshall, Canada Research Chair in Climate Change, University of Calgary, is an excellent book because it summarizes leading scientific research into easily accessible chapters each one on a different component of the cryosphere. The cryosphere, which incorporates the Earth's snow and ice mass including seasonal snow, permafrost (both land-based permafrost and below water permafrost), river and lake ice, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves, is intrinsically related to global climate change. Hence, understanding how the cryosphere interacts with and is at risk because of climate change and its greenhouse gases is fundamental to developing effective policy mechanisms that mitigate climate change.

The Cryosphere contains clear and concise chapters each on snow and ice material properties and thermodynamics; different types precipitation including seasonal snow, freshwater ice, sea ice, permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets; and summary chapters the cryosphere's climate processes and on a global climate change impacted Earth. Each chapter includes definitive easy to follow mathematical equations, illustrative examples, anecdotes, and notes for further reference. The book also contains a helpful glossary.

For example, roughly 35 percent of the Earth's geography experiences freezing points seasonally throughout the year. And these freezing points globally impact the cryosphere resulting in a tight feedback loop between the cryosphere and temperatures associated with global warming. This is an example of the critical importance of the cryosphere on a global climate change impacted Earth.

The most reflective surfaces of the Earth are snow and ice, which are only secondary in their impact behind clouds on the Earth's albedo. This means that snow and ice cover have significant impact on global climate change and the Earth's energy budget resulting in describing the Earth's ice as a latent energy buffer.

Finally, it is critical for stakeholders to support applied research that provides answers describing the interactions within cryosphere-climate processes and the cryosphere's sensitivity to global climate change because the Earth's political and geographic atlas, under a climate change impacted world, will be redrawn in the near-term with impacted navigable waterways, political and coastal boundaries, river systems, and ecosystems.

The Cryosphere is part of Princeton Primers in Climate, a series of precise and state-of-the-art authoritative books that explain the current state of climate science research. These authoritative, short books are written specifically for stakeholders, students, researchers, and scientifically oriented general readers needing precise, easy-to-read resources on global climate change and climate science. These books at Princeton Primers in Climate are a superb resource to find meticulous, detailed, and clearly presented facts on climate change science.

In summary, I very much enjoyed reading this book.



How to order:

The Cryosphere

Paperback: 288 Pages

Publisher: Princeton University Press

ISBN: 9780691145266

Authors: Dr. Geoffrey K. Vallis

Gabriel Thoumi, CFA is a frequent contributor to Mongabay.com.











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CITATION:
Book review by Gabriel Thoumi, special to mongabay.com (January 23, 2012). The Cryosphere-Princeton primers in climate: A Book Review. http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0123-cryosphere_thoumi_review.html


Tags:
ice shelves sea ice arctic Antarctica climate change climate science global warming mitigation freshwater ecosystems impacts of climate change impact of climate change book reviews books gabriel thoumi green environment

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