An added twist is that individual clouds heat or cool the earth depending on their exact form. Clouds, Philander says, are the main wild card in the warming game. The book's science is clear but formidable. We meet latent heat, quantum theory, the photoelectric effect, the hydrological cycle and plate tectonics, some explained better than others. Equations dot the text and pervade 13 appendixes.
Many illustrations aid comprehension.
But they, too, tend to be esoteric, with temperatures, for instance, always given in the Celsius scale. Like a windy but stimulating uncle, Philander also takes us on detours, some tedious. For all its detail, the book makes no mention of such current research topics as the extent to which the air is warmed by the sun's variable brightness, newly discovered in the 11-year sunspot cycle and suspected to occur over longer periods. The carbon cycle amounts to a thermostat that keeps temperatures in a moderate range,'' it says provocatively, missing the obvious follow-up. At the book's close, Philander draws together some of his strands and concludes that humankind is playing with fire.