Reviews for Atomic Processes in Plasmas: 13th APS Topical Conference on Atomic Processes in Plasmas

The average rating for Atomic Processes in Plasmas: 13th APS Topical Conference on Atomic Processes in Plasmas based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-11-19 00:00:00 Hector Ortiz My wife found this old book on a second-hand shelf in late 2017. It's a gripping, saddening you-were-there account of the years from the mid-80s when awareness of global warming gained momentum, to the late 1990s. The author trained as an oil geologist then converted to work for first, New Scientist and then Greenpeace. He describes with calm anger the bad guys of the "Carbon Club" whose job it was to poison and jam many conferences over the years and put out lies to the public. Especially prescient (though too little came from it) was his own work with insurance companies and re-insurance companies to get them to take notice of weather catastrophes ("cats," he calls them). I don't know if anyone is carrying on in this sector. In the years since the book ends, the world has learned much but done little. In 2018 the USA, which leads the world in per capital greenhouse gas emissions has lost its bearings completely. Jeremy Leggett thought in the late 1990s that the era of oil was coming to an end. Little did he know. An important book for those interested in the epistemology of global warming and climate change. The story is not a triumph of the human spirit. Getting ready to post this review, I found to my delight that Dr Leggett has a second book The Winning of the Carbon War with a hopeful title from 2015. I'll try to find it for solace. But would he still say we are winning?

Review # 2 was written on 2014-03-22 00:00:00 Peter Reyes I was initially a little disappointed when I looked at the publication date (months after I bought it, of course) and realized that this book was written in 1999, and thus probably wouldn't do much to bring me further up to date on the topics of peak oil or climate change. However, it turned out to be a rather lively page-turner written by an oil industry consultant-turned-Greenpeace scientist-turned-college professor-turned-solar energy CEO. This is a first-person firsthand account of the sequence of international political events that eventually led to the Kyoto Treaty, written in much the same style as John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hitman." It won't do much to inform the reader on developments since Bush Jr. took office, but it is good for what it is.