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Weather – M
arch 2012, Vol. 67, No. 3
LettersHowever, this is not the only instance of Mendelssohn’s visit to Scotland inspiring his music: towards the end of the first movement of his ‘Scottish’ Symphony, a howling gale passes through. To me, this has always seemed one of the clearest examples of weather being depicted in music.
Bill McGuireOxford University Press, 2012Hardback £16.14320 ppISBN 978-0-19-959226-5
Waking the Giant
Cynthia Rosenzweig, William Solecki, Stephen A Hammer and Shagun Mehrotra (eds)Cambridge University Press, 2011 Paperback £28.50 286 ppISBN 978-1-107-00420-7
Climate Change and Cities: First Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network
The author of Waking the Giant is an aca-demic science writer and broadcaster. He has succeeded in writing two books in one. A few pages in he states that he does not intend to write a history of the Earth, but he does describe what has happened in the first 4.55 billion years of its history. In the second part of the book he describes how the litho-sphere reacts to loads being removed or added, thereby triggering volcanoes and/or earthquakes, and thus tsunami. He stresses that the nature of the earth’s skin is due to a variety of mechanisms, starting with weighty ice sheets but also including rising/falling sea levels, and even the effects of the weight of water enclosed in a dam being filled for the first time. All of these ‘triggers’ can start, or restart, phenomena such as vol-canoes and earthquakes. The triggers also
link meteorological processes to those of geology, which are normally considered to be separate. What attracts me about this book is that it can be used as a reference book for the Earth’s history, but also as a collection of material to bring you right up-to-date with Earth Science. I have a proof copy, but a hardback copy is planned which is great, as it is a book that will be on the bookshelves of those with similar interests to mine for a long time.The website below may be useful:
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/academic/earthsciences/volcanology/9780199592265.do?sortby=bookTitleAscend&page=1&thumbby=10&thumbby_crawl=10
Martin Hutchins
The effects of urbanisation on, for example, surface heat energy and water balances, and atmospheric pollution are relatively well established, and urban areas are a strong driv-ing force in the modification of regional and global climate as the percentage of the human population choosing the urban life-style increases. Equally familiar are the effects
of extreme weather events such as heat waves, storms and floods on the well-being of urban populations and the functioning of urban systems. The question addressed by this first report from the Urban Climate Change Research Network is what happens when the external climatic framework is changed, in terms of both magnitude and variability. In the editor’s words, the report focuses on how to use climate science and socio-economic research to map a city’s vulnerability to climate hazards, and how cities can enhance their adaptive and mitigative capacity to deal with climate change over different timescales.
Given the complexity of the issues, the report is never going to provide much more than a review of what is already known and a suggested structure for assessing the risks that climate change poses to urban commu-nities. With regard to the former, a very useful summary of current thinking is presented, both in terms of the climate framework and the potential problems of decision-making in response to perceived risks. Authorship draws on experiences from 50 cities around the world, there is appropriate use of case studies, and each chapter is followed by extensive references. The latter follows the standard
methodology for risk assessment, which is to define the hazards, assess vulnerability, and consider what adaptive strategies are availa-ble. The hazard risk includes, for example, an increased risk of heat stress and storm dam-age, together with increases in both flood and drought risks. Vulnerability is considered under four headings: energy systems, water systems, transportation and human health. Strategies to reduce risk include changes in building style and density, identification and avoidance of high risk areas, and manipula-tion of the urban microclimate (by, for exam-ple, increased use of parks) and changes in transport policy.
The report represents a valuable foundation for planning the future of the world’s cities as climate change modifies the framework within which urban systems operate. If there is a criticism, it is of the final chapter Conclusion: Moving Forward which promises much but delivers only a very thin one-page comment.
John Harrison
All book review correspondence to:Helen Roberts
DOI: 10.1002/wea.1905
Book reviews
Scottish weather in Mendelssohn’s music
Aplin and Williams (2011) refer to the enthu-siasm of British composers for depicting the weather, and they also list a piece inspired by a visit of a continental composer to these islands: Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s cave.
ReferenceAplin KL, Williams PD. 2011. Meteoro-logical phenomena in Western classical orchestral music. Weather 66: 300–306.
Anthony Kay
Loughborough University
DOI: 10.1002/wea.1914
