INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY

Int. J. Climatol. 21: 1841 (2001)

BOOK REVIEW

WEATHER: HOW IT WORKS AND WHY IT MATTERS,Arthur Upgren and Jugen Stock, Perseus Publishing,Cambridge, MA, 2000. No. of pages: xvi+223. Price £15.50(hardback). ISBN 0-7382-0294-0.

The substance of this book fails to live up to the expectationsexcited by its intriguing title. The approach is commendablyoriginal in conception but hardly successful in execution.Given that the intended market is, it is assumed, more generalthan specifically academic, this reviewer found that there waslittle to provide such a readership with a clear orcomprehensive understanding of how weather works. Moresubstantial texts have struggled, sometimes in vain, to achievethe task undertaken in this slim volume. Equally questionableare the attempts to convey a sense of the significance ofweather and climate to modern society or, as the authors putit, ‘why it matters’. One might not dispute the laudablesentiments underlying this intention and the frequentlyemotive expressions that are employed to this end have asuperficial appeal but carry little academic weight. Theall-too-familiar diatribes against spectacular energyconsumption are now tired cliches whilst the pious moralizingabout the ‘two worlds’ issue conveys no sense of scientific, oreconomic, conviction. The intention of the book is altogethertoo ambitious and demands an indigestibly large volume ofmaterial. In trying to produce a manageable menu the authorshave failed to satisfy the inquisitive reader’s hunger forknowledge.

Having laid these criticisms at the doors of the authors itonly fair to point out that the picture is not one of anunremittingly barren intellectual landscape. Chapter 8 focuseson long-term influences on climatic change. The writers have asurer touch here but they are on, for them, more familiarastronomical territory and provide a refreshing review of thistheme. Chapter 5 (climates of other worlds) is equallyinteresting, and for the same reasons. Chapter 9 (dealing withglaciations) also repays attention. Such high points arehowever sadly outweighed by those that fall short ofexpectations.

Chapter 4 grapples with the issue of the seasons but from amore astronomical point of view than would be familiar tomost climatologists. This is not in itself a criticism but, and incontrast to the oversimplified approach taken to the discussionof the science behind other aspects of climate and weather, thereader is left intellectually breathless at its conclusion.Furthermore, the drift of this chapter, that takes one into therealms of cyclic orbital variations fails entirely, andsurprisingly, to follow this up with a review of the evidence

linking long-term climatic change with the MilankovitchCycles. An opportunity missed.

Other chapters are interesting but too short to convey acomplete scientific picture. Chapter 13 on El Nino, forexample, takes up only five sides! Many other chapters arealso of remarkable brevity and often fail to embrace the depthand range of material required by their respective themes. Thepurpose of Chapter 6 (weather, wisdom and lore) is unclearand it sits unhappily between chapters on the climatology ofother planets and stormy weather.

Also questionable is the scientific precision of some of thestatements. The description of the greenhouse effect falls backupon the old and discredited analogy with a gardener’sgreenhouse. Fronts are described to be perpendicular to theground.

Uniformitarianism is wrongly credited to Charles Lyell; itwas James Hutton. The East Anglian coast is described asEast Anglican! In an early chapter, the debate on the weight ofair is confusing, but surely incorrect.

The figures are generally poor and consist mostly of ratherclumsy black-and-white line diagrams. Thus, for example,when reference is made to items in a copy of a page from anold document, figure (10.5) is too indistinct to be read. In anage of digital imagery and copying we expect more. Thegeneral standards of English are also questionable. Too oftenthe writers resort to the journalistic expressions that have noplace in serious, or popular, scientific literature—even ifwritten for a lay readership. The atmospheric gases aredescribed as ‘squishy’, ‘blobs’ of air float through theatmosphere but to penetrate an inversion is a ‘no-no’. At onepoint a lifestyle is described as ‘alternate’ rather than‘alternative’. And there are other such examples of sloppyvocabulary.

The bibliography is too brief. There were many occasionswhen an interested reader might want to pursue particularlines of argument and the absence of citations in the text isregrettable.

Overall, and although there are points of interest, thisreviewer cannot lend his unreserved support to this book,which has too many weaknesses for it to be stronglyrecommended.

DENNIS WHEELER

Department of Geography, Uni�ersity of Sunderland,Sunderland, UK

DOI: 10.1002/joc.683

Copyright © 2001 Royal Meteorological Society