Books, Climate Change, Municipalies, ICLEI and "The Leftmost City"

What can you read about Climate Change?

An excellent book to start with is The Atlas of Climate Change which is filled with a clear selection of data, charts, maps to illustration the changes occuring now (Greeland's melting ice), science (CO2 rise to historic heights), risks (countries at risk for flooding, storms, etc), Kyoto, how we will have to adapt.  Slightly below Scientic American level and accessible from high school and up.  Very clear survey, very relevant.

If you like more about science of the atmosphere and climate change, consider Climate Change - The point of no return.      

Here is a recent article by same author, Mojib Latif, a well-known climate scientist, discussing problems communicating science.

The WorldWatch Institute produces an annual State of the World,   
a readable, but a bit more advanced collection of articles on numerous topics related to climate change, technology, agricultural practices, specific countries. An article about shifting to growing perennial plants, rather annuals to sequester carbon is intriguing.

If you like case studies and examples of municipal government and communities taking action in the US, Local Action from ICLEI  is very accessible choice, especially for Portland and Fort Collins, Colorado.

If you are not a scientist, but enjoy good writing The Best American Science and Nature Writing has very good collection of the year's best magazine articles, cover the environment [although I liked the one about cooking eggs at a fixed temperature, to bring out flavor of each protein, rather than old fashioned boiling!]

Even a good daily newspaper will have frequent reports of science reports.

And, since this is Santa Cruz, I want to include "The Leftmost City" about local politics.  However, I am deeply concerned that climate warming is too important, albeit too dangerous, to be handled in normal political fashion.