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Charles Fletcher, associate dean and professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, released the first edition of Climate Change: What the Science Tells Us. Fletcher offers the first real textbook to present the science surrounding climate change at the right level for an undergraduate student.

This text places strong emphasis on the peer-reviewed scientific literature in reporting the impacts of climate change on the ocean, terrestrial ecosystems, the water cycle, human communities, hazardous weather patterns and potential future Earth systems. The text offers detailed discussion of greenhouse gases, oceanic and atmospheric processes, paleoclimate, the human fingerprints of climate change, global climate models, sea level rise, climate impacts on economic sectors, and dangerous weather patterns associated with climate change.

Fletcher’s polished writing style makes this an entertaining read while the pedagogical support and organization help students better identify and understand key concepts, ideas and terms. Each chapter is organized with learning objectives, student exercises, videos and scientific citations to promote further learning, and creative thinking problems to underpin classroom discussion.

In the classroom, this text can stand alone as the backbone of a semester-long class, or it can accompany any curriculum that touches on Earth processes where the instructor wants students to delve deeper into climate change.

“Our climate is changing NOW in rapid and dangerous ways. But by and large, we are not teaching the current generation of students about the reality of this phenomenon,” stated Fletcher. “Without this knowledge, our ability to manage the impacts of a changing climate is limited.”

More about the author

For more than 30 years, Fletcher has studied and published research on the impacts of coastal hazards on human communities, the geologic history of sea level change in the Atlantic and Pacific, and the geologic proxies that characterize Earth’s climate over the past half-million years. His familiarity with the natural record of climate coupled with a focus on the fundamental data and observations that constitute the science of global warming, results in a comprehensive and detailed treatment of the problem of climate change.

Climate Change: What the Science Tells Us is available in paperback and Wiley E-Text formats online

Read the UH Mānoa news release for more about Climate Change: What the Science Tells Us.

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