Thursday, March 05, 2009

What is James L. Powell reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: James L. Powell, author of the recently released Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West.

One book (of three) from his entry:
The most important book I have read in a while is The Discovery of Global Warming (Revised Edition) by physicist and historian Spencer Weart. When I began Dead Pool some four years ago, I knew no more about global warming than the average nonspecialist: that both the scientific consensus and the evidence were building strongly and, if they were not already, would soon be overwhelming. Exactly how this had come to pass and exactly what the evidence was, I did not know. But as I began to see the impact of global warming on the Colorado River and its reservoirs, the subject of Dead Pool, I grew first concerned and then alarmed. Now I am scared, scared for my children and grandchildren and the world they may inherit. I have decided that my next book must be about the threat of global warming.

Weart starts at the beginning and...[read on]
James L. Powell holds a Ph.D. in Geochemistry from MIT and several honorary degrees, including Doctor of Science degrees from Berea College and from Oberlin College. He is the Executive Director of the National Physical Science Consortium at the University of Southern California.

Visit James L. Powell's website.

Read Chapter 1 of Dead Pool, "The Dam Is Not Going to Break," and learn more about the book at the University of California Press website.

Writers Read: James L. Powell.

--Marshal Zeringue