A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming

The science behind global warming, and its history: how scientists learned to understand the atmosphere, to measure it, to trace its past, and to model its future.

Global warming skeptics often fall back on the argument that the scientific case for global warming is all model predictions, nothing but simulation; they warn us that we need to wait for real data, "sound science." In A Vast Machine Paul Edwards has news for these skeptics: without models, there are no data. Today, no collection of signals or observations--even from satellites, which can "see" the whole planet with a single instrument--becomes global in time and space without passing through a series of data models. Everything we know about the world's climate we know through models. Edwards offers an engaging and innovative history of how scientists learned to understand the atmosphere--to measure it, trace its past, and model its future.

Author: Paul N. Edwards
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 02/08/2013
Pages: 546
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.95lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 1.40d
ISBN13: 9780262518635
ISBN10: 0262518635
BISAC Categories:
- Science | Earth Sciences | Meteorology & Climatology
- Technology & Engineering | History
- Computers | Data Science | Data Modeling & Design