Book Review: Global Warming and the Challenge of International Cooperation: An Interdisciplinary Assessment

• Author: Christopher Twomey
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/107049659300200218
• Published date: 01 June 1993
• Date: 01 June 1993
• Subject Matter: Book Review

An

Illustration

of

Interdisciplinary Confusion

BOOK

REVIEW

Global

Wanning

and the Challenge

of

International Coop-

eration:

An

Interdisciplinary Assessment

GARY

C. BRYNER,

EDITOR

Provo, UT:

Kennedy

Center

Publications, 1992, 144 pp.,

with

bibliography,

and

index, $15.00, (hardcover).

REVIEWED BY CHRISTOPHER TWOMEY

The

phenomenon of global warming has received agreat deal of

attention in recent years. Initially raised by the scientific community,

the issue

has

moved to the top of the agendas of economists, political

scientists,

and

policymakers concerned with the environment. Indeed,

the concerns raised by the prospects of global climate change transcend

the confines of

anyone

field of study. Recognition of the breadth of the

disciplines involved in this issue is the central theme of

Global

Warming

andthe

Challenge

of

International

Cooperation:

An

Interdisciplinary

Assess-

ment, edited by

Cary

C. Bryner. Unfortunately, the book's strength, as

aunifying forum, is also its major weakness: by attempting to examine

all aspects of climate change, Bryner has perhaps undertaken too

difficult a task. While addressing the scientific issues of global warming

effectively, the book suffers from somewhat disjointed sections

and

from overly simplified analysis of international policy options.

It

does,

however, provide auseful introduction to the issues surrounding

global warming.

The first section of the book discusses the current scientific

knowledge regarding climate change.

It

examines the sources of this

knowledge, then turns to the causes of global warming,

and

concludes

with the effects of this warming.

The theory of the "greenhouse effect" is universally accepted

and

underliesthe conceptof global warming, writesGuy Brasseur. However,

Christopher Twomey is master's candidate at the Graduate School of International

Relations and PacificStudies at the University of California, San Diego.

Journal

of Environment &

Development

2,2

(Summer 1993).IR/PS, UCSD, Mail Code

0519,9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0519 (U.S.A.).E-mail: envdev®Ucsd.edu.

©1993by the

Journal

of Environment &

Development:

A Reviewof

International

Policy

Produced

at the University of

California.