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Climate, water and agriculture in the tropics
78
Book Reviews
is entirely taken for granted. Nor is the geographer’s basic tool well used: there aregood maps, but they are never referred to in the text (much of which assumes that the reader has a good atlas for place names). All that being said, teachers and students of political geography might find some parts of this book of interest, for the partial insights it offers to the ‘military mind’ and its applications of what it calls ‘geography’. But it is a layman’s presentation, and 1 am sure there is work of much greater sophistication available in the classified materials that Faringdon did not use. R. J. Johnston Department
of Geography,
University
of Sheffield
Jackson,
I. J. Climate, water and agriculture in the (2nd ed.). Harlow: Longman Scientific, 1989. 377 pp. fll.95 paperback.
tropics
There are three species of books in science: the knowledge book, the campaigning book and the research book. Their respective hallmarks of success are, as many references to scientific papers included as possible, finding a scientific theory or cause and writing an eloquent defence or exposition of it, and publishing the proceedings of a conference (preferably the 1st International Conference on .) with as many contributions from leading scientists as possible. It is rare that these three qualities are combined in one book. Climate, water and agriculture in the tropics fits very definitely into the knowledge-book category and, being a second edition, it is an updated knowledge book. There are three criteria by which a knowledge book may be judged. First, is the relevant knowledge population (in this case tropical climate, hydrology and agriculture) coherent and does it have a potentially wide readership? Secondly, is the knowledge contained in the book an unbiased sample from the relevant knowledge population? Thirdly, is the knowledge in the book well presented and easily accessible through indexes and subheadings? How does Climate, water and agriculture in the tropics fair under these three criteria? The very fact of a second edition suggests that the publishers believe the tropical climate, hydrology and agriculture knowledge population to be a valid and marketable one. The blurb advocates a readership of specialists wishing to know the current state of the knowledge population, developmentalists desiring their first taste of the knowledge population, and students wishing a ‘fast-food’ guide to the knowledge population. Although I hope the publishers are correct, they can sometimes be wrong. Specialists look at research books, developmentalists unfortunately are still loathe to immerse themselves in physical science, and the diminishing
number of undergraduate courses on climatology and tropical geography, at least in UK universities, must lead to a smaller student readership. Meeting the second criterion is presumably the reason for a second edition. Twelve years on from 1977, the first edition clearly now contains a biased sample of knowledge, if only the inevitable temporal bias. The knowledge sample of the second edition is now updated (although only to 1985 since there are no post-1985 references), but Ian Jackson has also recognized a content bias in the first edition. Hence new sections of knowledge appear on the El Nin”o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, on drought, and on climatic classification, and the section on land use impact on the hydrological cycle is greatly expanded. There is a rather strange chapter added at the end on ‘Problems and Priorities’, which apart from being abrupt belongs more to a campaigning book. In four pages it advocates indigenous over midlatitude scientific enterprise in understanding tropical climate, hydrology and agriculture and in applying such knowledge. This is a worthwhile cause, but it does appear rather as an awkward afterthought for a knowledge book. My other complaint under this criterion is that, despite the updates, there still remains a bias in the knowledge sample. There are three very important developments for tropical climate and hydrology which occurred during the 1980s (although the 1985 cutoff of the book perhaps provides some excuse) but are not mentioned in the book. These are: the possibility of forecasting tropical rainfall through use of sea-surface temperatures (this would fit into sections 2.8 or 3.7); the real-time monitoring of tropical rainfall from satellite (sections4.2 or 10.2), and the assessment of land cover changes from satellite (sections 9.3, 9.4 and 9.5). There is also a very curious and lightweight discussion on the climate impacts of rising global concentrations of greenhouse gases (section 9.2). This very much fails to do justice to the huge potential impacts of global climate change on tropical agriculture as reviewed recently by Parry et al. (1988). My third criterion for a good knowledge book is clear presentation and good accessibility. Here, Climate, water and agriculture in the tropics fairs favourably. An author index has been added in the second edition which, along with the adequate subject index and a lOOO-item reference list, makes it an easy book to use. The chapter divisions and subheadings are well chosen and the latter have been made bolder, so now easily stand out on a quick flick through. An average of about ten figures and eight tables per substantive chapter help the digestion of knowledge, although 1 did find some of the tables clumsy (e.g. 4.9) and unnecessary (e.g. 3.4 and 3.5), and several figures appearing on their side (e.g. 2.12) are an irritating nuisance. Unfortunately too, a fair number of typographical errors remain. For example, wrong minimum year totals appear in Fig. 3.5, log 10x
Book Reviews rather than log,, x is used on p. 79, and wrong references to Sneider (sic) and Flohn, S. (sic) appear in the reference list. Despite its limitations, this is an updated knowledge book worth possessing and I would undoubtedly use it in any course 1 taught on tropical geography. 1 would rather possess the books by Hastenrath (1985)-a knowledge book, Blaikie (1985)-a campaigning book, and Glantz (1987)-a research book, which taken together provide a more satisfactory coverage of the same knowledge population. Those three books, however, would cost me over flO0 whereas if I had not reviewed this book I could buy it for fl 1.95. Blaikie, P. (1985) The political economy of soil erosion in developing counrries. Harlow: Longman, 188 pp. Glantz, M. H. (ed.) (1987) Drought and hunger in Africa: denying famine a future. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 487 pp. Hastenrath, S. (1985) Climate and circulafion of fhe tropics. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 455 pp. Parry, M. L., Carter, T. R. and Konijn, N. T. (eds) (1988) The impact of climatic variations on agriculture, Vol. 2: assessmems in semi-arid regions. Dordrecht: Reidel, 764 pp. Mike Hulme Climafic Research
Unir, University
ofEast
Anglia
Parry, M. L., Carter, T. R. and Konijn, N. T. (eds) The impact of climatic variations on agriculture, Volume 2: Assessments in semi-arid regions. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1988. 764 pp. f62 hardback. This volume is the second of two which report detailed results from an international project jointly funded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Volume 1 reported results for case studies in cool temperate and cold regions. Volume 2 presents six cases from semi-arid regions. The issues addressed required interdisciplinary teams of climatologists, agronomists, agricultural economists and regional and national planners and in the event 70 scientists and professionals were involved. The project was stimulated by the extreme climatic events associated with the most pronounced NNin”o event ever recorded in 1982 and 1983 and its extreme climatic consequences expressed in droughts and floods in many parts of the world. The purposes of the project were first to define the range of effects that short-term variations in climate may have on agriculture in semi-arid regions of the world and, secondly, to evaluate the range of adjustments available to mitigate or exploit these effects. The studies are soundly based conceptually, being placed in the context of the latest ideas on the
79
impact of climate on the land surface and therefore on its renewable natural resources (referring to the three time scales of climatic variability, climate change and climatic variations) and taking into account the research since the mid-1970s which has given more emphasis to the consequences of human activity on climate. The studies trace the complex linkages between climate-related impacts as they cascade through biophysical, economic and social systems and adopt a hierarchy of models for a number of short-term and long-term climatic scenarios. Simulations include the climatic change itself, its first-order impacts on crop and livestock production and the second-order responses of the agricultural and socioeconomic sectors. The editors and authors are realistically modest in their claims concerning the precision of their predictions but one has to agree with them that they are pointing scientists and environmental managers in the appropriate direction in terms of the sustainable use of renewable resources. The case studies refer to Central and Eastern Kenya, Northeast Brazil, the Central Sierra of Ecuador, India, European USSR and the Australian wheat belt. The book is dense with concept as well as with detailed exposition and happily, considering its interdisciplinary nature, it is very well indexed. The introductory section presents all that newcomers to the subject need to know about the ideas in currency and the abstracts which introduce each section enable the reader to access very easily the detail which they may require. This is an exemplary interdisciplinary study and its sponsors are to be congratulated on funding such a well-conceived and well-executed set of complementary studies. The book will be useful to scientists and professionals researching about, and responding to, climatic change. Since the content includes analysis of socioeconomic issues the material will also be of importance to those involved in planning and policy as well as the politicians whom they serve. Those who are part of the burgeoning group newly aware of the importance of global environmental conditions could do worse than read the results of this well-executed research project. Tony Allan School of Orienfal and African of London
Studies,
Park, C. C. Chernobyl: the long shadow. Routledge, 1989. 207 pp. f25 hardback.
University
London:
Surely one of the most unexpected environmental consequences of the incident at Chernobyl rests in the sacrifice of acres and acres of trees to publish the tale, but anyone who is wholly unfamiliar with the burgeoning literature on the disaster will find that Chris Park’s fast-paced journalese makes a good read. The ‘accident’ happened on Saturday 26 April
Book Reviews
is entirely taken for granted. Nor is the geographer’s basic tool well used: there aregood maps, but they are never referred to in the text (much of which assumes that the reader has a good atlas for place names). All that being said, teachers and students of political geography might find some parts of this book of interest, for the partial insights it offers to the ‘military mind’ and its applications of what it calls ‘geography’. But it is a layman’s presentation, and 1 am sure there is work of much greater sophistication available in the classified materials that Faringdon did not use. R. J. Johnston Department
of Geography,
University
of Sheffield
Jackson,
I. J. Climate, water and agriculture in the (2nd ed.). Harlow: Longman Scientific, 1989. 377 pp. fll.95 paperback.
tropics
There are three species of books in science: the knowledge book, the campaigning book and the research book. Their respective hallmarks of success are, as many references to scientific papers included as possible, finding a scientific theory or cause and writing an eloquent defence or exposition of it, and publishing the proceedings of a conference (preferably the 1st International Conference on .) with as many contributions from leading scientists as possible. It is rare that these three qualities are combined in one book. Climate, water and agriculture in the tropics fits very definitely into the knowledge-book category and, being a second edition, it is an updated knowledge book. There are three criteria by which a knowledge book may be judged. First, is the relevant knowledge population (in this case tropical climate, hydrology and agriculture) coherent and does it have a potentially wide readership? Secondly, is the knowledge contained in the book an unbiased sample from the relevant knowledge population? Thirdly, is the knowledge in the book well presented and easily accessible through indexes and subheadings? How does Climate, water and agriculture in the tropics fair under these three criteria? The very fact of a second edition suggests that the publishers believe the tropical climate, hydrology and agriculture knowledge population to be a valid and marketable one. The blurb advocates a readership of specialists wishing to know the current state of the knowledge population, developmentalists desiring their first taste of the knowledge population, and students wishing a ‘fast-food’ guide to the knowledge population. Although I hope the publishers are correct, they can sometimes be wrong. Specialists look at research books, developmentalists unfortunately are still loathe to immerse themselves in physical science, and the diminishing
number of undergraduate courses on climatology and tropical geography, at least in UK universities, must lead to a smaller student readership. Meeting the second criterion is presumably the reason for a second edition. Twelve years on from 1977, the first edition clearly now contains a biased sample of knowledge, if only the inevitable temporal bias. The knowledge sample of the second edition is now updated (although only to 1985 since there are no post-1985 references), but Ian Jackson has also recognized a content bias in the first edition. Hence new sections of knowledge appear on the El Nin”o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, on drought, and on climatic classification, and the section on land use impact on the hydrological cycle is greatly expanded. There is a rather strange chapter added at the end on ‘Problems and Priorities’, which apart from being abrupt belongs more to a campaigning book. In four pages it advocates indigenous over midlatitude scientific enterprise in understanding tropical climate, hydrology and agriculture and in applying such knowledge. This is a worthwhile cause, but it does appear rather as an awkward afterthought for a knowledge book. My other complaint under this criterion is that, despite the updates, there still remains a bias in the knowledge sample. There are three very important developments for tropical climate and hydrology which occurred during the 1980s (although the 1985 cutoff of the book perhaps provides some excuse) but are not mentioned in the book. These are: the possibility of forecasting tropical rainfall through use of sea-surface temperatures (this would fit into sections 2.8 or 3.7); the real-time monitoring of tropical rainfall from satellite (sections4.2 or 10.2), and the assessment of land cover changes from satellite (sections 9.3, 9.4 and 9.5). There is also a very curious and lightweight discussion on the climate impacts of rising global concentrations of greenhouse gases (section 9.2). This very much fails to do justice to the huge potential impacts of global climate change on tropical agriculture as reviewed recently by Parry et al. (1988). My third criterion for a good knowledge book is clear presentation and good accessibility. Here, Climate, water and agriculture in the tropics fairs favourably. An author index has been added in the second edition which, along with the adequate subject index and a lOOO-item reference list, makes it an easy book to use. The chapter divisions and subheadings are well chosen and the latter have been made bolder, so now easily stand out on a quick flick through. An average of about ten figures and eight tables per substantive chapter help the digestion of knowledge, although 1 did find some of the tables clumsy (e.g. 4.9) and unnecessary (e.g. 3.4 and 3.5), and several figures appearing on their side (e.g. 2.12) are an irritating nuisance. Unfortunately too, a fair number of typographical errors remain. For example, wrong minimum year totals appear in Fig. 3.5, log 10x
Book Reviews rather than log,, x is used on p. 79, and wrong references to Sneider (sic) and Flohn, S. (sic) appear in the reference list. Despite its limitations, this is an updated knowledge book worth possessing and I would undoubtedly use it in any course 1 taught on tropical geography. 1 would rather possess the books by Hastenrath (1985)-a knowledge book, Blaikie (1985)-a campaigning book, and Glantz (1987)-a research book, which taken together provide a more satisfactory coverage of the same knowledge population. Those three books, however, would cost me over flO0 whereas if I had not reviewed this book I could buy it for fl 1.95. Blaikie, P. (1985) The political economy of soil erosion in developing counrries. Harlow: Longman, 188 pp. Glantz, M. H. (ed.) (1987) Drought and hunger in Africa: denying famine a future. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 487 pp. Hastenrath, S. (1985) Climate and circulafion of fhe tropics. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 455 pp. Parry, M. L., Carter, T. R. and Konijn, N. T. (eds) (1988) The impact of climatic variations on agriculture, Vol. 2: assessmems in semi-arid regions. Dordrecht: Reidel, 764 pp. Mike Hulme Climafic Research
Unir, University
ofEast
Anglia
Parry, M. L., Carter, T. R. and Konijn, N. T. (eds) The impact of climatic variations on agriculture, Volume 2: Assessments in semi-arid regions. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1988. 764 pp. f62 hardback. This volume is the second of two which report detailed results from an international project jointly funded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Volume 1 reported results for case studies in cool temperate and cold regions. Volume 2 presents six cases from semi-arid regions. The issues addressed required interdisciplinary teams of climatologists, agronomists, agricultural economists and regional and national planners and in the event 70 scientists and professionals were involved. The project was stimulated by the extreme climatic events associated with the most pronounced NNin”o event ever recorded in 1982 and 1983 and its extreme climatic consequences expressed in droughts and floods in many parts of the world. The purposes of the project were first to define the range of effects that short-term variations in climate may have on agriculture in semi-arid regions of the world and, secondly, to evaluate the range of adjustments available to mitigate or exploit these effects. The studies are soundly based conceptually, being placed in the context of the latest ideas on the
79
impact of climate on the land surface and therefore on its renewable natural resources (referring to the three time scales of climatic variability, climate change and climatic variations) and taking into account the research since the mid-1970s which has given more emphasis to the consequences of human activity on climate. The studies trace the complex linkages between climate-related impacts as they cascade through biophysical, economic and social systems and adopt a hierarchy of models for a number of short-term and long-term climatic scenarios. Simulations include the climatic change itself, its first-order impacts on crop and livestock production and the second-order responses of the agricultural and socioeconomic sectors. The editors and authors are realistically modest in their claims concerning the precision of their predictions but one has to agree with them that they are pointing scientists and environmental managers in the appropriate direction in terms of the sustainable use of renewable resources. The case studies refer to Central and Eastern Kenya, Northeast Brazil, the Central Sierra of Ecuador, India, European USSR and the Australian wheat belt. The book is dense with concept as well as with detailed exposition and happily, considering its interdisciplinary nature, it is very well indexed. The introductory section presents all that newcomers to the subject need to know about the ideas in currency and the abstracts which introduce each section enable the reader to access very easily the detail which they may require. This is an exemplary interdisciplinary study and its sponsors are to be congratulated on funding such a well-conceived and well-executed set of complementary studies. The book will be useful to scientists and professionals researching about, and responding to, climatic change. Since the content includes analysis of socioeconomic issues the material will also be of importance to those involved in planning and policy as well as the politicians whom they serve. Those who are part of the burgeoning group newly aware of the importance of global environmental conditions could do worse than read the results of this well-executed research project. Tony Allan School of Orienfal and African of London
Studies,
Park, C. C. Chernobyl: the long shadow. Routledge, 1989. 207 pp. f25 hardback.
University
London:
Surely one of the most unexpected environmental consequences of the incident at Chernobyl rests in the sacrifice of acres and acres of trees to publish the tale, but anyone who is wholly unfamiliar with the burgeoning literature on the disaster will find that Chris Park’s fast-paced journalese makes a good read. The ‘accident’ happened on Saturday 26 April