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Global air pollution: Problems for the 1990s
Book reviews
255
overall can be recommended as a useful source of information on some of the less well known national programmes on acidic precipitation research, although the price is extremely high. J. N. B. Bell
Global Air Pollution: Problems for the 1990s. By H. A. Bridgman, Belhaven Press, London, 1990. ISBN 1-85293-094-2. 261 pp. Price: £30.00.
The objective of this book is to present an overview of the major global air pollution problems in a form which will support undergraduate and graduate courses. The text is very detailed, with extensive references (up to 1989) and numerous figures and tables, and this makes reading difficult. The presentation compounds this problem as the typeface is extremely small and some of the figures are almost illegible. The subject matter is arranged into ten chapters accompanied by a glossary and index, which will be useful to students who do not have a background in atmospheric chemistry or physics. An introductory chapter deals with international air quality programs and provides a rather unexpected warning about the use of computer models (presumably an expression of the author's prejudice?). This is followed by a general chapter on the global cycles of carbon, sulphur and nitrogen and a brief review of the meteorology of long-range transport. The next five chapters deal in turn with Tropospheric and Stratospheric Ozone, Atmospheric Aerosols, Trace Gases and Global Warming, Rainwater Quality and Acidity and The Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War. Each is well-researched with a detached global-view which only an Australian could bring to these predominantly Northern Hemispheric pollution problems. The next two chapters on Long-range Transport of Air Pollution and Air Quality in Urban Areas, sit rather awkwardly with the general thrust of the earlier chapters. It might have been more instructive to organise the material to deal with local (urban), regional and global pollution issues as is more normal in textbooks of this sort. The final chapter on 'Looking Towards the 21st Century' was frankly disappointing with little original thought. The author has provided a useful wide-ranging text suitable for a nonspecialist readership. Unfortunately, as the author points out in the Preface, the book suffers from the numerous gaps in knowledge and the rapid advances being made in understanding some of these global air pollution problems. T. M. Roberts
255
overall can be recommended as a useful source of information on some of the less well known national programmes on acidic precipitation research, although the price is extremely high. J. N. B. Bell
Global Air Pollution: Problems for the 1990s. By H. A. Bridgman, Belhaven Press, London, 1990. ISBN 1-85293-094-2. 261 pp. Price: £30.00.
The objective of this book is to present an overview of the major global air pollution problems in a form which will support undergraduate and graduate courses. The text is very detailed, with extensive references (up to 1989) and numerous figures and tables, and this makes reading difficult. The presentation compounds this problem as the typeface is extremely small and some of the figures are almost illegible. The subject matter is arranged into ten chapters accompanied by a glossary and index, which will be useful to students who do not have a background in atmospheric chemistry or physics. An introductory chapter deals with international air quality programs and provides a rather unexpected warning about the use of computer models (presumably an expression of the author's prejudice?). This is followed by a general chapter on the global cycles of carbon, sulphur and nitrogen and a brief review of the meteorology of long-range transport. The next five chapters deal in turn with Tropospheric and Stratospheric Ozone, Atmospheric Aerosols, Trace Gases and Global Warming, Rainwater Quality and Acidity and The Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War. Each is well-researched with a detached global-view which only an Australian could bring to these predominantly Northern Hemispheric pollution problems. The next two chapters on Long-range Transport of Air Pollution and Air Quality in Urban Areas, sit rather awkwardly with the general thrust of the earlier chapters. It might have been more instructive to organise the material to deal with local (urban), regional and global pollution issues as is more normal in textbooks of this sort. The final chapter on 'Looking Towards the 21st Century' was frankly disappointing with little original thought. The author has provided a useful wide-ranging text suitable for a nonspecialist readership. Unfortunately, as the author points out in the Preface, the book suffers from the numerous gaps in knowledge and the rapid advances being made in understanding some of these global air pollution problems. T. M. Roberts