MM 2001: Environment - Books

A Consumer's Guide to Genetically Modified Food: From Green Genes to
Red Herrings
By Alan McHughen
Oxford University Press, £60.00

The gene is out of the test tube, warns Alan McHughen, and there is no putting it back. The panic over genetically modified crops set the political agenda in the UK and continental Europe in the late 1990s and is now emerging in the United States as a scientific hot potato.

Driven by the poor quality of the arguments - a complaint many scientists echo - McHughen outlines the technology involved in a straightforward manner.

The facts as they are known are presented in a way that will enable a rational consideration of the arguments while providing the pros and the antis with grist for their mills.

The IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios
Cambridge University Press, £75.00

An environmental thriller that offers six alternative storylines and some potentially grim endings.

The Special Report on Emissions Scenarios , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  Change's latest publication, starkly seeks to answer the question at the heart of the climate change debate - what is likely to happen to the earth as we continue to fill its atmosphere with greenhouse gases?

A vast network of experts helped 50 scientists from18 countries put together this definitive work. They consider the possible climatic and environmental consequences of future greenhouse gas emissions as forests decline and industry continuesto burn great quantities of fuel. 

In doing so, they reveal the impact of social, economic and technological developments on emissions trends and look at ways of narrowing the gap between developed and developing nations.

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