The biggest challenge faced by anyone who sincerely wants to understand what is really going on with climate change and the other critically important aspects of the human impact on the Earth system is simply that it is a huge topic, and there is so, so much to learn. There are too many people who think that they can skim through a few items about global warming on a Saturday afternoon and come to a confident snap decision that it is all a hoax, or that humanity is about to go extinct, or that it is much ado about nothing, or whatever else jumps out at them at the time. I am a philosopher, not a climate, earth, or environmental scientist, so there are some technical problems in these topics on which I am not equipped to have a professional opinion. However, after many years of reading and studying material written by real scientists in these areas (as well as a great deal of other areas in philosophy, science, and mathematics), and having done a lot of teaching and writing on environmental/ecological topics myself, I have arrived at a certain perspective. In recent years, through my contacts at the American Geophysical Union, I have had the great privilege of meeting and talking with many of the top climate scientists in the world. I've listened to professional presentations in which some of these scientists have presented results that they weren't quite ready to publish yet. (It is mostly bad news, I'm afraid.) I've even played a modest role in a few presentations in collaboration with real scientists. These contacts with the scientific profession have deepened my understanding of the large complex of problems loosely called "climate change," and also made me more aware than ever of how urgent this problem, or problem area, really is.
Here's the very short version, mostly in words that have been used by others: climate change is real, it is caused by us, it threatens our existence, and there are many things that we can do about it although time is running very short. But don't just take it from me. Read, study, and think; most important, please be willing to learn. Be willing to look out over the edge of the cliff and see the big picture. It is a very scary vista, but there are a lot of good people standing there with you.
Below I provide an account of resources for those who wish to learn something about climate change, global warming, and the other related problems that I have lumped under the topic "anthropogenic carbonization." This will amount to an annotated bibliography, which I will continue to update over the next several months.
Online Resources
One of the most reliable sites on climate change is RealClimate, a blog run entirely by professional scientists working on climate and related issues. For now, if you want to learn more about the science of the Anthropocene, a very good place to start is RealClimate's 'Start Here' page.
Here is the superb web site maintained by NASA: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ As of this writing (Nov. 24/17) it still has not been taken down by Trump's flying monkeys. Browse through it, and back up any information that you think is worth keeping.
Here is an excellent talk by climate scientist Jim White, on the meaning of "abrupt" climate change: Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change. At our current level of CO2, we are dialed in for about 20 metres of sea level rise. As Dr. White explains, goodbye to the state of Delaware. And some other things, too.
Climate Feedback is a valuable site where scientists evaluate the reliability in media coverage of climate issues.
What is the Anthropocene?
Paul Crutzen is one of the earth scientists who introduced the concept of the Anthropocene. Here is his explanation of the concept, together with helpful references:
Books
It is not true that you can find everything that you need to know on the Web these days. (I would guess that way less than 1% of the accumulated written knowledge of humanity is currently on the Web.) Very often, the best source of information on a topic is still to be found in that old-fashioned instrument, the book. Here I list books about climate, energy, and the environment that I have learned something from. For the time being I'll list them simply by first author; some are hard to classify and that's the simplest way to do it.
Flannery, Tim. Atmosphere of Hope: Searching For Solutions to the Climate Crisis. HarperCollins, 2015.
Excellent and up-to-date account of how serious the problem it is, and of possibilities for a solution. Flannery quotes a Canadian oil executive who states that the greatest thing that the oil companies have to fear is "innovation."
Goodell, Jeff. The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
Sea level rise is going to be one of the most increasingly evident symptoms of anthropogenic carbonization. Journalist Jeff Goodell takes us from Miami to Lagos to chart the impact of sea level rise around the world.
Hansen, James. Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. Bloomsbury, 2009.
A very authoritative account of the climate problem, from the senior climate scientist in the world today. Must read.
Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Picador/Holt, 2014.
Kolbert is one of our best science journalists. Here she details the unfolding tragedy of the sixth extinction. Paleontologists have found that there were five major mass extinctions in the history of life on earth (most apparently climate-related); humanity is in process of engineering a sixth.
Kolbert, Elizabeth. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: A Frontline Report on Climate Change. Bloomsbury, 2007.
Now slightly out of date, but still one of the best introductions to the problem. "It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing."
Mann, Michael E. The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. Columbia University Press, 2012.
An authoritative and clear account of the science of climate change by one of the authors of the "hockey stick graph" showing a sharp up-tick in global temperatures in the past two decades. Mann details his personal battles with science denial, and concludes that "there is nothing more noble than striving to communicate, in terms that are simultaneously accurate and accessible, the societal implications of our scientific knowledge."
Mann, Michael E., and Tom Toles. The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy. Columbia University Press, 2016.
A clear and authoritative introduction to the science and the battles between scientists and the deniosphere, leavened with cartoons by Tom Toles.
Marsden, William. Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta is Bringing Environmental Armageddon (and Doesn't Seem to Care). Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2007.
Marsden is an investigative reporter who has winnowed out some little-known facts and some of the human stories surrounding the oil industry, especially (but not only) in Canada. He tells the tale (which would be laughable were it not real) of the fortunately abortive plans to release oil from the tar sands by peppering Alberta with sub-surface nuclear bombs.
McKibben, Bill (ed.). The Global Warming Reader: A Century of Writing About Climate Change. Penguin, 2011.
An enlightening medley of readings from scientists, philosophers, politicians, journalists, and religious thinkers; excellent resource to get a feeling for the problem.
— Latest update, August 19, 2019