FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT - Paula Rohrlick

These new additions to the "At Issue" series on controversial current issues offers contrasting opinions from various sources, ranging from journalists to lawyers, professors, politicians, doctors, and others, depending on the issue. For example, the title on global warming provides 13 articles in all, beginning with an introduction that gives an overview of the topic. An article entitled "Human-Induced Global Warming is a Serious Problem" (from Insight on the News, March 12, 2001), by Robert T. Watson, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is followed by an abridgment of a 2002 speech by Sallie Baliunas, an astrophysicist, entitled "Human-Induced Global Warming is Insignificant." Other essays maintain that global warming is a myth; is eroding glacial ice; threatens Arctic ice; is not a threat to polar ice; threatens world health; threatens the world economy; will be beneficial; and so on. To assist students, a brief summary of each contributor's opinion is given in a paragraph at the start of each selection, and there is an annotated list of organizations to contact in each volume. The other titles follow a similar format, and all will serve to help students think critically about issues and find information for research papers. A good choice for social studies classes in middle schools and high schools, and for research in public libraries, too. KLIATT Codes: JSA¿¿¿Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2003, Gale Group, Greenhaven Press, 76p. bibliog. index.,