Peter Brimblecombe.
Air Composition & Chemistry, Second Edition.
Cambridge University Press, 1996.
(Series: Cambridge Environmental Chemistry Series, Volume 6.)
Book information: Publisher, Amazon.com.

An introduction to the chemistry of planetary atmospheres. The discussions of lapse rate and chemical kinetics had me reaching for a physical chemistry book: the author's discussion is necessarially compressed and incomplete; throughout the book the derivation of mathematical expressions for physical laws are compressed, abbreviated, and even completely eliminated. The book also lacks exercises. Despite these criticisms, this book is a very good introduction to the subject.

Standard textbooks in this area include:

• Richard P. Wayne.
  Chemistry of Atmospheres: An Introduction to the Chemistry of the Atmospheres of Earth, the Planets, and Their Satellites, Third Edition.
  Oxford University Press, 2002.


• John H. Seinfeld and Spyros N. Pandis.
  Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: From Air Pollution to Climate Change.
  Wiley-Interscience, 1997.


• Peter Warneck.
  Chemistry of the Natural Atmosphere, Second Edition.
  Academic Press, 1999.


• Barbara J. Finlayson-Pitts and James N. Pitts, Jr.
  Chemistry of the Upper and Lower Atmosphere: Theory, Experiments, and Applications.
  Academic Press, 1999.

The National Interest, Number 82, Winter 2005/2006.

Notable Essays:

• Thinking Seriously: About Energy and Oil's Future by James Schlesinger (pages 19-24).
  A warning about the coming "plateau" in the supply of petroleum (end in growth of supply). Of immediate concern is the need for increased refinery capacity; of longer term concern is the economic and social disruption that will occur as liquid fuel supplies plateau.


• War, Trade and Utopia by Barry C. Lynn (pages 31-38).
  Discusses the strategic and economic dangers of the unprecendented rise over the past 15 years of industrial interdepencence between China and the USA.


• Prone to Violence: The Paradox of the Democratic Peace by Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder (pages 39-45).
  Newly democratizing states have proven to be prone to international and civil war. The authors' book is Electing to Fight : Why Emerging Democracies Go to War.


• Her Majesty's Secret Service by Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson (pages 48-54).
  Despite its title, this essay considers the state of Islamic radicalism and measures to identify and mitigate it in the UK, continental Europe (briefly), and the USA (at length).


• Terror and the Fifth Republic by Alexis Debat (pages 55-61).
  A survey of France's considerable counter-terrorism efforts (France lacks the Constitutional restrictions of the USA and thus has very wide powers to monitor and prosecute those who would disrupt the peace).


• Mexico's Wasted Chance by Fredo Arias-King (pages 87-93).
  A good essay on Mexican politics. The reform party Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), or more precisely, its leaders (starting at the top with President Vicente Fox), have been compromised and now follow the path of corruption like their predecessors, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). A helpful essay for understanding the obstacles to economic, political, and legal progress in Latin American countries.


• Why Anglos Lead by Lawrence M. Mead (pages 124-131).
  It's due to the political, legal, and economic culture of England and its colonial extensions, the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Mead explicitly says that he is not writing about James Bennett's "Anglosphere" idea (Link).