Terms such as "global warming," "greenhouse effect," and "ozone layer" tend to have soporific associations: more lullaby than wake-up call (think Al Gore). You know these are important issues; you know you should care. Or perhaps you do care—but enough to change the way you live? Maybe you don't know where to start. Read this book and you will.

They're in the news almost as much as Brad and Angelina, and you know they have something to do with global warming. But what exactly is a greenhouse gas? In a nutshell, they're gases in the atmosphere—both naturally occurring and caused by humans—that absorb and emit radiation.