"Surging sea levels are inundating the coasts." "Hurricanes and tornadoes are becoming fiercer and more frequent." "Climate change will be an economic disaster." You've heard all this presented as fact. But according to science, all these statements are profoundly misleading. When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that "the science is settled." In reality, core questions--about the way the climate is responding to our influence and what the impacts will be--remain largely unanswered. The climate is changing, but the why and how aren't as clear as you've probably been led to belive. Now, in Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters, Steven E. Koonin draws upon his decades of experience--including as a top science adviser to the Obama administration--to provide up-to-date insights and expert perspective free from political agendas. Koonin takes readers behind the headlines to the more nuanced science itself, dispelling popular myths and unveiling little-known truths: despite a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures actually decreased from 1940 to 1970. What's more, the models we use to predict the future aren't able to accurately describe the climate of the past, suggesting they are deeply flawed. Unsettled is a reality check buoyed by hope, offering the truth about climate science that you aren't getting elsewhere--what we know, what we don't and what it all means for our future"--From dust jacket.