Callendar Effect: The Life and Work of Guy Stewart Callendar (1898-1964

by James Fleming

This is the first biography of the remarkable scientist who linked the three key elements of global warming: rising temperatures, rising levels of anthropogenic carbon dioxide, and infrared sky radiation. He did this in 1938! The Callendar Effect is the name given to Guy Stewart Callendars monumental discovery that climatic change could be brought about by increases in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide due to human activities, primarily through burning fossil fuels. Callendars life and work are reconstructed from his never-before-published original scientific correspondence, notebooks, and family letters and photographs. In addition to providing a readable and authoritative account of the early history of climate science, the book documents the influence of his family, especially his famous physicist father, and Callendars contributions to a number of important technical issues, including British and international steam engineering, the infrared spectra of complex molecules, the World War II fog dispersal system FIDO.

164 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

James Roland Fleming was an English author and editor of the journal The Book Collector from 2018 to 2024. He was the son of Richard Fleming who served in Scottish regiments during World War II (Lovat Scouts and Seaforth Highlanders) and nephew to spy author Ian Fleming.
Fleming lived for the last 20 years in the remote North of Scotland in order to concentrate on his writing. This is where his Charlie Doig Russian series gestated. Well respected in the nearest town to his estate he became an honorary "Wicker" and fully immersed himself in community life.
He wrote two historical novels, the first in 2000, The Temple of Optimism, and then in 2003 Thomas Gage.
In 2006 Fleming wrote the first in a trilogy of thrillers, Cold Blood. Two more followed: White Blood (2008) and Rising Blood (2009) that featured the Scottish/Russian character "Charlie Doig."
His 2021 book, Bond behind the Iron Curtain, examined the Russian critique of Ian Fleming.
From 2018 Fleming was the editor of The Book Collector. His essay on the process of indexing the backfile, “The Price of Passion: Indexing The Book Collector," illuminated the journal's history. In 2023 a special issue of The Book Collector was devoted to Printing and the Mind of Man in which Fleming reviewed the correspondence of Percy Muir and John Carter, key organizers of the exhibit.