“Beginners” now can add global warming to the list of subjects they can learn about through a series of highly successful paperback books published as part of the … you guessed it … “For Beginners” series.

For those keeping count, or not, they can add the “Global Warming for Beginners” title, written by British environmental educator Dean Goodwin, Ph.D., to other beginners books dealing with issues ranging from astronomy, Barack Obama, Chomsky, and Dada & Surrealism to Democracy, Existentialism, Islam, Linguistics, the Olympics, Philosophy, Plato, Postmodernism, Sartre, Shakespeare, and, of course, Zen. The books are published by For Beginners LLC.

The “For Beginners Documentary Comic Book,” amply illustrated by cartoonist, writer, and former Ringling Brothers clown Joe Lee, numbers 136 pages.

The book, which author Goodwin says is being picked up by high school educators and some colleges across the country, clearly treats climate change as no laughing matter. After a general introduction, Goodwin, who studied biochemistry and earned his Ph.D. in mechanistic organic chemistry, breaks the book into sections addressing The Cause, The Consequences, The Solutions, and What Steps Can I Take?

A close reading of the Goodwin book does not require a major commitment of time, but those generally unfamiliar with the science and implications of climate change likely will find it easily digestible and untainted by biases. Goodwin, who teaches advanced placement and other courses at an exclusive private school, Christchurch School in Tidewater, Virginia, adheres closely to the climate science of groups such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Academy of Sciences. The book (ISBN 978-1-934389-27-0) throughout reflects what the publisher says is Goodwin’s basic premise that “no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”