A goal to achieve a basic understanding of climate change science through brief and accessible readings is one of the largest conundrums of climate action. It’s a complex science that actually requires more than brief readings to achieve even a basic grounding.
I’ve read a couple of dozen books on the subject, most of IPCC’s AR5 report, a couple of dozen videos, dozens of articles. After a few years of that, and having witnessedcontinuous raucous debates on the subject, I decided to look for a good basic unbiased textbook on climate change, and found it in Paleoclimate by Michael Bender. It is not brief nor simple, but was written to provide an introduction to the subject for non-scientists. I found it so full of great basic information that I read it three times; the last of which I used to write 20 pages of cliff notes. The cliffnotes, for your viewing pleasure: PALEOCLIMATE by Michael Bender
