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The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions
We still have time to change the world. From Greta Thunberg, the world's leading climate activist, comes the essential handbook for making it happen.
You might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all the odds. There is hope - but only if we listen to the science before it's too late.
In The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts - geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists; engineers, economists and mathematicians; historians, philosophers and indigenous leaders - to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster. Alongside them, she shares her own stories of demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing around the world, revealing how much we have been kept in the dark. This is one of our biggest challenges, she shows, but also our greatest source of hope. Once we are given the full picture, how can we not act? And if a schoolchild's strike could ignite a global protest, what could we do collectively if we tried?
We are alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.
You might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all the odds. There is hope - but only if we listen to the science before it's too late.
In The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts - geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists; engineers, economists and mathematicians; historians, philosophers and indigenous leaders - to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster. Alongside them, she shares her own stories of demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing around the world, revealing how much we have been kept in the dark. This is one of our biggest challenges, she shows, but also our greatest source of hope. Once we are given the full picture, how can we not act? And if a schoolchild's strike could ignite a global protest, what could we do collectively if we tried?
We are alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published October 27, 2022
About the author
Greta Thunberg
26 books981 followersGreta Thunberg is a Swedish climate activist who, as a schoolgirl at age 15, began protesting outside the Swedish parliament about the need for immediate action to combat climate change. She has since become an outspoken and world famous climate activist.
She is known for having initiated the school strike for climate movement that formed in November 2018 and surged globally after the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in December the same year. Her personal activism began in August 2018, when her recurring and solitary Skolstrejk för klimatet ("School strike for the climate") protesting outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm began attracting media coverage, even though Sweden has already enacted "the most ambitious climate law in the world" – to be carbon neutral by 2045.
On 15 March 2019, an estimated 1.4 million students in 112 countries around the world joined her call in striking and protesting. A similar event involving students from 125 countries took place on 24 May 2019.
Thunberg has received various prizes and awards for her activism. In March 2019, three members of the Norwegian parliament nominated Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize. In May 2019, at the age of 16, she featured on the cover of Time magazine. Some media have described her impact on the world stage as the Greta Thunberg effect.
Source: Wikipedia
She is known for having initiated the school strike for climate movement that formed in November 2018 and surged globally after the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in December the same year. Her personal activism began in August 2018, when her recurring and solitary Skolstrejk för klimatet ("School strike for the climate") protesting outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm began attracting media coverage, even though Sweden has already enacted "the most ambitious climate law in the world" – to be carbon neutral by 2045.
On 15 March 2019, an estimated 1.4 million students in 112 countries around the world joined her call in striking and protesting. A similar event involving students from 125 countries took place on 24 May 2019.
Thunberg has received various prizes and awards for her activism. In March 2019, three members of the Norwegian parliament nominated Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize. In May 2019, at the age of 16, she featured on the cover of Time magazine. Some media have described her impact on the world stage as the Greta Thunberg effect.
Source: Wikipedia
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February 8, 2024
A Guide to 21st Century Survival and Beyond…
Preamble:
--In perhaps my best reading year, it’s quite something for this book to challenge for the top spot:
i) #1 topic that haunts me.
ii) Broad synthesis (bite-sized essays introducing each topic, 100 in total), balancing accessibility with nuance.
iii) Featuring some of my favourite authors.
--While reading this book, I made the startling connection (it’s so clear now, how did I miss it?) that my most-memorable childhood lesson and my adult political slogan are actually identical:
i) Whenever I procrastinated as a child and paid for it, my dad would say: “plan for the worst, hope for the best”.
ii) As an adult, I draw inspiration from the political slogan popularized by Antonio Gramsci (imprisoned by Mussolini): “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will”.
--Meanwhile, capitalism’s logic is “profit now, worry later”.
--Here’s the kicker: this is not a momentary lapse of “reason” that can be remedied with “enlightenment”; this is actually capitalism’s inherent logic. If a capitalist cannot profit, why bother? There’s no other reason for capitalists to exploit their workers (who keep the machines running) and the earth; it’s not a charity!
--An example to visualize this logic’s absurdity is the infamous passages from The Grapes of Wrath on global capitalism’s endless Great Depression. Watered-down socialist policies were not enough to hold things together this time; it took the greatest war in human history, i.e. WWII ("creative destruction" of stagnant capital; military-industrial complexes of Fascism, US, etc.) to temporarily “resolve” this crisis, only to unleash the Great Acceleration of climate/ecological crises (Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System) [emphases added]:
--So much work is needed for humans and ecosystems to survive (let alone thrive) in the 21st century, yet global capitalist profit-seeking refuses to reward such radical/progressive/enlightened/indigenous/spiritual/holy/conservationist ...(whichever-framing-inspires-you) work to save and reconnect with our shared home.
…Instead, capitalist work reproduces our daily hamster wheel, which in reality is our downward spiral destroying our shared home:
i) Rewards short-term gambling (financial speculation) and violence (military industrial complex) at the top. Parasites and merchants of death; we should note the other great existential threat: nuclear war:
-The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner
-Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe
ii) White-collar jobs include keeping us all addicted to short-term dopamine spikes with the colossal advertising/media/public relations/lobbying complex. More parasitic and bullshit jobs.
iii) Blue-collar extractive jobs: the initial extraction then flows through production/distribution/consumption/waste in a linear manner, with minimal circular restoration (let alone time/space for nature's restoration).
iv) Security/surveillance jobs (responding to increased inequality), from private security to police to soldiers.
v) Precarious jobs and no jobs (Global South’s mega slums, Global North’s structural unemployment Rust Belts/opioid crises “deaths of despair”).
vi) The jobs (social services) and non-jobs (care work) not mentioned are more clearly following a different logic (social needs), which profit-seeking suffocates (just look at the US’s healthcare/education/welfare/public infrastructure etc., despite all its wealth).
…How do we escape with our lives and repair our communities and our planet?
Highlights
--Of the 100 essays, 18 are by Greta Thunberg (as introductions). I’m just going to follow the collection’s useful structure and provide my highlights:
1) “How Climate Works”:
--I was relieved all the essays are so concise, because I remember slogging through books like The Goldilocks Planet: The 4 billion year story of Earth's climate. The book I found most useful to introduce such topics is Lenton’s Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction.
--On the comparatively-shorter history of civilization/extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert (The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History) is featured.
--Next comes the history of the science (of climate change), by IPCC author Michael Oppenheimer, followed by the history of capitalist denial by Naomi Oreskes (Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming) following Big Tobacco’s playbook:
i) Cherry-picking/misrepresenting (see: Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks)
ii) Fund outlier scientists/deflection research/attack scientists/frame companies as pro science/capitalist think tanks (ex. Harperism: How Stephen Harper and his think tank colleagues have transformed Canada)/lobby policies
iii) Obscure capitalist production (the systemic driver, where so much emissions/waste are simply hidden from the public) by focusing on individual consumer responsibility (ex. "personal carbon footprint"; see later).
iv) Capitalist schemes like Green Capitalism, “natural gas” (fossil gas/methane gas) as a “bridge fuel”, etc.
2) “How Our Planet is Changing”:
--Each topic (essay) here is fascinating, but my top priority is to first get a sense of the big picture. It’s a curious paradox:
a) “Everything is connected” (synthesis), but how do we prevent this from becoming a tautology?
b) Break things down and prioritize; this is still a useful lens to start with, as long as we remember to follow up by shuffling things around with different lenses.
…Useful technical tools to start with:
i) Measurements and scale: the huge (global) numbers for emissions, energy units, etc. are simply not intuitive, especially when each essay uses them from their own specific contexts. We need to first take a step back and appreciate the overall picture. While I have many social disagreements with Bill Gates and his favourite author Vaclav Smil, Smil at least provides this: How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future.
ii) Critical statistics: given the unintuitive numbers, we need to be exceedingly careful in how we communicate with statistics; how can we compare the stats between the essays when the methodologies behind them may be inconsistent?
-Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks
-I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That
-How to Lie with Statistics
iii) Systems science: Thinking in Systems: A Primer; we can see the applications for this in the previously-recommended Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction.
--So, how do we start with a big picture synthesis (i.e. scale, priorities) of all the essay topics covered here? Once again, “everything is connected”, but it is daunting keeping track of all these moving parts in your mind simultaneously; we need to start with some foundation. Since we do not dive into the social aspects here (ex. how does “agriculture” actually play out in the social world, i.e. global division of labour, colonization/cash crop exports/food sovereignty, etc.), I’ll revisit this later.
--Topics: heat, methane, air pollution, clouds, arctic warming/jet stream, dangerous weather, droughts/floods (water cycle), ice, oceans, acidification, microplastics, fresh water (curious to read more about centralized infrastructures like dams vs. smaller-scale distributed systems)…
…wildfires, Amazon rainforest (tipping point into degraded savannah?), boreal/temperate forests (since 2002, our “British Columbian” [what a colonial name] forests have shifted from carbon sinks to carbon sources due to wildfires; “sustainable forestry” focuses on wood as commodities, thus harvest young trees lacking biodiversity), biodiversity, insects (3/4 crops pollinated; inspired by Silent Spring), nature’s calendar (phenology), soil, permafrost (I was impressed by the impact of soil in carbon storage and how much is made up by permafrost), what happens at 1.5/2/4 degrees C of warming…
--Curious to read more about “attribution science” (extreme event attribution, measuring how climate change directly affects extreme weather events), esp. for wildfires (very local here in the Pacific Northwest)/droughts/floods.
--Of course, many people are experienced with certain topics, so the other important task here is to raise everyone’s general awareness in order to facilitate communication/cooperation.
…See the comments below for the rest of the review:
3) “How It Affects Us”
4) “What We’ve Done About It”
5) “What We Must Do Now”
Preamble:
--In perhaps my best reading year, it’s quite something for this book to challenge for the top spot:
i) #1 topic that haunts me.
ii) Broad synthesis (bite-sized essays introducing each topic, 100 in total), balancing accessibility with nuance.
iii) Featuring some of my favourite authors.
--While reading this book, I made the startling connection (it’s so clear now, how did I miss it?) that my most-memorable childhood lesson and my adult political slogan are actually identical:
i) Whenever I procrastinated as a child and paid for it, my dad would say: “plan for the worst, hope for the best”.
ii) As an adult, I draw inspiration from the political slogan popularized by Antonio Gramsci (imprisoned by Mussolini): “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will”.
--Meanwhile, capitalism’s logic is “profit now, worry later”.
--Here’s the kicker: this is not a momentary lapse of “reason” that can be remedied with “enlightenment”; this is actually capitalism’s inherent logic. If a capitalist cannot profit, why bother? There’s no other reason for capitalists to exploit their workers (who keep the machines running) and the earth; it’s not a charity!
--An example to visualize this logic’s absurdity is the infamous passages from The Grapes of Wrath on global capitalism’s endless Great Depression. Watered-down socialist policies were not enough to hold things together this time; it took the greatest war in human history, i.e. WWII ("creative destruction" of stagnant capital; military-industrial complexes of Fascism, US, etc.) to temporarily “resolve” this crisis, only to unleash the Great Acceleration of climate/ecological crises (Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System) [emphases added]:
This vineyard will belong to the bank [Finance capitalism]. Only the great owners can survive […]
Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten [profit vs. social needs]. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow.
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price [profit or why bother?], and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. […] A million people hungry, needing the fruit—and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. [Such waste is still rampant in global capitalism; “efficiency” is for making profits.]
[…] There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates—died of malnutrition—because the food must rot, must be forced to rot [millions die under global capitalism each year due to preventable hunger/thirst/diseases, the other side of all the waste].
The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
--So much work is needed for humans and ecosystems to survive (let alone thrive) in the 21st century, yet global capitalist profit-seeking refuses to reward such radical/progressive/enlightened/indigenous/spiritual/holy/conservationist ...(whichever-framing-inspires-you) work to save and reconnect with our shared home.
…Instead, capitalist work reproduces our daily hamster wheel, which in reality is our downward spiral destroying our shared home:
i) Rewards short-term gambling (financial speculation) and violence (military industrial complex) at the top. Parasites and merchants of death; we should note the other great existential threat: nuclear war:
-The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner
-Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe
ii) White-collar jobs include keeping us all addicted to short-term dopamine spikes with the colossal advertising/media/public relations/lobbying complex. More parasitic and bullshit jobs.
iii) Blue-collar extractive jobs: the initial extraction then flows through production/distribution/consumption/waste in a linear manner, with minimal circular restoration (let alone time/space for nature's restoration).
iv) Security/surveillance jobs (responding to increased inequality), from private security to police to soldiers.
v) Precarious jobs and no jobs (Global South’s mega slums, Global North’s structural unemployment Rust Belts/opioid crises “deaths of despair”).
vi) The jobs (social services) and non-jobs (care work) not mentioned are more clearly following a different logic (social needs), which profit-seeking suffocates (just look at the US’s healthcare/education/welfare/public infrastructure etc., despite all its wealth).
…How do we escape with our lives and repair our communities and our planet?
Highlights
--Of the 100 essays, 18 are by Greta Thunberg (as introductions). I’m just going to follow the collection’s useful structure and provide my highlights:
1) “How Climate Works”:
--I was relieved all the essays are so concise, because I remember slogging through books like The Goldilocks Planet: The 4 billion year story of Earth's climate. The book I found most useful to introduce such topics is Lenton’s Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction.
--On the comparatively-shorter history of civilization/extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert (The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History) is featured.
--Next comes the history of the science (of climate change), by IPCC author Michael Oppenheimer, followed by the history of capitalist denial by Naomi Oreskes (Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming) following Big Tobacco’s playbook:
i) Cherry-picking/misrepresenting (see: Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks)
ii) Fund outlier scientists/deflection research/attack scientists/frame companies as pro science/capitalist think tanks (ex. Harperism: How Stephen Harper and his think tank colleagues have transformed Canada)/lobby policies
iii) Obscure capitalist production (the systemic driver, where so much emissions/waste are simply hidden from the public) by focusing on individual consumer responsibility (ex. "personal carbon footprint"; see later).
iv) Capitalist schemes like Green Capitalism, “natural gas” (fossil gas/methane gas) as a “bridge fuel”, etc.
2) “How Our Planet is Changing”:
--Each topic (essay) here is fascinating, but my top priority is to first get a sense of the big picture. It’s a curious paradox:
a) “Everything is connected” (synthesis), but how do we prevent this from becoming a tautology?
b) Break things down and prioritize; this is still a useful lens to start with, as long as we remember to follow up by shuffling things around with different lenses.
…Useful technical tools to start with:
i) Measurements and scale: the huge (global) numbers for emissions, energy units, etc. are simply not intuitive, especially when each essay uses them from their own specific contexts. We need to first take a step back and appreciate the overall picture. While I have many social disagreements with Bill Gates and his favourite author Vaclav Smil, Smil at least provides this: How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future.
ii) Critical statistics: given the unintuitive numbers, we need to be exceedingly careful in how we communicate with statistics; how can we compare the stats between the essays when the methodologies behind them may be inconsistent?
-Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks
-I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That
-How to Lie with Statistics
iii) Systems science: Thinking in Systems: A Primer; we can see the applications for this in the previously-recommended Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction.
--So, how do we start with a big picture synthesis (i.e. scale, priorities) of all the essay topics covered here? Once again, “everything is connected”, but it is daunting keeping track of all these moving parts in your mind simultaneously; we need to start with some foundation. Since we do not dive into the social aspects here (ex. how does “agriculture” actually play out in the social world, i.e. global division of labour, colonization/cash crop exports/food sovereignty, etc.), I’ll revisit this later.
--Topics: heat, methane, air pollution, clouds, arctic warming/jet stream, dangerous weather, droughts/floods (water cycle), ice, oceans, acidification, microplastics, fresh water (curious to read more about centralized infrastructures like dams vs. smaller-scale distributed systems)…
…wildfires, Amazon rainforest (tipping point into degraded savannah?), boreal/temperate forests (since 2002, our “British Columbian” [what a colonial name] forests have shifted from carbon sinks to carbon sources due to wildfires; “sustainable forestry” focuses on wood as commodities, thus harvest young trees lacking biodiversity), biodiversity, insects (3/4 crops pollinated; inspired by Silent Spring), nature’s calendar (phenology), soil, permafrost (I was impressed by the impact of soil in carbon storage and how much is made up by permafrost), what happens at 1.5/2/4 degrees C of warming…
--Curious to read more about “attribution science” (extreme event attribution, measuring how climate change directly affects extreme weather events), esp. for wildfires (very local here in the Pacific Northwest)/droughts/floods.
--Of course, many people are experienced with certain topics, so the other important task here is to raise everyone’s general awareness in order to facilitate communication/cooperation.
…See the comments below for the rest of the review:
3) “How It Affects Us”
4) “What We’ve Done About It”
5) “What We Must Do Now”
October 22, 2022
Waiting for some other person, or some other time, is no longer an option.
‘The Climate Book’ really is the one-stop shop for all climate issues. There are contributions from over 100 global experts in their fields, some of which are summaries of their own books, but which address the latest position on the climate crisis and what needs to be done to avert the worst of the climate disasters. My fear in listing some of these climate leaders is that the list needs to include everyone. Reducing the list, or offering a preference for some articles over others would only indicate my own European and Northern hemisphere bias. Thunberg sets out her aim for the book- that the knowledge from the range of experts will help each reader on their own journey of climate education, ‘The idea behind this book, is that, taken together, their knowledge in their respective areas of expertise will lead you to a point where you can start to connect the dots yourself.’
There may not be a representative voice for every reader in this collection, but that is precisely Thunberg’s point- that we can all be our own representation.
Waiting for some other person, or some other time, is no longer an option.
How it is structured
The book is helpfully colour coded throughout, with Thunberg’s own words contained as introductions to the main chapter headings, before she gives way to the scientists and experts.
Thunberg breaks down the climate issues into a holistic chronological approach, outlining for a general audience the basics of how climate works, before moving on to how our planet is changing. Thunberg then focuses on how the changing planet affects us, outlines what we as a species have done about this impact, and then concludes with a strong message on what needs to be done now. The climate stripes, pioneered by Ed Hawkins, are used at the start of each chapter, as a visual representation of our progress and an alignment of what stage we are at now.
‘The climate and ecological crisis is the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced.’
The opening chapters to ‘The Climate Book’ are deliberately stark and blunt, as Thunberg is famous for ‘telling it as it is’- indeed, this is the charge that gives to her readers. She states, ‘When it comes to the climate and ecological crisis, we have solid unequivocal scientific evidence of the need for change…That ship has sailed. The science is as solid as it gets.’ She then suggests that what is needed is for scientists to speak a different language, ‘What largely remain is tactics. How to package, frame and convey the information. How disruptive do scientists dare to be?’
Thunberg’s comments in this book are stylistically unique. She lays out the facts and then offers simple choices. She dismisses despair and ‘doomerism’ and instead focuses on the positives of action. ‘And there is no time for despair; it is never too late to start saving as much as we can possibly save.’ She reminds us that the debt we owe to the past is also owed to the future, but that we should be grateful that we are alive now, so that we can be part of the greatest movement for change in humanity’s history. ‘We have the unfathomably great opportunity to be alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. The time has come for us to tell this story, and perhaps even change the ending. Together, we can still avoid the worst consequences.’
What about COP27?
There will be some who will claim that the timing of the book release by Thunberg is no accident though. That, with COP27 starting barely a week after the publication date, that she is trying to switch the spotlight onto her views. More cynical observers may categorise this as simply good marketing. As Thunberg resolutely and regularly advocates the listening to climate scientists and has done since she started her climate protests in 2018, it would seem churlish to argue genuinely that the timing of the book release is just self-serving for Thunberg. She makes the relevant case that ‘the EU will not update its climate targets in time for COP27’ and points out that when the media focus during COP fades, then urgency is lost and that ‘this is exactly how you create a catastrophe.’
On the other hand, do we really need another book telling us that time to act on the climate is running out and that time for climate action must now happen. Some readers may feel that there are few new messages in this book and that climate books by themselves will not be the tipping point for climate action. Thunberg acknowledges this claim head on, ‘There is nothing new about this…All the words that we say have been spoken by others. All our speeches, books and articles follow in the footsteps of those who pioneered the climate and environmental movement.’
In recent times though, we have seen an upsurge in non-violent political protest, which has been both applauded and criticised for not winning over any new followers, as some are ‘put off’ by the more direct action from protesters. Thunberg demonstrates in the book that, ‘Social norms can easily be changed’, which is a hopeful outlook on the necessary speed that is needed from an active society. Thunberg argues that ‘We need a whole new way of thinking’ as a main priority to wake people up from a deeply flawed system.
Yet, the climate clock is only getting louder and louder, as the sands of time disappear and the window narrows for options, leaving only the truly desperate measures left available. ‘All geoengineering schemes are attempts to manipulate the Earth with the same domineering mindset that got us into the climate crisis in the first place.’ Niclas Hällström, Jennie C Stephens and Isak Stoddard
Thunberg argues that this collision course of time and action must be met bravely and advocates for systemic change, ‘Our safety as a species is on a collision course with our current system.’
An unprecedented time
Perhaps this book comes at the perfect time then, to remind us that not everyone needs to be convinced of the need for climate action, nor perhaps that everyone could be convinced of the need. Instead of wasting time trying to win over the remaining ‘dismissives’ and ‘delayers’, perhaps an awakening and activation of social behaviour is what we need. Thunberg herself comments that ‘We as individuals should use our voices, and whatever platforms we have, to become activists and communicate the urgency of the situation to those around us. We should all become active citizens and hold the people in power accountable for their actions and inactions.’ Thunberg also reminds us of the stark warning from the IPCC that ‘limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require rapid, far reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.’
The idea of better climate communication, especially in the face of an unwilling media and fossil fuel interests, is a solution that is returned to many times in the ‘The Climate Book’. There is perhaps quite a shocking statement from George Monbiot that, ‘If you were to ask me which industry is most responsible for the destruction of life on Earth, I would say the media.’ Thunberg is typically blunter, ‘We have been lied to.’ Although this is more in reference to the fossil fuel industry which knew about the impact of their actions, but which choose short-term capitalistic growth, over planetary interests.
‘This is not the ‘new normal’- this is only the very beginning of a changing climate’
‘The Climate Book’ focuses heavily on the science. There are over 80 articles from leading scientists, experts and community leaders, with most articles being a manageable 3 or 4 pages only. Almost every page and article has a quotable message that sums up a narrative that has been allowed to continue for too long.
Thunberg herself comments, ‘We are all in the same storm, but we are definitely not in the same boat.’ She continues, ‘But the climate is not just changing. It is destabilizing. It is breaking down.’
This is supported by the argument from Dr Friederike Otto, who has a similar blunt style to that of Thunberg. ‘Today, those of us who are not completely delusional have realized that climate change is not something happening somewhere else, at some point in the future, but a phenomenon that is killing people here and now.’
As you would expect, there are repeated messages in the book: humanity’s reliance and dependence on fossil fuels has to stop, holistic solutions are best, and the evidence that humanity can change quickly in the face of global emergencies.
‘We need to take immediate action. First and foremost, we must immediately and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.’ Jennifer L. Soong
‘We must immediately stop extracting fossil fuel from reserves in the Arctic’ Örjan Gustafsson
‘The climate crisis is upon us, powered by our addiction to fossil fuels.’ Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
‘And still, instead of taking steps to overcome our fossil fuel dependency, we are deepening it,’ Thunberg
The other repeated message in the book, is that holistic solutions are needed to face a multi-faceted problem of the climate crisis- that there is no one silver bullet that can be used quickly to solve and perhaps absolve governments and companies from years of inaction. Margaret Atwood argues that, ‘The climate crisis is multidimensional; any solution to it will have to be multidimensional as well.’ On the other hand, Naomi Klein believes that this transformational approach has yet to be attempted, ‘Holistic transformations, on the other hand, have never been tried in the face of the climate crisis.’
The equality of climate justice and the acceptance that ‘loss and damages’ is a requirement and not just a political phrase is argued strongly. As Saleemul Huq says ‘Loss and damages’ is also a diplomatically negotiated euphemism for something we’re not allowed to talk about: ’liability and compensation.’ Finally, the principle that the polluter must pay echoes throughout the text and is given space and time by Thunberg.
What we can learn from recent global emergencies such as COVID, is that humanity has demonstrably acted in self-preservation before, be that during world wars, managing the hole in the ozone, or in the face of global pandemics. As Seth Klein argues convincingly in the book, better communication can lead to better outcomes. ‘In frequency and tone, in words and in action, emergencies need to look and sound and feel like emergencies. The Second World War leaders we remember best were outstanding communicators who were forthright with the public about the gravity of the crisis yet still managed to impart hope.’
‘Winning slowly is the same thing as losing.’- Alex Steffen
Thunberg concludes ‘The Climate Book’ by heading straight into the imagery and language of ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’, both the original and the remake. The iconic 1951 film concludes with the words, ‘this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you.’ The remake in 2008, uses similar language about the human species reaching their adaption point. ‘You say we’re on the brink of destruction and you’re right. But it’s only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment.’
Thunberg finishes using a similar metaphor to that of film fiction, ‘There is still time to undo our mistakes, to step back from the edge of the cliff and choose a new path, a sustainable path, a just path. A path which leads to a future for everyone. And no matter how dark things may become, giving up will never be an option. Because every fraction of a degree and every tonne of carbon dioxide will always matter. It will never be too late for us to save as much as we can possibly save.’
Correctly, the final word should not go to Thunberg, indeed she advocates against that herself.
George Monbiot calls up the cultural imagery and reference to the public awareness, boosted by Rachel Carson when he states,‘We can replace our silent spring with a raucous summer.’
Perhaps what is required, expected and demanded of each individual now, is that they renew their view of the relationship with nature and realise that there is no planet B and that our environment is worth fighting for.
‘Do not gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ -Dylan Thomas
‘The Climate Book’ really is the one-stop shop for all climate issues. There are contributions from over 100 global experts in their fields, some of which are summaries of their own books, but which address the latest position on the climate crisis and what needs to be done to avert the worst of the climate disasters. My fear in listing some of these climate leaders is that the list needs to include everyone. Reducing the list, or offering a preference for some articles over others would only indicate my own European and Northern hemisphere bias. Thunberg sets out her aim for the book- that the knowledge from the range of experts will help each reader on their own journey of climate education, ‘The idea behind this book, is that, taken together, their knowledge in their respective areas of expertise will lead you to a point where you can start to connect the dots yourself.’
There may not be a representative voice for every reader in this collection, but that is precisely Thunberg’s point- that we can all be our own representation.
Waiting for some other person, or some other time, is no longer an option.
How it is structured
The book is helpfully colour coded throughout, with Thunberg’s own words contained as introductions to the main chapter headings, before she gives way to the scientists and experts.
Thunberg breaks down the climate issues into a holistic chronological approach, outlining for a general audience the basics of how climate works, before moving on to how our planet is changing. Thunberg then focuses on how the changing planet affects us, outlines what we as a species have done about this impact, and then concludes with a strong message on what needs to be done now. The climate stripes, pioneered by Ed Hawkins, are used at the start of each chapter, as a visual representation of our progress and an alignment of what stage we are at now.
‘The climate and ecological crisis is the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced.’
The opening chapters to ‘The Climate Book’ are deliberately stark and blunt, as Thunberg is famous for ‘telling it as it is’- indeed, this is the charge that gives to her readers. She states, ‘When it comes to the climate and ecological crisis, we have solid unequivocal scientific evidence of the need for change…That ship has sailed. The science is as solid as it gets.’ She then suggests that what is needed is for scientists to speak a different language, ‘What largely remain is tactics. How to package, frame and convey the information. How disruptive do scientists dare to be?’
Thunberg’s comments in this book are stylistically unique. She lays out the facts and then offers simple choices. She dismisses despair and ‘doomerism’ and instead focuses on the positives of action. ‘And there is no time for despair; it is never too late to start saving as much as we can possibly save.’ She reminds us that the debt we owe to the past is also owed to the future, but that we should be grateful that we are alive now, so that we can be part of the greatest movement for change in humanity’s history. ‘We have the unfathomably great opportunity to be alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. The time has come for us to tell this story, and perhaps even change the ending. Together, we can still avoid the worst consequences.’
What about COP27?
There will be some who will claim that the timing of the book release by Thunberg is no accident though. That, with COP27 starting barely a week after the publication date, that she is trying to switch the spotlight onto her views. More cynical observers may categorise this as simply good marketing. As Thunberg resolutely and regularly advocates the listening to climate scientists and has done since she started her climate protests in 2018, it would seem churlish to argue genuinely that the timing of the book release is just self-serving for Thunberg. She makes the relevant case that ‘the EU will not update its climate targets in time for COP27’ and points out that when the media focus during COP fades, then urgency is lost and that ‘this is exactly how you create a catastrophe.’
On the other hand, do we really need another book telling us that time to act on the climate is running out and that time for climate action must now happen. Some readers may feel that there are few new messages in this book and that climate books by themselves will not be the tipping point for climate action. Thunberg acknowledges this claim head on, ‘There is nothing new about this…All the words that we say have been spoken by others. All our speeches, books and articles follow in the footsteps of those who pioneered the climate and environmental movement.’
In recent times though, we have seen an upsurge in non-violent political protest, which has been both applauded and criticised for not winning over any new followers, as some are ‘put off’ by the more direct action from protesters. Thunberg demonstrates in the book that, ‘Social norms can easily be changed’, which is a hopeful outlook on the necessary speed that is needed from an active society. Thunberg argues that ‘We need a whole new way of thinking’ as a main priority to wake people up from a deeply flawed system.
Yet, the climate clock is only getting louder and louder, as the sands of time disappear and the window narrows for options, leaving only the truly desperate measures left available. ‘All geoengineering schemes are attempts to manipulate the Earth with the same domineering mindset that got us into the climate crisis in the first place.’ Niclas Hällström, Jennie C Stephens and Isak Stoddard
Thunberg argues that this collision course of time and action must be met bravely and advocates for systemic change, ‘Our safety as a species is on a collision course with our current system.’
An unprecedented time
Perhaps this book comes at the perfect time then, to remind us that not everyone needs to be convinced of the need for climate action, nor perhaps that everyone could be convinced of the need. Instead of wasting time trying to win over the remaining ‘dismissives’ and ‘delayers’, perhaps an awakening and activation of social behaviour is what we need. Thunberg herself comments that ‘We as individuals should use our voices, and whatever platforms we have, to become activists and communicate the urgency of the situation to those around us. We should all become active citizens and hold the people in power accountable for their actions and inactions.’ Thunberg also reminds us of the stark warning from the IPCC that ‘limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require rapid, far reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.’
The idea of better climate communication, especially in the face of an unwilling media and fossil fuel interests, is a solution that is returned to many times in the ‘The Climate Book’. There is perhaps quite a shocking statement from George Monbiot that, ‘If you were to ask me which industry is most responsible for the destruction of life on Earth, I would say the media.’ Thunberg is typically blunter, ‘We have been lied to.’ Although this is more in reference to the fossil fuel industry which knew about the impact of their actions, but which choose short-term capitalistic growth, over planetary interests.
‘This is not the ‘new normal’- this is only the very beginning of a changing climate’
‘The Climate Book’ focuses heavily on the science. There are over 80 articles from leading scientists, experts and community leaders, with most articles being a manageable 3 or 4 pages only. Almost every page and article has a quotable message that sums up a narrative that has been allowed to continue for too long.
Thunberg herself comments, ‘We are all in the same storm, but we are definitely not in the same boat.’ She continues, ‘But the climate is not just changing. It is destabilizing. It is breaking down.’
This is supported by the argument from Dr Friederike Otto, who has a similar blunt style to that of Thunberg. ‘Today, those of us who are not completely delusional have realized that climate change is not something happening somewhere else, at some point in the future, but a phenomenon that is killing people here and now.’
As you would expect, there are repeated messages in the book: humanity’s reliance and dependence on fossil fuels has to stop, holistic solutions are best, and the evidence that humanity can change quickly in the face of global emergencies.
‘We need to take immediate action. First and foremost, we must immediately and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.’ Jennifer L. Soong
‘We must immediately stop extracting fossil fuel from reserves in the Arctic’ Örjan Gustafsson
‘The climate crisis is upon us, powered by our addiction to fossil fuels.’ Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
‘And still, instead of taking steps to overcome our fossil fuel dependency, we are deepening it,’ Thunberg
The other repeated message in the book, is that holistic solutions are needed to face a multi-faceted problem of the climate crisis- that there is no one silver bullet that can be used quickly to solve and perhaps absolve governments and companies from years of inaction. Margaret Atwood argues that, ‘The climate crisis is multidimensional; any solution to it will have to be multidimensional as well.’ On the other hand, Naomi Klein believes that this transformational approach has yet to be attempted, ‘Holistic transformations, on the other hand, have never been tried in the face of the climate crisis.’
The equality of climate justice and the acceptance that ‘loss and damages’ is a requirement and not just a political phrase is argued strongly. As Saleemul Huq says ‘Loss and damages’ is also a diplomatically negotiated euphemism for something we’re not allowed to talk about: ’liability and compensation.’ Finally, the principle that the polluter must pay echoes throughout the text and is given space and time by Thunberg.
What we can learn from recent global emergencies such as COVID, is that humanity has demonstrably acted in self-preservation before, be that during world wars, managing the hole in the ozone, or in the face of global pandemics. As Seth Klein argues convincingly in the book, better communication can lead to better outcomes. ‘In frequency and tone, in words and in action, emergencies need to look and sound and feel like emergencies. The Second World War leaders we remember best were outstanding communicators who were forthright with the public about the gravity of the crisis yet still managed to impart hope.’
‘Winning slowly is the same thing as losing.’- Alex Steffen
Thunberg concludes ‘The Climate Book’ by heading straight into the imagery and language of ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’, both the original and the remake. The iconic 1951 film concludes with the words, ‘this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you.’ The remake in 2008, uses similar language about the human species reaching their adaption point. ‘You say we’re on the brink of destruction and you’re right. But it’s only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment.’
Thunberg finishes using a similar metaphor to that of film fiction, ‘There is still time to undo our mistakes, to step back from the edge of the cliff and choose a new path, a sustainable path, a just path. A path which leads to a future for everyone. And no matter how dark things may become, giving up will never be an option. Because every fraction of a degree and every tonne of carbon dioxide will always matter. It will never be too late for us to save as much as we can possibly save.’
Correctly, the final word should not go to Thunberg, indeed she advocates against that herself.
George Monbiot calls up the cultural imagery and reference to the public awareness, boosted by Rachel Carson when he states,‘We can replace our silent spring with a raucous summer.’
Perhaps what is required, expected and demanded of each individual now, is that they renew their view of the relationship with nature and realise that there is no planet B and that our environment is worth fighting for.
‘Do not gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ -Dylan Thomas
March 10, 2023
First, this is not several hundred pages of being shamed by a Swedish teenager. And please don't think I'm dismissing her. This young lady impresses and inspires me more than I could ever articulate!
Also, Greta did not write this book on her own. It's made up of several dozen short, digestible essays. Greta probably wrote, maybe, 20 percent of them? The rest were written by scientists, activists, economists, human rights advocates, novelists, etc. You get the idea, subject area experts from widely diverse fields and from many different walks of life. There are many names you will recognize.
And the reason so many different experts and voices are required is that The Climate Book really strives to illustrate ALL the different ways that climate change impacts our lives. Spoiler alert: It's way more than you are thinking.
This book is not putting a shiny, happy spin on the situation. Nor should it. The time for ignoring reality is long since past. Still, I can certainly understand not wanting to plow through the entire book in a day, as I did. It's a lot to take in. The brilliance of the format is how well it lends itself to reading an essay or two a day, and letting it sink in. It's a book you're going to want to own, because when you get to the end, you're going to want to go back to the beginning and start over. These are messages worth revisiting until you have fully absorbed them.
And as my comments above imply, the quality of the essays individually, and the content of the book as a whole, is superlative. A lot of the contributors have written books of their own, many of which I've read. Nonetheless, I felt like I was taking in so much new information here, I think because of the sheer scope of what was covered, as well as the immediacy of what was being presented.
Truly, this is a book that should be read by every person on this planet. Five BIG stars from me!
Also, Greta did not write this book on her own. It's made up of several dozen short, digestible essays. Greta probably wrote, maybe, 20 percent of them? The rest were written by scientists, activists, economists, human rights advocates, novelists, etc. You get the idea, subject area experts from widely diverse fields and from many different walks of life. There are many names you will recognize.
And the reason so many different experts and voices are required is that The Climate Book really strives to illustrate ALL the different ways that climate change impacts our lives. Spoiler alert: It's way more than you are thinking.
This book is not putting a shiny, happy spin on the situation. Nor should it. The time for ignoring reality is long since past. Still, I can certainly understand not wanting to plow through the entire book in a day, as I did. It's a lot to take in. The brilliance of the format is how well it lends itself to reading an essay or two a day, and letting it sink in. It's a book you're going to want to own, because when you get to the end, you're going to want to go back to the beginning and start over. These are messages worth revisiting until you have fully absorbed them.
And as my comments above imply, the quality of the essays individually, and the content of the book as a whole, is superlative. A lot of the contributors have written books of their own, many of which I've read. Nonetheless, I felt like I was taking in so much new information here, I think because of the sheer scope of what was covered, as well as the immediacy of what was being presented.
Truly, this is a book that should be read by every person on this planet. Five BIG stars from me!
October 12, 2023
If you're looking for the cold, hard truth about climate change, this is the book to read. It won't make you feel good but that's not the point.
The point is to get us to act.
It's composed of a series of essays on all aspects of climate change (including what we can do about it) by over 100 experts. It's got lots of facts and figures, charts and stats, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a science book.
It won't make you feel good and it won't let you think it's fine to continue on as we've been and things will magically take care of themselves. It doesn't lie and tell you we don't need to change, and change fast.
If you don't like to learn about it, you certainly won't want to live through what we're heading towards if we don't take immediate action.
This is the truth about climate change.
The point is to get us to act.
It's composed of a series of essays on all aspects of climate change (including what we can do about it) by over 100 experts. It's got lots of facts and figures, charts and stats, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a science book.
It won't make you feel good and it won't let you think it's fine to continue on as we've been and things will magically take care of themselves. It doesn't lie and tell you we don't need to change, and change fast.
If you don't like to learn about it, you certainly won't want to live through what we're heading towards if we don't take immediate action.
This is the truth about climate change.
April 3, 2024
Greta Thunberg is a purveyor of apocalyptic propaganda that has been fed to her by others and that she is incapable of factually substantiating.
―Camille Paglia
Only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda.
—Hannah Arendt
پدیدهی گرتا تونبرگ در طول سه چهار سال گذشته توسط والدین او و رسانهها به بازار عرضه شد. او شیپورچی ایدئولوژی ضدانسانیای شد که به بحران انرژی در اروپا به شدت دامن زد
او اراجیف زیادی از خودش صادر کرده، مثلا در 2019 گفته بود حول و حوش سال 2030 وارد مرحلهی برگشتناپذیری میشویم که به احتمال خیلی قوی پایان تمدن بشری است
تونبرگ مکررا به انرژی هستهای و گاز طبیعی، دو منبع اصلی انرژی که توانایی کاهش خر��جی دیاکسید کربن را دارند، حمله کرده
او علنا میگفت: من خواهان آنم که مردم به وحشت بیفتند
از همان شروع پدیدهی تونبرگ برای خیلیها روشن بود که او دچار اختلال اضطراب است. با این حال، والدین و مربیانش مدعی بودند نگرانی عمیق او نسبت به مسالهی تغییر اقلیم باعث میشود که چنین به نظر برسد. بعدا مشخص شد این ادعا چرند محض بوده.* فردی که به این مطلب اقرار کرد کسی نبود جز مادر خود تونبرگ. البته تونبرگ نه تنها خودش گرفتار همچو اختلالی بود، بلکه موجی از اختلالهای اضطرابی را در میان دیگران پدید آورد.** این وضعیت در مواردی به خودکشی نوجوانان*** هم میانجامد. در ضمن یک پژوهش جدید (1) نشان میدهد هرچه دانش شخص دربارهی محیط زیست و اقلیم بیشتر باشد، کمتر نگرانی و اضطراب خواهد داشت. یعنی نگرانی و اضطراب در مورد تغییر اقلیم علامت کمسوادی یا بیسوادی است
در حقیقت آنچه رخ داده این است: رسانهها دختر نوجوانی را که گرفتار اختلال شدید اضطراب بود برجسته کردند و از او سلاحی ساختند برای پیشبرد یک ایدئولوژی رادیکال و ضدانسانی
حدودا یکسوم از مردم جهان خیال میکنند تغییر اقلیم نسل بشر را نابود خواهد کرد. این عقیده همانقدر غیرعلمی است که عقیده به مسطح بودن زمین (2). ولی مردم این عقیده را از خودشان در نیاوردهاند. این همان چیزی است که رسانهها در سه دههی گذشته به آنها زورچپان کردهاند. آش آنقدر شور شده بود که حتی ایدئولوژی ولایت فقیه هم گاهی استراتژیهای تونبرگی اتخاذ میکرد.**** 0
پینوشت: برخلاف تصور خیلیها، این افسانه که انسانه�� میتوانند باعث تغییر اقلیم زمین شوند قدمتی چندصدساله دارد. تصویر بالا متعلق به یک گراور چوبی از سال 1486 است و "تغییر اقلیم توسط انسان" نام دارد. تصویر جادوگری را نشان میدهد که به کمک استخوان آروارهی یک الاغ توفان و تگرگ به پا میکند. در آن دوران، هزاران جادوگر به اتهام ایجاد تغییر در اقلیم زمین بیرحمانه کشته میشدند
پینوشت 2: سفیدشویی تونبرگ برای تروریستهای حماس مصداق همان مثل معروف است که "دیوانه چو دیوانه ببیند خوشش آید." فاجعهباوری اقلیمی خودش یک فرقهی مرگگراست. پس جای تعجب نیست که مومنانش مسحور فرقهی مرگگرای دیگری به نام جهاد شوند
*https://www.theguardian.com/environme...
**https://www.reuters.com/article/clima...
***https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023...
(1)https://link.springer.com/article/10....
(2)https://www.dw.com/en/dont-overstate-...
****https://en.radiofarda.com/a/advisor-t...
―Camille Paglia
Only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda.
—Hannah Arendt
پدیدهی گرتا تونبرگ در طول سه چهار سال گذشته توسط والدین او و رسانهها به بازار عرضه شد. او شیپورچی ایدئولوژی ضدانسانیای شد که به بحران انرژی در اروپا به شدت دامن زد
او اراجیف زیادی از خودش صادر کرده، مثلا در 2019 گفته بود حول و حوش سال 2030 وارد مرحلهی برگشتناپذیری میشویم که به احتمال خیلی قوی پایان تمدن بشری است
تونبرگ مکررا به انرژی هستهای و گاز طبیعی، دو منبع اصلی انرژی که توانایی کاهش خر��جی دیاکسید کربن را دارند، حمله کرده
او علنا میگفت: من خواهان آنم که مردم به وحشت بیفتند
از همان شروع پدیدهی تونبرگ برای خیلیها روشن بود که او دچار اختلال اضطراب است. با این حال، والدین و مربیانش مدعی بودند نگرانی عمیق او نسبت به مسالهی تغییر اقلیم باعث میشود که چنین به نظر برسد. بعدا مشخص شد این ادعا چرند محض بوده.* فردی که به این مطلب اقرار کرد کسی نبود جز مادر خود تونبرگ. البته تونبرگ نه تنها خودش گرفتار همچو اختلالی بود، بلکه موجی از اختلالهای اضطرابی را در میان دیگران پدید آورد.** این وضعیت در مواردی به خودکشی نوجوانان*** هم میانجامد. در ضمن یک پژوهش جدید (1) نشان میدهد هرچه دانش شخص دربارهی محیط زیست و اقلیم بیشتر باشد، کمتر نگرانی و اضطراب خواهد داشت. یعنی نگرانی و اضطراب در مورد تغییر اقلیم علامت کمسوادی یا بیسوادی است
در حقیقت آنچه رخ داده این است: رسانهها دختر نوجوانی را که گرفتار اختلال شدید اضطراب بود برجسته کردند و از او سلاحی ساختند برای پیشبرد یک ایدئولوژی رادیکال و ضدانسانی
حدودا یکسوم از مردم جهان خیال میکنند تغییر اقلیم نسل بشر را نابود خواهد کرد. این عقیده همانقدر غیرعلمی است که عقیده به مسطح بودن زمین (2). ولی مردم این عقیده را از خودشان در نیاوردهاند. این همان چیزی است که رسانهها در سه دههی گذشته به آنها زورچپان کردهاند. آش آنقدر شور شده بود که حتی ایدئولوژی ولایت فقیه هم گاهی استراتژیهای تونبرگی اتخاذ میکرد.**** 0
پینوشت: برخلاف تصور خیلیها، این افسانه که انسانه�� میتوانند باعث تغییر اقلیم زمین شوند قدمتی چندصدساله دارد. تصویر بالا متعلق به یک گراور چوبی از سال 1486 است و "تغییر اقلیم توسط انسان" نام دارد. تصویر جادوگری را نشان میدهد که به کمک استخوان آروارهی یک الاغ توفان و تگرگ به پا میکند. در آن دوران، هزاران جادوگر به اتهام ایجاد تغییر در اقلیم زمین بیرحمانه کشته میشدند
پینوشت 2: سفیدشویی تونبرگ برای تروریستهای حماس مصداق همان مثل معروف است که "دیوانه چو دیوانه ببیند خوشش آید." فاجعهباوری اقلیمی خودش یک فرقهی مرگگراست. پس جای تعجب نیست که مومنانش مسحور فرقهی مرگگرای دیگری به نام جهاد شوند
*https://www.theguardian.com/environme...
**https://www.reuters.com/article/clima...
***https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023...
(1)https://link.springer.com/article/10....
(2)https://www.dw.com/en/dont-overstate-...
****https://en.radiofarda.com/a/advisor-t...
November 25, 2022
This really is a difficult read (or listen in my case). Many times I felt my anxiety and existential dread rising, but I needed to keep going as I was learning so much I didn’t know and, I was hoping there would be a happy ending.
Please dive into this book. Take as much time as you need, but DO read it it listen to it. Our future just might deke d on it.
Was there a happy ending…no spoilers, but it’s up to us.
Please dive into this book. Take as much time as you need, but DO read it it listen to it. Our future just might deke d on it.
Was there a happy ending…no spoilers, but it’s up to us.
August 21, 2023
¡Perturbadoramente fantástico! Una verdadera –y preocupante– síntesis de la crisis climática y de sus posibles soluciones.
Este libro es algo así como una versión del último informe del IPCC –el panel intergubernamental del cambio climático–, pero una versión que se deja leer, una versión que contiene datos y gráficos que si se entienden, una con posturas políticas explícitas en lugar del lenguaje rigurosamente aséptico de la ciencia, una con voces pocas veces citadas en estos cerebrales informes; y lo mejor, y la clave del texto, un informe del IPCC ampliamente y comentado por Greta Thunberg, quién es quizás la más reconocida activista climática de todos los tiempos. No descartaría, que después de está increíble obra divulgativa y obviamente, en general, de todo su activismo, Greta recibiera más pronto que tarde el Premio Nobel de paz.
Después de completarlo no me queda la menor duda que este libro, o importantes apartes suyos, debería convertirse muy pronto en una lectura obligatoria, no solo en la educación superior, sino también en la educación básica.
De nada sirve que lo estemos leyendo las personas que trabajamos en la ciencia, o las personas que, sin ser científicas, siguen muy de cerca los movimientos activistas en favor de la información de la crisis climática –y en general de la crisis global– y de la correspondiente justicia climática.
El libro es una extensa (430 páginas en la edición que leí) colección de ensayos cortos (máximo 4 páginas) escritos por profesionales de las ciencias, periodistas, activistas, incluso autoras como Margaret Atwood ("El cuento de la criada" entre otros), que abordan la práctica totalidad de las problemáticas relacionadas con la Crisis Climática.
Se divide en 5 partes que tienen títulos sencillos y directos: Cómo funciona el clima, Cómo está cambiando nuestro planeta, Cómo nos afecta, Qué hemos hecho al respecto, Qué debemos hacer ahora.
Cada capítulo está dividido a su vez en secciones de ensayos relacionados, todas encabezadas por un artículo, una reflexión o un comentario general escrito por la misma Greta Thunberg.
Debo decir que si bien conocía a Thunberg –como creo nos pasa a todos–, y he seguido de cerca las actividades, y oído muchos de los extraordinarios, quede impresionado por el increíble nivel de conocimientos y de introspección en los problemas que demuestra esta mujer joven a través de los escritos compilados en este libro.
Aunque sospecho –y aquí seguro asomaran algunos de mis sesgos y ofrezco disculpas por anticipado– que los textos fueron redactados con la asesoría de profesionales del ramo editorial, como dicen en redes, no tengo pruebas, pero tampoco dudas, de que las ideas expresadas en ellos tienen la firma reconocible de Thunberg. Como todo lo que ella dice en sus discursos, también estos textos son ¡asombrosamente contundentes!
La estructura por ensayos cortos facilita mucho la lectura, y, para quiénes seguramente usaremos estos textos como parte de ejercicios educativos, hace muy fácil convertir al libro en una fuente de textos cortos para que los lean aprendices de todos los niveles. Además, la independencia mutua de muchos de los ensayos, permite que el libro pueda empezar a leerse por cualquier parte. Incluso, como sucede con algunos libros de cultura general, podría escogerse al azar todos los días un ensayo, e ir leyendo o releyendo el texto en desorden. ¡No importa! Lo importante es informarse y está es a todas luces la principal función de "El libro del clima", pero también, como lo repite Thunberg en todas partes, de su propia labor de activismo climático.
La calidad del libro, como objeto físico, es maravillosa. Para quiénes amamos los libros físicos, este es un texto de colección. Papel grueso de buena calidad; hojas en policromía con fondos de colores; gráficos a todo color –muy necesario cuando de entender información científica se trata– y no dudaría que los colores de esos gráficos vienen de una paleta accesible, es decir, que pueden reconocer las personas que sufren de ceguera del color. ¡Una verdadera belleza!
Ahora bien: desde que lo compré, me pregunté si la misma Thunberg no habrá sentido algún malestar por el hecho que sea un libro impreso, es decir, con una huella material significativa, distribuído por el mundo usando sin duda alguna medios con altas emisiones de gases de invernadero. No encontré en ninguna parte un comentario sobre este hecho, y me hubiera encantado leer las reflexiones o aclaraciones de Thunberg sobre este hecho evidente.
Es difícil que resuma de forma justa, en el limitado espacio de esta reseña, la increíble cantidad de ideas, de datos, de reflexiones con las que me tope leyendo "El libro del clima". Muchas de las citas y datos más relevantes que encontré allí, terminaron entre mis publicaciones en Twitter –donde espero hayan inspirado a otras personas a adquirir y leer el libro–, en este enlace pueden encontrar algunas.
Y es que repito, estamos hablando de un texto con más de 400 páginas y un número no menor –no los conté rigurosamente- de 80 ensayos en temáticas tan diversas como el impacto del clima en los pastores de Renos del norte de Suecia, hasta la responsabilidad de los medios de comunicación, que, según George Monbiot, autor del ensayo correspondiente –5.11 "Cambiar el discurso de los medios de comunicación"– uno de mis ensayos preferidos de todo el libro, es sin duda alguna, una de las "industrias más responsable de la destrucción de la vida en el planeta".
¿Cómo metes en los párrafos de una reseña, siquiera una parte minúscula de este monumental esfuerzo informativo?. Yo creo que no hay forma y que lo único que se puede hacer es recomendar leer el libro sin demora.
Déjenme pues, para terminar, y no quitarle más el tiempo valioso que necesita para leer el libro, dejar por aquí algunas reflexiones selecciones que me dejo la lectura de "El libro del clima". Las organizaré siguiendo la estructura del libro.
¿Cómo funciona el clima? El clima es un organismo complejo, como lo es por ejemplo el cuerpo humano –esta analogía se la robo a Juan Fernando Salazar, un buen amigo, científico del clima, y quien se podría decir me inició en muchas de estas discusiones–. Está en un estado equilibrio delicado que se encuentra en riesgo de romperse –pasar puntos de inflexión– gracias a nuestras emisiones sostenidas de gases de invernadero. Desde hace más de 200 años nuestro planeta acumula energía extra, la mayor parte de ella en los océanos –como aprendí en este libro–, y una parte de la cuál se manifiesta como una temperatura en aumento. Gracias a científicos del clima como Michael Oppenheimer, autor de uno de los ensayos de este libro, hoy sabemos sobre el clima, su pasado y su futuro, lo que nunca habríamos imaginado. Esta ciencia esta llena de incertidumbres, principalmente porque describe un sistema de una complejidad impresionante, pero también de certezas, de predicciones precisas, que habrían sido impensables en el pasado.
¿Cómo está cambiando nuestro planeta? La Tierra del presente es irreconocible para la vida que ha compartido con nosotros el planeta por casi 300 000 años. Los niveles de gases de invernadero, dióxido de carbono y metano, además de las temperaturas y la intensidad de los eventos climáticos, no tienen parangón en los últimos cientos de miles de años a millones de años. El cambio climático se ha convertido en una máquina del tiempo que nos está transportando a un tiempo pasado en el que la mayoría de los organismos vivos que hoy habitan el planeta, no existían. Pero también a un futuro que creímos que llegaría sólo en nuestros peores sueños: un planeta con plásticos en cada rincón, con océanos moribundos y ácidos, aerosoles en abundancia que ni los peores volcanes podrían haber creado, incendios y olas de calor que se repiten al ritmo de las estaciones.
¿Cómo nos afecta? La Tierra está enferma y siendo el soporte vital de todos sus tripulantes, no es esta precisamente una buena noticia. Una Tierra más caliente, menos resiliente, sin glaciares, sin biodiversidad, es una Tierra que nos enferma, que nos mata de calor, de hambre, por enfermedades que antes estaban reducidas a regiones específicas del planeta. La Tierra del cambio climático nos hace más pobres, amplifica nuestras desigualdades, crea más conflictos y guerras entre los humanos. Y este no es el futuro predicho por las aves de mal agüero de la religión de Thunberg, por los movimientos eco apocalípticos. Lamentablemente esa Tierra ya está en acción.
¿Qué hemos hecho al respecto? La ciencia ha hecho todo lo que ha estado a su alcance para diagnosticar, desarrollar herramientas novedosas de análisis y predicción que han servido por decadas para advertirnos de las consecuencias de la inacción climática. Las empresas, especialmente un puñado de no más de un centenar de ellas, han hecho todo lo que han podido para retrasar la acción climática, aún a sabiendas de lo que pasaría. Los medios de comunicación nos han desinformado sistemáticamente, le han dado voz a quiénes quieren confundirnos con la misma frecuencia que la que le dan a la ciencia. Las personas, hemos creído a los medios y nos negamos a abandonar una forma de vida insostenible y destructiva. Los gobiernos, que una vez actuaron con decisión para resolver agudos problemas existenciales –las guerras del fascismo, las pandemias– ahora actúan como tibios monigotes que no se atreven a tomar las medidas requeridas para no enojar a los dueños de "El Mercado"; para no perder los votos de una masa de personas desinformadas por los medios de comunicación. En una palabra, aparte de la ciencia, no hemos hecho casi nada.
¿Qué debemos hacer ahora? Informarnos. Informarnos. Informarnos. Bueno, mientras esperamos que los gobiernos emprendan las medidas que necesitamos. Solo ellos, con nuestra presión, pueden evitar un desastre mayor.
No puedo decir que todo esto lo aprendí exclusivamente en este libro. Pero si puedo asegurarles que la lectura de estos ensayos me sirvió para organizar y completar la información que necesitaba para entender mejor la crisis.
No demoren en leer esta impresionante síntesis. En un par de años, tal vez, lo que está allí será historia y con ella no está descartado, seamos historia también muchas de las personas que lo leímos.
Este libro es algo así como una versión del último informe del IPCC –el panel intergubernamental del cambio climático–, pero una versión que se deja leer, una versión que contiene datos y gráficos que si se entienden, una con posturas políticas explícitas en lugar del lenguaje rigurosamente aséptico de la ciencia, una con voces pocas veces citadas en estos cerebrales informes; y lo mejor, y la clave del texto, un informe del IPCC ampliamente y comentado por Greta Thunberg, quién es quizás la más reconocida activista climática de todos los tiempos. No descartaría, que después de está increíble obra divulgativa y obviamente, en general, de todo su activismo, Greta recibiera más pronto que tarde el Premio Nobel de paz.
Después de completarlo no me queda la menor duda que este libro, o importantes apartes suyos, debería convertirse muy pronto en una lectura obligatoria, no solo en la educación superior, sino también en la educación básica.
De nada sirve que lo estemos leyendo las personas que trabajamos en la ciencia, o las personas que, sin ser científicas, siguen muy de cerca los movimientos activistas en favor de la información de la crisis climática –y en general de la crisis global– y de la correspondiente justicia climática.
El libro es una extensa (430 páginas en la edición que leí) colección de ensayos cortos (máximo 4 páginas) escritos por profesionales de las ciencias, periodistas, activistas, incluso autoras como Margaret Atwood ("El cuento de la criada" entre otros), que abordan la práctica totalidad de las problemáticas relacionadas con la Crisis Climática.
Se divide en 5 partes que tienen títulos sencillos y directos: Cómo funciona el clima, Cómo está cambiando nuestro planeta, Cómo nos afecta, Qué hemos hecho al respecto, Qué debemos hacer ahora.
Cada capítulo está dividido a su vez en secciones de ensayos relacionados, todas encabezadas por un artículo, una reflexión o un comentario general escrito por la misma Greta Thunberg.
Debo decir que si bien conocía a Thunberg –como creo nos pasa a todos–, y he seguido de cerca las actividades, y oído muchos de los extraordinarios, quede impresionado por el increíble nivel de conocimientos y de introspección en los problemas que demuestra esta mujer joven a través de los escritos compilados en este libro.
Aunque sospecho –y aquí seguro asomaran algunos de mis sesgos y ofrezco disculpas por anticipado– que los textos fueron redactados con la asesoría de profesionales del ramo editorial, como dicen en redes, no tengo pruebas, pero tampoco dudas, de que las ideas expresadas en ellos tienen la firma reconocible de Thunberg. Como todo lo que ella dice en sus discursos, también estos textos son ¡asombrosamente contundentes!
La estructura por ensayos cortos facilita mucho la lectura, y, para quiénes seguramente usaremos estos textos como parte de ejercicios educativos, hace muy fácil convertir al libro en una fuente de textos cortos para que los lean aprendices de todos los niveles. Además, la independencia mutua de muchos de los ensayos, permite que el libro pueda empezar a leerse por cualquier parte. Incluso, como sucede con algunos libros de cultura general, podría escogerse al azar todos los días un ensayo, e ir leyendo o releyendo el texto en desorden. ¡No importa! Lo importante es informarse y está es a todas luces la principal función de "El libro del clima", pero también, como lo repite Thunberg en todas partes, de su propia labor de activismo climático.
La calidad del libro, como objeto físico, es maravillosa. Para quiénes amamos los libros físicos, este es un texto de colección. Papel grueso de buena calidad; hojas en policromía con fondos de colores; gráficos a todo color –muy necesario cuando de entender información científica se trata– y no dudaría que los colores de esos gráficos vienen de una paleta accesible, es decir, que pueden reconocer las personas que sufren de ceguera del color. ¡Una verdadera belleza!
Ahora bien: desde que lo compré, me pregunté si la misma Thunberg no habrá sentido algún malestar por el hecho que sea un libro impreso, es decir, con una huella material significativa, distribuído por el mundo usando sin duda alguna medios con altas emisiones de gases de invernadero. No encontré en ninguna parte un comentario sobre este hecho, y me hubiera encantado leer las reflexiones o aclaraciones de Thunberg sobre este hecho evidente.
Es difícil que resuma de forma justa, en el limitado espacio de esta reseña, la increíble cantidad de ideas, de datos, de reflexiones con las que me tope leyendo "El libro del clima". Muchas de las citas y datos más relevantes que encontré allí, terminaron entre mis publicaciones en Twitter –donde espero hayan inspirado a otras personas a adquirir y leer el libro–, en este enlace pueden encontrar algunas.
Y es que repito, estamos hablando de un texto con más de 400 páginas y un número no menor –no los conté rigurosamente- de 80 ensayos en temáticas tan diversas como el impacto del clima en los pastores de Renos del norte de Suecia, hasta la responsabilidad de los medios de comunicación, que, según George Monbiot, autor del ensayo correspondiente –5.11 "Cambiar el discurso de los medios de comunicación"– uno de mis ensayos preferidos de todo el libro, es sin duda alguna, una de las "industrias más responsable de la destrucción de la vida en el planeta".
¿Cómo metes en los párrafos de una reseña, siquiera una parte minúscula de este monumental esfuerzo informativo?. Yo creo que no hay forma y que lo único que se puede hacer es recomendar leer el libro sin demora.
Déjenme pues, para terminar, y no quitarle más el tiempo valioso que necesita para leer el libro, dejar por aquí algunas reflexiones selecciones que me dejo la lectura de "El libro del clima". Las organizaré siguiendo la estructura del libro.
¿Cómo funciona el clima? El clima es un organismo complejo, como lo es por ejemplo el cuerpo humano –esta analogía se la robo a Juan Fernando Salazar, un buen amigo, científico del clima, y quien se podría decir me inició en muchas de estas discusiones–. Está en un estado equilibrio delicado que se encuentra en riesgo de romperse –pasar puntos de inflexión– gracias a nuestras emisiones sostenidas de gases de invernadero. Desde hace más de 200 años nuestro planeta acumula energía extra, la mayor parte de ella en los océanos –como aprendí en este libro–, y una parte de la cuál se manifiesta como una temperatura en aumento. Gracias a científicos del clima como Michael Oppenheimer, autor de uno de los ensayos de este libro, hoy sabemos sobre el clima, su pasado y su futuro, lo que nunca habríamos imaginado. Esta ciencia esta llena de incertidumbres, principalmente porque describe un sistema de una complejidad impresionante, pero también de certezas, de predicciones precisas, que habrían sido impensables en el pasado.
¿Cómo está cambiando nuestro planeta? La Tierra del presente es irreconocible para la vida que ha compartido con nosotros el planeta por casi 300 000 años. Los niveles de gases de invernadero, dióxido de carbono y metano, además de las temperaturas y la intensidad de los eventos climáticos, no tienen parangón en los últimos cientos de miles de años a millones de años. El cambio climático se ha convertido en una máquina del tiempo que nos está transportando a un tiempo pasado en el que la mayoría de los organismos vivos que hoy habitan el planeta, no existían. Pero también a un futuro que creímos que llegaría sólo en nuestros peores sueños: un planeta con plásticos en cada rincón, con océanos moribundos y ácidos, aerosoles en abundancia que ni los peores volcanes podrían haber creado, incendios y olas de calor que se repiten al ritmo de las estaciones.
¿Cómo nos afecta? La Tierra está enferma y siendo el soporte vital de todos sus tripulantes, no es esta precisamente una buena noticia. Una Tierra más caliente, menos resiliente, sin glaciares, sin biodiversidad, es una Tierra que nos enferma, que nos mata de calor, de hambre, por enfermedades que antes estaban reducidas a regiones específicas del planeta. La Tierra del cambio climático nos hace más pobres, amplifica nuestras desigualdades, crea más conflictos y guerras entre los humanos. Y este no es el futuro predicho por las aves de mal agüero de la religión de Thunberg, por los movimientos eco apocalípticos. Lamentablemente esa Tierra ya está en acción.
¿Qué hemos hecho al respecto? La ciencia ha hecho todo lo que ha estado a su alcance para diagnosticar, desarrollar herramientas novedosas de análisis y predicción que han servido por decadas para advertirnos de las consecuencias de la inacción climática. Las empresas, especialmente un puñado de no más de un centenar de ellas, han hecho todo lo que han podido para retrasar la acción climática, aún a sabiendas de lo que pasaría. Los medios de comunicación nos han desinformado sistemáticamente, le han dado voz a quiénes quieren confundirnos con la misma frecuencia que la que le dan a la ciencia. Las personas, hemos creído a los medios y nos negamos a abandonar una forma de vida insostenible y destructiva. Los gobiernos, que una vez actuaron con decisión para resolver agudos problemas existenciales –las guerras del fascismo, las pandemias– ahora actúan como tibios monigotes que no se atreven a tomar las medidas requeridas para no enojar a los dueños de "El Mercado"; para no perder los votos de una masa de personas desinformadas por los medios de comunicación. En una palabra, aparte de la ciencia, no hemos hecho casi nada.
¿Qué debemos hacer ahora? Informarnos. Informarnos. Informarnos. Bueno, mientras esperamos que los gobiernos emprendan las medidas que necesitamos. Solo ellos, con nuestra presión, pueden evitar un desastre mayor.
No puedo decir que todo esto lo aprendí exclusivamente en este libro. Pero si puedo asegurarles que la lectura de estos ensayos me sirvió para organizar y completar la información que necesitaba para entender mejor la crisis.
No demoren en leer esta impresionante síntesis. En un par de años, tal vez, lo que está allí será historia y con ella no está descartado, seamos historia también muchas de las personas que lo leímos.
August 24, 2023
Het klimaatboek. Een initiatief van Greta Thunberg.
Waar er in 2018 (toen Greta begon met haar schoolstakingen voor het klimaat) nog vele mensen riepen dat het allemaal wel niet zo een vaart zou lopen kunnen ook zij er, na deze hete herfst, toch niet meer om heen: de wereld, ons huis staat in brand.
Ik lig daar wakker van, jij ook? Net daarom twijfelde ik of ik dit boek wel wou lezen. Na het verslinden van vele boeken over het klimaat lag ik nog meer wakker; meer kennis gaf me in dit geval niet meer rust in mijn hoofd. Toch ging ik overstag. Omdat het boek er echt wel heel goed uitziet (speelt ook een rol, laten we eerlijk wezen), omdat het een Thunberg is (er is geen grotere autoriteit op het vlak van klimaat dan dit -niet meer zo- kleine meisje) én omdat ze een ploeg van bijna honderd belangrijke mensen zo ver wist te krijgen dat ze meewerkten aan deze klepper van formaat (478 pagina’s). Onder hen enkele grote namen zoals: Naomi Klein, Margaret Atwood, Dave Goulson, Kate Raworth,…
Ik eet geen vlees, vlieg niet, heb geen kinderen, loop mee in Klimaatmarsen,… en toch heb ik vaak een gevoel van hopeloosheid. Herkenbaar? Daarom vind ik het zo belangrijk wat Atwood in haar bijdrage (Praktische utopie��n) schrijft, ze gaf me echt de moed om door te gaan. Ze schrijft dat ‘de klimaatcrisis multidimensionaal is en dat de oplossingen dat daarom ook moeten zijn’. Dit boek is dus echt een heel goed idee van Thunberg. Hoop en wilskracht hebben we nodig. Zoals Atwood ook schrijft: “’Geluk kan je afdwingen’, luidt een oud gezegde. Dus laten we wat geluk afdwingen.”
Wat Greta op papier deed moeten wij in de praktijk brengen. Allemaal samen onze kennis delen. Zorgen dat iedereen het echte, volledige verhaal kent. Om dan samen in actie te komen. Begin met het kopen, lezen en delen van dit giga belangrijke, uitermate boeiende en brandend actuele boek. Er is nog hoop.
Waar er in 2018 (toen Greta begon met haar schoolstakingen voor het klimaat) nog vele mensen riepen dat het allemaal wel niet zo een vaart zou lopen kunnen ook zij er, na deze hete herfst, toch niet meer om heen: de wereld, ons huis staat in brand.
Ik lig daar wakker van, jij ook? Net daarom twijfelde ik of ik dit boek wel wou lezen. Na het verslinden van vele boeken over het klimaat lag ik nog meer wakker; meer kennis gaf me in dit geval niet meer rust in mijn hoofd. Toch ging ik overstag. Omdat het boek er echt wel heel goed uitziet (speelt ook een rol, laten we eerlijk wezen), omdat het een Thunberg is (er is geen grotere autoriteit op het vlak van klimaat dan dit -niet meer zo- kleine meisje) én omdat ze een ploeg van bijna honderd belangrijke mensen zo ver wist te krijgen dat ze meewerkten aan deze klepper van formaat (478 pagina’s). Onder hen enkele grote namen zoals: Naomi Klein, Margaret Atwood, Dave Goulson, Kate Raworth,…
Ik eet geen vlees, vlieg niet, heb geen kinderen, loop mee in Klimaatmarsen,… en toch heb ik vaak een gevoel van hopeloosheid. Herkenbaar? Daarom vind ik het zo belangrijk wat Atwood in haar bijdrage (Praktische utopie��n) schrijft, ze gaf me echt de moed om door te gaan. Ze schrijft dat ‘de klimaatcrisis multidimensionaal is en dat de oplossingen dat daarom ook moeten zijn’. Dit boek is dus echt een heel goed idee van Thunberg. Hoop en wilskracht hebben we nodig. Zoals Atwood ook schrijft: “’Geluk kan je afdwingen’, luidt een oud gezegde. Dus laten we wat geluk afdwingen.”
Wat Greta op papier deed moeten wij in de praktijk brengen. Allemaal samen onze kennis delen. Zorgen dat iedereen het echte, volledige verhaal kent. Om dan samen in actie te komen. Begin met het kopen, lezen en delen van dit giga belangrijke, uitermate boeiende en brandend actuele boek. Er is nog hoop.
March 19, 2024
From the inside jacket: "In The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts - geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists; engineers, economists and mathematicians; historians, philosophers and Indigenous leaders - to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster."
There is hope, but we need to act now! This book doesn't just lay out the problems, it offers solutions for individuals, and for societies.
The following quote reminded me that prevention is better than a cure. Acting with forethought in our purchasing decisions and only buying what we truly need is better than being faced with not knowing what to do with too much stuff.
"When your bathtub is about to overflow, you don't go looking for buckets - you start by turning off the tap," Greta Thunberg.
There is hope, but we need to act now! This book doesn't just lay out the problems, it offers solutions for individuals, and for societies.
The following quote reminded me that prevention is better than a cure. Acting with forethought in our purchasing decisions and only buying what we truly need is better than being faced with not knowing what to do with too much stuff.
"When your bathtub is about to overflow, you don't go looking for buckets - you start by turning off the tap," Greta Thunberg.
June 17, 2023
THIS BOOK IS SO SO SO GOOD! Don't be misled by the cover and its one author, in reality, this book was written by more than one hundred experts in the field. LEADING SCIENTISTS! Who really understand what they are writing about.
The book is scary at many times. Our world and future is really messed up, and it is unbelievable how little we all seem to care. We people from the West did so much shady shit with our environment.
But the book never shamed anyone. It simply stated facts and ideas how we can move on.
Greta Thunberg has really got this topic. She and her co-authors understood the multidimensionality of the climate emergency and how the only approach we can take is intersectional. I am really in awe with the diverse perspectives this book has taken into account and how it does not shy away from complexity and paradoxes.
I have just listened to it so far, but will get the hard copy now too. And I will read and re-read and read again many times. Each chapter is gold. This is the biggest thing of our times, especially when we consider how it is interlinked with every other crisis.
I pledge myself to this cause.
More to come.
Please read it. Even just one chapter.
The book is scary at many times. Our world and future is really messed up, and it is unbelievable how little we all seem to care. We people from the West did so much shady shit with our environment.
But the book never shamed anyone. It simply stated facts and ideas how we can move on.
Greta Thunberg has really got this topic. She and her co-authors understood the multidimensionality of the climate emergency and how the only approach we can take is intersectional. I am really in awe with the diverse perspectives this book has taken into account and how it does not shy away from complexity and paradoxes.
I have just listened to it so far, but will get the hard copy now too. And I will read and re-read and read again many times. Each chapter is gold. This is the biggest thing of our times, especially when we consider how it is interlinked with every other crisis.
I pledge myself to this cause.
More to come.
Please read it. Even just one chapter.
December 26, 2023
A great collection of information on the climate crisis, compiled by Greta and written by several scientists and other people. Loved the edition I read, there were some nice illustrations. It's quite a big book, so nice to tackle in bits, but it is well written and easy to read. Hopefully many people will read this important book.
June 19, 2023
"It is important that we do not blame individuals for what they do or don't do."
For those people that come to this book full of misplaced anger and resent I say, read the book. Greta voices many of the complaints that you have of what is wrong with the way climate change is being handled and she is the harshest critic of the way politicians are shifting the blame for it and lying to the public.
For those already familiar with Greta's message it is a good reminder that the pressure on governments and the big polluters needs to be kept up, that things are currently not being handled in a way that will avert disaster. The governments are not "on top of this" and that we must make them be.
I recommend starting by reading the last chapter "What Next?" as it perfectly contains Greta's important message. That the climate crisis will not be solved by the consumer taking on a myriad of miniscule tasks to reduce their impact (even though they help). That what is needed is for governments to take significant meaningful steps towards reducing emissions. Governments need to immediately stop giving out taxpayers' money to high emitting industries, they need to stop exempting some emissions from the carbon bookkeeping, they need to better inform the public and governments need to be willing to accept that often short term economic gains in the coming years will result in multiplied inevitable losses in the coming decades.
This is a superb book. Perfect for everybody that wants to know what the situation really is. Filled with reports from dozens of top professionals and great insights from Greta that has an incredibly strong grounded view of what problems we are facing, of what will work, what will not work and what needs to be done. The whole book is very accessible and can be read either from back to back or by area of interest like a sort of cliffnotes volume of the climate crisis.
Ever striving to present the reader with the facts, the book is not designed to give the reader false hope. In fact it points out many of the false hopes being catered to the public in today's politics. But still it was not a depressing read, it felt more like being told by a friend "just how it really is" because only then can you decide what you want to do about it.
For those people that come to this book full of misplaced anger and resent I say, read the book. Greta voices many of the complaints that you have of what is wrong with the way climate change is being handled and she is the harshest critic of the way politicians are shifting the blame for it and lying to the public.
For those already familiar with Greta's message it is a good reminder that the pressure on governments and the big polluters needs to be kept up, that things are currently not being handled in a way that will avert disaster. The governments are not "on top of this" and that we must make them be.
I recommend starting by reading the last chapter "What Next?" as it perfectly contains Greta's important message. That the climate crisis will not be solved by the consumer taking on a myriad of miniscule tasks to reduce their impact (even though they help). That what is needed is for governments to take significant meaningful steps towards reducing emissions. Governments need to immediately stop giving out taxpayers' money to high emitting industries, they need to stop exempting some emissions from the carbon bookkeeping, they need to better inform the public and governments need to be willing to accept that often short term economic gains in the coming years will result in multiplied inevitable losses in the coming decades.
This is a superb book. Perfect for everybody that wants to know what the situation really is. Filled with reports from dozens of top professionals and great insights from Greta that has an incredibly strong grounded view of what problems we are facing, of what will work, what will not work and what needs to be done. The whole book is very accessible and can be read either from back to back or by area of interest like a sort of cliffnotes volume of the climate crisis.
Ever striving to present the reader with the facts, the book is not designed to give the reader false hope. In fact it points out many of the false hopes being catered to the public in today's politics. But still it was not a depressing read, it felt more like being told by a friend "just how it really is" because only then can you decide what you want to do about it.
Want to read
May 27, 2022
February 15, 2023
"And if a schoolchild's strike could ignite a global protest, what could we do collectively if we tried?"
When all else fails, write a book. "Pitching A Hissy Fit For Profit". Then, obviously, you could finish school and the rest of us could "collectively" continue to laugh. Greta Thunberg lolololool what a tool, say her name again rotflmao
When all else fails, write a book. "Pitching A Hissy Fit For Profit". Then, obviously, you could finish school and the rest of us could "collectively" continue to laugh. Greta Thunberg lolololool what a tool, say her name again rotflmao
November 17, 2022
The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg is a comprehensive book about our interlinked climate and environmental crises. It follows on from Greta’s previous books including No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, and the co-authored, Our House Is On Fire, both of which are fantastic reads.
The Climate Book is different from Greta’s previous books in that she acted as a curator as well as an author, gathering a massive group of experts in various areas. As such the book is a one-stop book containing extensive material on just about every area of the ecological crises you can think of. It’s full of facts, figures and charts giving a current overview of where the world is currently at. It shows the trajectory we’re on which is leading us towards climate catastrophe, but also provides solutions for how we change tack.
Around 100 experts contributed to The Climate Book, which is an incredible achievement. All of these people wrote about their areas of expertise and included scientists, authors, activists and economists. Some of the climate scientists include Johan Rockström, Katharine Hayhoe, Michael Mann and Stefan Rahmstorf.
Prominent authors and writers include Amitav Ghosh, Bill McKibben, David Wallace-Wells, Elizabeth Kolbert, Erica Chenoweth, George Monbiot, Jason Hickel, Kate Raworth, Margaret Atwood, Naomi Klein, Naomi Oreskes, Robin Wall Kimmerer and Thomas Piketty. There are so many notable names, that it’s hard not to list all 100 people, however, it’s also worth pointing out that the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was a contributor, alongside Lord Nicholas Stern, who led the Stern Review on the economics of the climate crisis.
While having so many expert contributors makes this a fascinating and key resource in the climate cannon, it can at times feel a bit overwhelming, not just in terms of what humanity is doing, but also with the sheer weight of facts leaping off the page. There is sometimes a bit of repetition between the contributors, but that’s to be expected given the fact that 100 people wrote sub-chapters for the book.
A key quote that stood out to me (and there were many to choose from!) neatly sums up humanity’s impact on the natural world: “Every year, an estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into our oceans. Every day, we use around 100 million barrels of oil. Every minute, we subsidize the production and burning of coal, oil and gas by $11 million. Every second, an area the size of a football field of forest is cut down.”
For those who’ve kept up-to-date with climate news, books and research papers, there may not be a great deal that’s new in here. However, what this book does is consolidate a mountain of information into one place. To put it simply, if someone asked you what book they should read about the climate crisis to give them the best picture of what’s happening, The Climate Book would likely be that book.
My full review can be found here: www.ryanmizzen.com/the-climate-book-b...
The Climate Book is different from Greta’s previous books in that she acted as a curator as well as an author, gathering a massive group of experts in various areas. As such the book is a one-stop book containing extensive material on just about every area of the ecological crises you can think of. It’s full of facts, figures and charts giving a current overview of where the world is currently at. It shows the trajectory we’re on which is leading us towards climate catastrophe, but also provides solutions for how we change tack.
Around 100 experts contributed to The Climate Book, which is an incredible achievement. All of these people wrote about their areas of expertise and included scientists, authors, activists and economists. Some of the climate scientists include Johan Rockström, Katharine Hayhoe, Michael Mann and Stefan Rahmstorf.
Prominent authors and writers include Amitav Ghosh, Bill McKibben, David Wallace-Wells, Elizabeth Kolbert, Erica Chenoweth, George Monbiot, Jason Hickel, Kate Raworth, Margaret Atwood, Naomi Klein, Naomi Oreskes, Robin Wall Kimmerer and Thomas Piketty. There are so many notable names, that it’s hard not to list all 100 people, however, it’s also worth pointing out that the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was a contributor, alongside Lord Nicholas Stern, who led the Stern Review on the economics of the climate crisis.
While having so many expert contributors makes this a fascinating and key resource in the climate cannon, it can at times feel a bit overwhelming, not just in terms of what humanity is doing, but also with the sheer weight of facts leaping off the page. There is sometimes a bit of repetition between the contributors, but that’s to be expected given the fact that 100 people wrote sub-chapters for the book.
A key quote that stood out to me (and there were many to choose from!) neatly sums up humanity’s impact on the natural world: “Every year, an estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into our oceans. Every day, we use around 100 million barrels of oil. Every minute, we subsidize the production and burning of coal, oil and gas by $11 million. Every second, an area the size of a football field of forest is cut down.”
For those who’ve kept up-to-date with climate news, books and research papers, there may not be a great deal that’s new in here. However, what this book does is consolidate a mountain of information into one place. To put it simply, if someone asked you what book they should read about the climate crisis to give them the best picture of what’s happening, The Climate Book would likely be that book.
My full review can be found here: www.ryanmizzen.com/the-climate-book-b...
November 23, 2022
Verreweg het belangrijkste boek wat ik dit jaar gelezen heb
June 25, 2023
Brutal and uncompromising look at the state of the global climate emergency that the Earth is facing. I appreciated the approach here, bringing on other voices and experts to convey important information in relatively short essay articles, particularly given the large size and heavy subject matter. It's quite effective at conveying the sense of urgency.
March 9, 2023
First, let me say that The Climate Book is important and is worth the read. And everyone should pick it up and read it, or skim through it, at least. It wasn’t, however, everything that it was projected to be. And left me wanting more… but not in a good way, unfortunately.
Overall, The Climate Book covers some of the critical data and arguments surrounding current climate science (which is still in its infancy, really). However, many of the chapters have redundant information, to the point that I was starting to tune out while I was reading the book– which is terrible to say, but it’s true. A lot of what is in the book could have been condensed into less than 100 pages and would have had a greater impact that way. It’s only the fifth part of the book that tells us much about what should happen now when it comes to our world and its climate.
If you aren’t too familiar with climate science, take your time reading the whole book. If you are familiar with climate science, you can easily skim the first four parts of the book and focus on the fifth part of the book.
Another thing that irked me about this book was that I thought Greta would have the central voice in this book (which is a strong one!) and that it would be more about advocacy and what she has to say. Honestly, I thought she would shake things up. Instead, the subject matter, and her voice, were toned down too much and made the typical error books and reports about climate science do– they made dire extraordinarily important information about our planet boring, very boring. It hurts me to say this, but it’s true. And now is not the time to tone down what we have to say about climate science!
In addition, whoever formatted the book shouldn’t have put Greta’s sections on dark pages with a dark font. I actually have decent eyesight with my contacts, so if I was struggling to read these sections (the only sections I really wanted to read, honestly), then those who have poor eyesight certainly are.
Overall, The Climate Book covers some of the critical data and arguments surrounding current climate science (which is still in its infancy, really). However, many of the chapters have redundant information, to the point that I was starting to tune out while I was reading the book– which is terrible to say, but it’s true. A lot of what is in the book could have been condensed into less than 100 pages and would have had a greater impact that way. It’s only the fifth part of the book that tells us much about what should happen now when it comes to our world and its climate.
If you aren’t too familiar with climate science, take your time reading the whole book. If you are familiar with climate science, you can easily skim the first four parts of the book and focus on the fifth part of the book.
Another thing that irked me about this book was that I thought Greta would have the central voice in this book (which is a strong one!) and that it would be more about advocacy and what she has to say. Honestly, I thought she would shake things up. Instead, the subject matter, and her voice, were toned down too much and made the typical error books and reports about climate science do– they made dire extraordinarily important information about our planet boring, very boring. It hurts me to say this, but it’s true. And now is not the time to tone down what we have to say about climate science!
In addition, whoever formatted the book shouldn’t have put Greta’s sections on dark pages with a dark font. I actually have decent eyesight with my contacts, so if I was struggling to read these sections (the only sections I really wanted to read, honestly), then those who have poor eyesight certainly are.
December 5, 2022
Greta has managed to get a whole bunch of experts to write about their research, and thereby giving them a prominent platform to broadcast the current state of the scientific consensus.
She has managed to collect contributions written by a lot of influential people, from the DG of WHO and Nicholas Stern to Margaret Atwood and Thomas Piketty. Taken together they provide a damning indictment of our current actions towards climate change. The measures taken so far don't even add up to a bad joke.
A lot of what she says is common sense and scientific orthodoxy, but unfortunately she also gives a voice to the conservative retro-nostalgic viewpoint that aboriginal peoples know better. While it's true that any population that has managed to survive for thousands of generations in the rain forest is probably well adapted to that life - but it does not follow that they are well adapted for life in a changing climate!
In many ways, Bill Gates' book 'How to avoid a Climate Disaster' is much more realistic, but both books are interesting and add to the discussion.
She has managed to collect contributions written by a lot of influential people, from the DG of WHO and Nicholas Stern to Margaret Atwood and Thomas Piketty. Taken together they provide a damning indictment of our current actions towards climate change. The measures taken so far don't even add up to a bad joke.
A lot of what she says is common sense and scientific orthodoxy, but unfortunately she also gives a voice to the conservative retro-nostalgic viewpoint that aboriginal peoples know better. While it's true that any population that has managed to survive for thousands of generations in the rain forest is probably well adapted to that life - but it does not follow that they are well adapted for life in a changing climate!
In many ways, Bill Gates' book 'How to avoid a Climate Disaster' is much more realistic, but both books are interesting and add to the discussion.
April 3, 2023
"We cannot live sustainably in an unsustainable world. No matter how hard we try."
This book was so incredibly put together, each chapter written by an expert in their field on such a wide variety of aspects of the climate change crisis. From food sovereignty to carbon capture, I've learned so much and been incredibly inspired to continue to take individual action and advocate for systemic changes.
This book was so incredibly put together, each chapter written by an expert in their field on such a wide variety of aspects of the climate change crisis. From food sovereignty to carbon capture, I've learned so much and been incredibly inspired to continue to take individual action and advocate for systemic changes.
October 25, 2022
Prachtig vormgegeven met gekleurde bedrukking aan de binnenkant, en vol heldere inzichten. Aanrader voor eenieder die meer over het klimaat wilt weten, vooral omdat het vanuit verschillende hoeken en standpunten van de wereld wordt verteld. Absoluut een tip voor de feestdagen, omdat het zo mooi is vormgegeven.
NOTE: ik ben wellicht iets bevooroordeeld omdat ik sinds kort bij DBB werk.
NOTE: ik ben wellicht iets bevooroordeeld omdat ik sinds kort bij DBB werk.
January 29, 2023
De waarheid kwetst, dit boek is een geen opbeurende lectuur, maar zou verplichte kost moeten zijn voor iedereen.
May 17, 2023
"El hecho de que tres mil millones de personas gasten menos energía, sobre una base per cápita anual, que un frigorífico estadounidense estándar nos da una idea de lo lejos que nos encontramos hoy de la equidad global y la justicia climática."
"A todos nos afecta la misma tormenta, pero sin duda no estamos en el mismo barco."
"La crisis climática y de sostenibilidad, en muchos sentidos, es la saga perfecta. O, si se quiere, la prueba moral definitiva."
"Todvía estamos a tiempo de corregir nuestros errores, de alejarnos del borde del abismo y elegir un camino nuevo. Un camino justo y sostenible."
Greta Thunberg
"A todos nos afecta la misma tormenta, pero sin duda no estamos en el mismo barco."
"La crisis climática y de sostenibilidad, en muchos sentidos, es la saga perfecta. O, si se quiere, la prueba moral definitiva."
"Todvía estamos a tiempo de corregir nuestros errores, de alejarnos del borde del abismo y elegir un camino nuevo. Un camino justo y sostenible."
Greta Thunberg
May 17, 2023
Yes the science is solid and sound and should move everyone to action to mitigate and eventually reverse the gradual mankind induced global ecocide; the overall tone of the text is intensely alarmist and does make for exhaustive reading/listening; the unrelenting onslaught of facts, figures, numbers and total doom scenarios at least in part undermines the purpose of this collection of essays; to urge the reader to feel the responsibility and to act.
April 19, 2023
Highly recommended. Essays from over 100 climate activists which terrified me. We must wake up. The cover says it all as it shows in vertical stripes by color the progression of avg global temp by year starting in 1684. Powerful and scary.
May 19, 2023
Despite knowing a little about climate before reading this I found parts of this challenging. The book does a good job at raising fear, but there's little to be optimistic about by the end.
March 22, 2024
'The Climate Book' should be mandatory reading for everyone, wherever you are, whatever you do, whoever you are. It should be part of our school curriculums, of our education systems. Greta Thunberg has created a remarkable compendium of essays, photos and data on climate change that come not only from her, but from many other subjects matter experts, from scientists, activists, authors and world leaders.
It's structured in chronological parts:
1/ How Climate Works
2/ How Our Planet Is Changing
3/ How It Affects Us
4/ What We've Done About It
5/ What We Must Do Now
These essays are fairly short, ranging between 2 and 5 pages, accessible, informative and engaging. Interspersed between them are also Greta's opinion pieces, which I read as more of a call to action as you process the data you have been presented with. She brings you back to the reality of today and reiterates in simply terms the constraints our systems presents and what is still in our power. And that is one of the main things I really loved about this book: it is genuinely for everyone. There is nothing fancy about it that would make it unapproachable. The natural phenomena, the political and economical systems, the correlations and consequences are well explained.
My response to the read was angry: Am I surrounded by idiots? Why are people not taking action? How can people around me be so complacent and selfish, not see the forest through the trees? The urgency is here, it's now, it's not going anywhere. On the contrary: warming of over 2C will have devastating consequences. The change in our environmental damages today has already caused irreparable damage in people being displaced, vulnerable food production, an increase in natural disasters, yet the actions that governments take are abysmal. Not only that, but they don't even report on the whole picture. International flights and shipping, as well as military costs, are not part of how they calculate the emissions of countries. Waste management is outsourced to countries with less regulation (for example the UK sending their waste to Turkey), where plastic sits on beaches, in forests, or has been burned to create more CO2. People revel in their beef steaks and burgers, with a forest the size of a football field disappearing every second due to the resources that beef needs: 50 calories for every calorie produced. Biodiversity has suffered immensely, and with oceans increasing in temperature and therefore acidity, it's sending fish to the poles and threatens their ability to birth.
The contributors place blame especially on the media and governments and I couldn't agree more. Our structures are built with people in power, yet they are ridiculously uninformed or choose to ignore the urgency of our planet falling apart and no longer able to sustain us. Media has long served as the loudspeakers of companies in the oil and gas industry, with BP for example placing the responsibility on the individuals by popularising the term of 'carbon footprint' and urging people to calculate their own in order to address it. But we cannot be sustainable in unsustainable systems.
The book does maintain a hopeful outlook - realistic but hopeful. There is a myriad of advice on what we can do, even if we are limited without the enforcement of laws that helds those responsible for ecocide accountable. Eating more plants, limiting our consumables, keeping our politicians accountable, travelling less by plane, educating ourselves, becoming activists, these are all things we can do today. Humans are social creatures, and history have shown protests turning things around with a 2.5% participation from the people.
I couldn't recommend this book more. I read it continuously, I know others choose to read an essay a day. But even though I was deeply affected and angry, I wanted to keep going. I wanted to know more, understand better, fuel my anger towards education and consequently action. I want to do more, I want to be better in living in harmony with the world around me.
Last but certainly not least, I admire the honesty of this book immensely. It raises the alarm effectively, and also addresses intersectional areas, such as how the poorest are the most impacted by climate change, yet it is caused primarily by the top 1%. They continue to act irresponsibly and also take advantage of the Global South, while no longer under the colony model, by hiring cheap labor in countries like Bangladesh, for further use of resources, production of unneeded goods that will soon be discarded, and of course exploitation of people.
We must take action now.
It's structured in chronological parts:
1/ How Climate Works
2/ How Our Planet Is Changing
3/ How It Affects Us
4/ What We've Done About It
5/ What We Must Do Now
These essays are fairly short, ranging between 2 and 5 pages, accessible, informative and engaging. Interspersed between them are also Greta's opinion pieces, which I read as more of a call to action as you process the data you have been presented with. She brings you back to the reality of today and reiterates in simply terms the constraints our systems presents and what is still in our power. And that is one of the main things I really loved about this book: it is genuinely for everyone. There is nothing fancy about it that would make it unapproachable. The natural phenomena, the political and economical systems, the correlations and consequences are well explained.
My response to the read was angry: Am I surrounded by idiots? Why are people not taking action? How can people around me be so complacent and selfish, not see the forest through the trees? The urgency is here, it's now, it's not going anywhere. On the contrary: warming of over 2C will have devastating consequences. The change in our environmental damages today has already caused irreparable damage in people being displaced, vulnerable food production, an increase in natural disasters, yet the actions that governments take are abysmal. Not only that, but they don't even report on the whole picture. International flights and shipping, as well as military costs, are not part of how they calculate the emissions of countries. Waste management is outsourced to countries with less regulation (for example the UK sending their waste to Turkey), where plastic sits on beaches, in forests, or has been burned to create more CO2. People revel in their beef steaks and burgers, with a forest the size of a football field disappearing every second due to the resources that beef needs: 50 calories for every calorie produced. Biodiversity has suffered immensely, and with oceans increasing in temperature and therefore acidity, it's sending fish to the poles and threatens their ability to birth.
The contributors place blame especially on the media and governments and I couldn't agree more. Our structures are built with people in power, yet they are ridiculously uninformed or choose to ignore the urgency of our planet falling apart and no longer able to sustain us. Media has long served as the loudspeakers of companies in the oil and gas industry, with BP for example placing the responsibility on the individuals by popularising the term of 'carbon footprint' and urging people to calculate their own in order to address it. But we cannot be sustainable in unsustainable systems.
The book does maintain a hopeful outlook - realistic but hopeful. There is a myriad of advice on what we can do, even if we are limited without the enforcement of laws that helds those responsible for ecocide accountable. Eating more plants, limiting our consumables, keeping our politicians accountable, travelling less by plane, educating ourselves, becoming activists, these are all things we can do today. Humans are social creatures, and history have shown protests turning things around with a 2.5% participation from the people.
I couldn't recommend this book more. I read it continuously, I know others choose to read an essay a day. But even though I was deeply affected and angry, I wanted to keep going. I wanted to know more, understand better, fuel my anger towards education and consequently action. I want to do more, I want to be better in living in harmony with the world around me.
Last but certainly not least, I admire the honesty of this book immensely. It raises the alarm effectively, and also addresses intersectional areas, such as how the poorest are the most impacted by climate change, yet it is caused primarily by the top 1%. They continue to act irresponsibly and also take advantage of the Global South, while no longer under the colony model, by hiring cheap labor in countries like Bangladesh, for further use of resources, production of unneeded goods that will soon be discarded, and of course exploitation of people.
We must take action now.
April 2, 2023
I have followed Greta Thunberg for a while, and I admire a lot her commitment to her activism and the message she conveys to the world. Climate change is a serious issue that we all need to understand better, especially when it comes to choices made by companies and world leaders. This book offers a collection of essays and data from many fronts of the battle against climate change. These are written by a wide variety of authors intermixed with Thunberg’s commentary.
The book is very informative. It starts with the science and facts around climate change, pollution, and greenhouse gases, continues with the negative effects that our irresponsible use of fossil fuels has caused, and ends the book with a variety of solutions proposed to mitigate these problems. Overall there are many aspects of the book that I found interesting, some that I disagreed with, and others that I found questionable. However, the book provides a strong collection of diverse voices which are all valuable to the conversations surrounding climate change.
For example, I think it is important to explain how the science behind the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere works. Using data to show how the world has been warming over the last few years, as well as the science behind weather cycles, and why some areas become drier or humid as the environments are changed. The book also explains the humanitarian effects of climate change, from first-hand stories of climate refugees, to how this crisis could make existing political struggles even worse. For example, a curious fact that stuck out to me is that warmer weather causes more political conflict (p. 188).
The final section of the book, which deals with solutions, is very powerful and optimistic. As I’ll explain later, there were several that made me raise an eyebrow, but I found the majority to be sensible solutions that individuals, governments, and corporations can partake in. Primarily, I think the best thing to combat climate change is to change the way we build cities and transportation. Many experts agree that reducing our dependency on cars in cities and prioritizing public transport is a good idea. We need to make buses and trains safer, greener, and more accessible. This has many great environmental impacts, as well as making our cities more beautiful, and having positive effects on the psychology of people.
Other solutions that I liked were maximizing carbon sinks, whose importance is restated many times in The Climate Book, making the shift to renewable energy in infrastructure, and scientific innovation. I also agree that gradual change in the way we consume and live in the west is important, as we live depending on much higher emissions than people in developing countries. This book is full of great and optimistic solutions, although restating the importance that long-term structural changes are going to be needed.
However, I have to admit that there are many questionable aspects to The Climate Book. Firstly, some of the information contradicts what is said by different sources. For example, according to Our World in Data, agriculture, forestry, and land use total 18.4% of all worldwide emissions, of which agriculture takes only 5.8%.1 In a similar number, Bill Gates claims in his book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster that agriculture takes up only 19% of these emissions.2 In the section “The Calorie Question” in The Climate Book, Michael Clark makes the claim that a whopping 30% of all global emissions are caused by agriculture. Calling it “The single largest driver of environmental degradation” (p. 248). The book is sprinkled with many other claims that raised my skeptical alarms, which made me dubious of other claims the book makes.
This is where I enter my second and third criticisms, which have to do with the other kind of solutions presented, and the overall tone of the book. There are many proposed ideas that seemed too utopic for me, not because they are not achievable in theory, but because they expect them to become a reality by 2050. The prime example of these is the idea that fossil fuels need to stop immediately, which would put the entire world to a halt. Or completely alter the way our economic system works from one day to the next. I understand that there are many issues with the way things are done today, which led us to the climate change crisis in the first place. But the way this book makes some politically charged claims and unrealistic solutions is overall damaging to the central message in my opinion.
In the initial and middle chapters of The Climate Book, Thunberg goes back and forth between environmental fatalism, and a constant restating that global leaders need to focus on actual solutions while claiming that “we need to completely transform our entire society”. I found this tone to be vague and defeatist, causing uncertainty among people who read these kinds of messages. I believe that climate anxiety is an increasing problem, especially among young people. I would like to talk more about this issue in the future, but I believe that messages need to be balanced between stating the urgency of the situation and keeping a realistic view of how we can achieve the climate goals.
Overall, I think that if you are just starting to learn about climate change, you should check out other books on the topic such as How To Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates, which offers a more robust and politically-neutral stance on these issues. But if you are a climate scientist or want to further expand your knowledge of the effects and proposed solutions, it is worth it to check out Thunberg’s perspective.
From my blog review: https://www.tomorrowmatters.net/book-...
The book is very informative. It starts with the science and facts around climate change, pollution, and greenhouse gases, continues with the negative effects that our irresponsible use of fossil fuels has caused, and ends the book with a variety of solutions proposed to mitigate these problems. Overall there are many aspects of the book that I found interesting, some that I disagreed with, and others that I found questionable. However, the book provides a strong collection of diverse voices which are all valuable to the conversations surrounding climate change.
For example, I think it is important to explain how the science behind the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere works. Using data to show how the world has been warming over the last few years, as well as the science behind weather cycles, and why some areas become drier or humid as the environments are changed. The book also explains the humanitarian effects of climate change, from first-hand stories of climate refugees, to how this crisis could make existing political struggles even worse. For example, a curious fact that stuck out to me is that warmer weather causes more political conflict (p. 188).
The final section of the book, which deals with solutions, is very powerful and optimistic. As I’ll explain later, there were several that made me raise an eyebrow, but I found the majority to be sensible solutions that individuals, governments, and corporations can partake in. Primarily, I think the best thing to combat climate change is to change the way we build cities and transportation. Many experts agree that reducing our dependency on cars in cities and prioritizing public transport is a good idea. We need to make buses and trains safer, greener, and more accessible. This has many great environmental impacts, as well as making our cities more beautiful, and having positive effects on the psychology of people.
Other solutions that I liked were maximizing carbon sinks, whose importance is restated many times in The Climate Book, making the shift to renewable energy in infrastructure, and scientific innovation. I also agree that gradual change in the way we consume and live in the west is important, as we live depending on much higher emissions than people in developing countries. This book is full of great and optimistic solutions, although restating the importance that long-term structural changes are going to be needed.
However, I have to admit that there are many questionable aspects to The Climate Book. Firstly, some of the information contradicts what is said by different sources. For example, according to Our World in Data, agriculture, forestry, and land use total 18.4% of all worldwide emissions, of which agriculture takes only 5.8%.1 In a similar number, Bill Gates claims in his book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster that agriculture takes up only 19% of these emissions.2 In the section “The Calorie Question” in The Climate Book, Michael Clark makes the claim that a whopping 30% of all global emissions are caused by agriculture. Calling it “The single largest driver of environmental degradation” (p. 248). The book is sprinkled with many other claims that raised my skeptical alarms, which made me dubious of other claims the book makes.
This is where I enter my second and third criticisms, which have to do with the other kind of solutions presented, and the overall tone of the book. There are many proposed ideas that seemed too utopic for me, not because they are not achievable in theory, but because they expect them to become a reality by 2050. The prime example of these is the idea that fossil fuels need to stop immediately, which would put the entire world to a halt. Or completely alter the way our economic system works from one day to the next. I understand that there are many issues with the way things are done today, which led us to the climate change crisis in the first place. But the way this book makes some politically charged claims and unrealistic solutions is overall damaging to the central message in my opinion.
In the initial and middle chapters of The Climate Book, Thunberg goes back and forth between environmental fatalism, and a constant restating that global leaders need to focus on actual solutions while claiming that “we need to completely transform our entire society”. I found this tone to be vague and defeatist, causing uncertainty among people who read these kinds of messages. I believe that climate anxiety is an increasing problem, especially among young people. I would like to talk more about this issue in the future, but I believe that messages need to be balanced between stating the urgency of the situation and keeping a realistic view of how we can achieve the climate goals.
Overall, I think that if you are just starting to learn about climate change, you should check out other books on the topic such as How To Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates, which offers a more robust and politically-neutral stance on these issues. But if you are a climate scientist or want to further expand your knowledge of the effects and proposed solutions, it is worth it to check out Thunberg’s perspective.
From my blog review: https://www.tomorrowmatters.net/book-...
June 16, 2023
Uff. Es hat keinen Spaß gemacht, dieses Buch zu lesen, wirklich nicht. Ich kannte zwar einige Fakten schon, vieles war mir aber in der Klarheit und Tragweite neu. Und das tut weh zu lesen. Extrem weh. Denn kurz gesagt, sind wir ziemlich am Arsch.
Aber darum ist es wichtig, dieses Buch zu lesen. Jeder sollte es tun. Wer sich bisher noch nicht mit Klimaschutz, Klimakrise, Artensterben usw. beschäftigt hat, dem wird dieses Buch die Augen öffnen. Wer sich damit auskennt, wird sicher noch manche neuen Aspekte entdecken.
Wichtig ist, durchzuhalten. Die Anfangskapitel (z.B. worum geht es, was ist bisher passiert (Spoiler Alert: fast nichts)) sind harter Tobak und erschreckend. Weil man kaum begreifen kann, wie jahrzehntelang nichts getan wurde, obwohl die Fakten bekannt waren. Weil sogar aktiv gebremst, verschleiert und belogen wurde, aus Profitgier und Machterhalt.
Aber trotz allem gibt das Buch auch manche positive Aussicht und viele Anregungen, um für das Klima aktiv zu werden. Und das ist die wichtigste Message des Buchs.
Aber darum ist es wichtig, dieses Buch zu lesen. Jeder sollte es tun. Wer sich bisher noch nicht mit Klimaschutz, Klimakrise, Artensterben usw. beschäftigt hat, dem wird dieses Buch die Augen öffnen. Wer sich damit auskennt, wird sicher noch manche neuen Aspekte entdecken.
Wichtig ist, durchzuhalten. Die Anfangskapitel (z.B. worum geht es, was ist bisher passiert (Spoiler Alert: fast nichts)) sind harter Tobak und erschreckend. Weil man kaum begreifen kann, wie jahrzehntelang nichts getan wurde, obwohl die Fakten bekannt waren. Weil sogar aktiv gebremst, verschleiert und belogen wurde, aus Profitgier und Machterhalt.
Aber trotz allem gibt das Buch auch manche positive Aussicht und viele Anregungen, um für das Klima aktiv zu werden. Und das ist die wichtigste Message des Buchs.
February 15, 2023
Is this the girl traveling all around the world on private jets? Yeah. Next, she is gonna write a book + Bill Gates about how privates jets are bad for the climate, while traveling on one. Pure propaganda.
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