In a sweeping, powerful book, Naomi Klein articulates why in order to effectively stand up to climate The book everyone should read on climate change.
In a sweeping, powerful book, Naomi Klein articulates why in order to effectively stand up to climate change we must fundamentally restructure the global economy. It is clear that the current economic system - built on neoliberal ideas, particularly around global trade - has utterly failed to stand up to the challenge, and may in fact be fundamentally incapable of doing so. So we find ourselves answering the question: what do we value more? The philosophy underpinning the economy, or our physical environment? I certainly know my answer.
The book is not without its flaws. It's certainly not an appropriate primer to the physical nature of climate change - barring a few vivid case studies it doesn't deal with the science. Klein also makes her points in a somewhat roundabout way, almost muffling her points with too many case studies rather than cutting to the chase. Also, despite the book making extensive efforts to highlight the plight of disenfranchised ethnic groups, it is still very western-centric. But these flaws fall away with the scope of what she has accomplished with the book. It is a powerful call to action, one of those books that causes scales to fall away from your eyes, and makes you see a problem that was standing in plain sight. If you're not pissed off, demanding change, after reading it then we fundamentally disagree on humanity's place on the Earth.
I've long been of the opinion that a chronological study of a subject is often the best way to learn, but in the case of something as horrifically comI've long been of the opinion that a chronological study of a subject is often the best way to learn, but in the case of something as horrifically complex as climate change you might expect a topic/theme based approach to be more understandable. Happily Spencer R. Weart proves this incorrect, and The Discovery of Global Warming is a fantastic introduction to the subject. Starting with the earliest rumblings of global energy balance (right back to Joseph Fourier!) and culminating with the IPCC's report in 2007, the book traces the convoluted and hesitant path to our current understanding. Crucially, the book takes a skeptic (perhaps skeptic-lite) approach to any new ideas being put forward - exactly as the scientific established did at the time, and continues to do so today. Before any idea is accepted as correct it must pass rounds of debates, rebuttal, discussion, but most importantly of all: data. The book accurately shows how the current field of global warming research has been arrived at cautiously and backed by concrete data, not in fits and starts in some attempt to obtain extra funding (as some seem to believe). On that subject, it also does a great job at representing how out of step with the rest of the world the American public is in perceiving the subject, and lightly covers the link between politics and the perception of science.
Really I would have liked to see more thorough coverage of this link, but then that wasn't the objective of the book. Also if I had to be a harsh critic I would have preferred some of the more pervasive climate change myths (e.g. the upper tropospheric cooling) which are introduced to be more thoroughly debunked rather than just hand-waved away. Considering how skeptical the rest of the book was this felt like a notable absence.
In general though this is an excellent introduction to the subject, and particularly suitable for those who take a skeptical view of climate scientists....more
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