 As a one-stop shop for the latest facts about the science and politics of global warming, this is a superb vademecum, though not a source of comfort. The basic physics of how increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations trap more heat at the planet's surface, limpidly explained here, has been understood for more than a century. The oil companies themselves knew it very well in the 1970s, and it now commands wide public acceptance, to the extent that only a tiny rump of wilfully ignorant or actively malicious, swivel-headed cranks now deny it. What more people deny is the scale of mitigation required. Thanks to all those years of lying, we now need to move extremely quickly to cut carbon emissions in order to limit further warming and concomitant rises in sea level and desertification. Meanwhile, nimby-pandering governments are banning onshore wind farms or solar panels in fields. This makes Greta very angry, and it should make us angry too. The mitigation-deniers are, though, helped by the rhetorical excesses of their opponents. From various contributors in this book – including Thunberg herself – we hear that the planet itself is in danger, which it simply isn't. Humans could not destroy Earth even if they wanted to; t){kind=link}
More than 100 scientists and campaigners have contributed to the 19-year-old Swede’s book; the best of them look to technology for solutions
When you have achieved a certain level of celebrity, you don’t actually have to write a book; you can “create” one. In this instance, the unusual cover line “created by Greta Thunberg” is a replacement for the boring old “edited by”, because the teenage Swedish sensation has collected contributions from more than 100 scientists and activists, contributing a few pages of introduction herself to each section.
The result is a book both important and stunningly handsome, with sober yet stylish typography, colour diagrams and charts, and liberal use of gorgeous or depressing photography. Here is a team of huskies pulling a sled through shallow water. Here is a family of polar bears living in an abandoned wooden hut. (To be fair, the latter look quite happy.)
As a one-stop shop for the latest facts about the science and politics of global warming, this is a superb vademecum, though not a source of comfort. The basic physics of how increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations trap more heat at the planet’s surface, limpidly explained here, has been understood for more than a century. The oil companies themselves knew it very well in the 1970s, and it now commands wide public acceptance, to the extent that only a tiny rump of wilfully ignorant or actively malicious, swivel-headed cranks now deny it.
What more people deny is the scale of mitigation required. Thanks to all those years of lying, we now need to move extremely quickly to cut carbon emissions in order to limit further warming and concomitant rises in sea level and desertification. Meanwhile, nimby-pandering governments are banning onshore wind farms or solar panels in fields. This makes Greta very angry, and it should make us angry too.