Atmosphere of Hope

Climate change must be the biggest challenge facing us now, and will continue to be for at least one hundred more years. I do not know nearly enough about this problem, but I do know we need to take action, and that the best place any of us can start is to learn more. “Atmosphere of Hope” by Tim Flannery is an excellent introduction to many climate issues, and has enough coverage for those already in the know who may want a fuller picture.

Australia’s Tim Flannery is a great scientist and science communicator. Many examples come from his home continent, but his knowledge is global. In this book, he gives fair explanations of all relevant climate topics. (I’ll just say it here: to deny climate change at this point is worse than foolish – it is irresponsible and shameful. That’s all I will say to that effect at this time.) The problem is not only global warming, but increased greenhouse gases, carbon emissions in particular. There is not, however, one simple solution, even if we could halt such emissions immediately – and how many reading this think that will happen?

Think of the title of this book, though – there is reason for optimism. So many ideas have been proposed to reduce the earth’s rising temperature. There are good ideas and bad ideas. Injecting sulfur particles into the atmosphere is a bad idea; painting buildings or other structures a lighter color to cool down is a better idea. Seaweed farming and the use of biochar are other good solutions, and there are many more creative technology proposals. However, we need to be cautious: unforeseen consequences could make things much worse. A good term to know, and an idea to understand, is the earth’s “albedo,” its reflectiveness that determines two-way temperatures. By overdoing temperature reduction, we could have even more extreme events. Such events, by the way, are the bigger threat to biodiversity than the overall average temperature rise. I keep thinking, Naomi Klein is right: "this changes everything" (another book I need to read).

To turn the focus back to this book review, this one is composed of concise chapters that focus on topics worthy of discussion. This is not a pleasant subject, but one that won’t go away by not thinking about. At times, yes, this is dry, but easy enough to read through, rather than getting caught up on every detail. For example, the costs or amounts of money sound like a lot of numbers; on the other hand, I didn’t know about disinvestment [divestment], but I could already see that the whole economy will change. For the most part the tone is as readable as something like this can be, and adds a valuable synthesis to the international discussion.

With the climate summit in Paris, of all places, coming up, this is an especially timely read. The goals Flannery refers to throughout are keeping the earth’s temperature from rising 2⁰C and the removal of one gigatonne of carbon from the atmosphere per year for the next fifty years. This is not impossible, and there are many things we can do in combination to get there. It’s up to us!