THE CLIMATE BOOK - Greta Thunberg
About a year ago I watched a documentary about Greta Thunberg (she would be disheartened to know I watched it while on a flight) and my impression of the young lady was very positive. Now, having read this book, I have to say that she is an incredibly impressive, very well-spoken, intelligent young woman. Her passion regarding climate change awareness is unmatched. And the eloquence to which she expresses her concerns is truly incredible. I haven't seen anything about a translator, and if this young woman is writing her essays and introductions in a language that is not her native language, I'm just blown away.
If you don't know who Greta Thunberg is, you were not paying attention to the news the past five or so years. Donald Trump has no shortage of adversaries, but possibly, one of the biggest thorns in his side during his presidency was this school girl from Sweden.
The book is FULL of very short essays and articles, the majority of them scientific treatise, complete with charts and graphs explaining that the science behind climate change is real and/or what the end results might be if we continue to let the climate change run unchecked.
Occasionally there is an essay that relies less on the science and more on an appeal to human nature and generally enjoyed these a bit more. Those essays with the charts and graphs were meaningless to me. I trusted that the science was checked by experts. There were moments though, even in the more scientific pieces that grabbed my attention. For instance - I'm aware of rising oceans, but I've been attributing it to the melting ice at the poles, but in Kate Marvel's essay, "Droughts and Floods," she writes:
A warming global climate will inevitably cause sea levels to rise, for two main reasons. First, water in the ocean expands when it is warmed and, given that the oceans are thousands of metres deep, even a tiny percentage of expansion can cause a few metres of sea-level rise. Second, land ice masses are shrinking, adding more water to the oceans. We have enough ice on Earth to raise sea levels by 65 metres – about the height of a twenty-storey building – and, at the end of the last ice age, sea levels rose by 120 metres as a result of approximately 5°C of warming.
The 'expanding' water was a new concept to me.
"Soil" by Jennifer L. Soong was a powerful piece, as was "Vector-Borne Diseases" by Felipe J. Colón-González (even with the charts and graphs). "Generally speaking, warmer temperatures are better for vector-borne disease transmission," writes Colón-González. This is something I hadn't considered in the discussions about why global warming is a problem.
Bill McKibben's essay, "The Persistence of Fossil Fuels" is among my favorite pieces in the book, along with "Mending Our Relationship with the Earth" by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and "The Myth of Recycling" by Nina Schrank was sobering, disheartening, and kind of makes me want to stop trying altogether.
But these are the essays by the professionals. Mixed in among these pieces are essays by Greta Thunberg. My favorite reads, by far. And if you've watched any of her rallies or programs about her, you know that she's willing to hit hard, pulling no punches. And she doesn't punch like a lightweight.
She writes, near the end of this book:
If you are looking for answers to how we can fix the climate crisis without changing our behaviours, then you will be forever disappointed, because our leaders have left it far too late for that. However, that does not mean we do not have solutions, because we do. We have lots of them. We just have to change our perspective about them – just as we need to redefine hope and progress so that those words are no longer synonymous with destruction. A solution is not just something that automatically replaces whatever is no longer working. A solution can also be to simply stop doing something.
But she goes on to say,
But it is important that we do not blame anyone for what they do or don’t do. Life is complicated enough as it is. In no way can we expect that we as individuals should compensate for the wrongdoings of governments, media, multinational corporations and billionaires. That is an absurd idea. As individuals we can do many things, but this is not a crisis that can be solved by one person acting alone.
In order to create the necessary changes, we need a series of different layers of actions. We need both structural system changes and individual changes. And on top of that we need a cultural transformation when it comes to norms and discourse. All of this is entirely possible. If we are prepared to change, then we can still avoid the worst consequences. There is still time. So yes, we can still fix this.
My only real concern about a book like this is that the people who NEED to read it, won't. This is likely going to be purchased, gifted, and/or read by people who are already believers and supporters of climate change action. But it's worth supporting Thunberg by purchasing a copy of this book. None of the articles or essays will take more than five minutes to read - they are blessedly brief (too much overt science and my eyes would blur over).
This book contains the following:
PART ONE /
How Climate Works
1.1 ‘To solve this problem, we need to understand it’ / Greta Thunberg
1.2 The Deep History of Carbon Dioxide - Peter Brannen / Science journalist, contributing writer at the Atlantic and author of The Ends of the World.
1.3 Our Evolutionary Impact - Beth Shapiro / Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California Santa Cruz and author of Life as We Made It.
1.4 Civilization and Extinction - Elizabeth Kolbert / Staff writer for the New Yorker and the author, most recently, of Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future.
1.5 ‘The science is as solid as it gets’ / Greta Thunberg
1.6 The Discovery of Climate Change - Michael Oppenheimer / Atmospheric scientist, Princeton University’s Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs and long-time IPCC author.
1.7 Why Didn’t They Act? - Naomi Oreskes / Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.
1.8 Tipping Points and Feedback Loops - Johan Rockström / Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor at Potsdam University.
1.9 ‘This is the biggest story in the world’ / Greta Thunberg
PART TWO /
How Our Planet Is Changing
2.1 ‘The weather seems to be on steroids’ / Greta Thunberg
2.2 Heat - Katharine Hayhoe / Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor at Texas Tech University and author of Saving Us.
2.3 Methane and Other Gases - Zeke Hausfather / Climate research lead at Stripe, research scientist at Berkeley Earth.
2.4 Air Pollution and Aerosols - Bjørn H. Samset / Senior researcher at CICERO Centre for International Climate Research, an IPCC lead author, and expert on the effects of non-CO2 emissions.
2.5 Clouds - Paulo Ceppi / Lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute and the Department of Physics at Imperial College London.
2.6 Arctic Warming and the Jet Stream - Jennifer Francis / Senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center and formerly Research Professor in Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University.
2.7 Dangerous Weather - Friederike Otto / Senior lecturer in Climate Science at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London and co-lead of World Weather Attribution.
2.8 ‘The snowball has been set in motion’ / Greta Thunberg
2.9 Droughts and Floods - Kate Marvel / Climate scientist at the Columbia University Center for Climate Systems research and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
2.10 Ice Sheets, Shelves and Glaciers - Ricarda Winkelmann / Professor of Climate System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the University of Potsdam.
2.11 Warming Oceans and Rising Seas - Stefan Rahmstorf / Head of Earth System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute and Professor of Physics of the Oceans at the University of Potsdam.
2.12 Acidification and Marine Ecosystems - Hans-Otto Pörtner / Climatologist, physiologist, Professor and Head of the Department of Integrative Ecophysiology at the Alfred Wegener Institute.
2.13 Microplastics - Karin Kvale / Senior researcher at GNS Science and expert in modelling the role of marine ecology in global biogeochemical cycles.
2.14 Fresh Water - Peter H. Gleick / Co-founder and president-emeritus of the Pacific Institute, member US National Academy of Sciences, hydroclimatologist.
2.15 ‘It is much closer to home than we think’ / Greta Thunberg
2.16 Wildfires - Joëlle Gergis / Senior lecturer in Climate Science at the Australian National University and lead author on the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
2.17 The Amazon - Carlos Nobre / Earth System scientist on The Amazon, Chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon and the convener of the Amazonia 4.0 project.
Julia Arieira / Plant Ecologist and Earth system scientist at Brazil’s Federal University of Espírito Santo.
Nathália Nascimento / Geographer and Earth system scientist at Brazil’s Federal University of Espírito Santo.
2.18 Boreal and Temperate Forests - Beverly Law / Professor Emeritus of Global Change Biology and Terrestrial Systems Science at Oregon State University.
2.19 Terrestrial Biodiversity - Andy Purvis / Biodiversity researcher at the Natural History Museum in London; leda chapter of the first IPBES Global Assessment of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services.
Adriana De Palma / World Economic Forum Young Scientist and senior researcher at the Natural History Museum in London.
2.20 Insects - Dave Goulson / Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex; author of over 400 scientific articles on insect ecology and, among other books, Silent Earth.
2.21 Nature’s Calendar - Keith W. Larson / Ecologist researching environmental change in the Arctic and Director of the Arctic Centre at Umeå University.
2.22 Soil - Jennifer L. Soong / Soil carbon scientist at Corteva; affiliate scientist at Colorado State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
2.23 Permafrost - Örjan Gustafsson / Professor in Biogeochemistry at Stockholm University, and elected Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
2.24 What Happens at 1.5, 2 and 4°C of Warming? - Tamsin Edwards / Climate scientist at King’s College London, an IPCC lead author and science communicator specializing in uncertainties in sea-level rise.
PART THREE /
How It Affects Us
3.1 ‘The world has a fever’ / Greta Thunberg
3.2 Health and Climate - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus / Director-general of the World Health Organization.
3.3 Heat and Illness - Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera / Environmental epidemiologist, leader of the Climate Change and Health research group at the University of Bern.
3.4 Air Pollution - Drew Shindell / Climate scientist and Distinguished Professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, author on multiple IPCC Assessments.
3.5 Vector-borne Diseases - Felipe J. Colón-González / Assistant Professor at the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
3.6 Antibiotic Resistance - John Brownstein / Chief innovation officer, Boston Children’s Hospital; Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School.
Derek MacFadden / Clinician scientist at the Ottawa Hospital; Junior Clinical Research Chair in Antibiotic Use and Antibiotic Resistance at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
Sarah McGough / Infectious disease epidemiologist, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Mauricio Santillana / Professor of Physics, Northeastern University, and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
3.7 Food and Nutrition - Samuel S. Myers / Principal research scientist, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Director, Planetary Health Alliance.
3.8 ‘We are not all in the same boat’ / Greta Thunberg
3.9 Life at 1.1°C - Saleemul Huq / Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh.
3.10 Environmental Racism - Jacqueline Patterson / Founder and Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project, a resource hub for Black front-line climate justice leadership.
3.11 Climate Refugees - Abrahm Lustgarten / Investigative reporter for ProPublica and the New York Times Magazine; author of a forthcoming book about climate-driven migration in the US.
3.12 Sea-level Rise and Small Islands - Michael Taylor / Caribbean climate scientist, IPCC lead author, professor and dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, the University of the West Indies, Mona.
3.13 Rain in the Sahel - Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim / Indigenous woman, geographer and coordinator of the Association of Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad; UN Sustainable Development Goals advocate.
3.14 Winter in Sápmi - Elin Anna Labba / Sámi journalist and writer working with indigenous literatures at Tjállegoahte in Jokkmokk, Sweden.
3.15 Fighting for the Forest - Sonia Guajajara / Brazilian Indigenous activist, environmentalist and politician, and coordinator of the Association of Indigenous People of Brazil.
3.16 ‘Enormous challenges are waiting’ / Greta Thunberg
3.17 Warming and Inequality - Solomon Hsiang / Scientist and economist, Professor and Director of the Global Policy Laboratory at UC Berkeley; co-founder of the Climate Impact Lab.
3.18 Water Shortages - Taikan Oki / Global hydrologist, former Senior Vice-Rector of the United Nations University, and an IPCC Coordinating Lead Author.
3.19 Climate Conflicts - Marshall Burke / Associate Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University and co-founder of Atlas AI.
3.20 The True Cost of Climate Change - Eugene Linden / Journalist and author; his most recent book on climate change is Fire and Flood. Previously, The Winds of Change won a Grantham Award.
PART FOUR /
What We’ve Done About It
4.1 ‘How can we undo our failures if we are unable to admit that we have failed?’ / Greta Thunberg
4.2 The New Denialism - Kevin Anderson / Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the Universities of Manchester, Uppsala and Bergen.
4.3 The Truth about Government Climate Targets - Alexandra Urisman Otto / Climate reporter at the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter and co-author of Gretas resa (Greta’s Journey).
4.4 ‘We are not moving in the right direction’ / Greta Thunberg
4.5 The Persistence of Fossil Fuels - Bill McKibben / Founder of the environmental organizations 350.org and Third Act and author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature and Eaarth.
4.6 The Rise of Renewables - Glen Peters / Research Director at the Centre for International Climate Research in Oslo; member of the executive team of the Global Carbon Budget; an IPCC lead author.
4.7 How Can Forests Help Us? - Karl-Heinz Erb / An IPCC lead author, Director of the Institute of Social Ecology and associate Professor at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.
Simone Gingrich / Assistant Professor, Institute of Social Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.
4.8 What about Geoengineering? - Niclas Hällström / Director of WhatNext?, President of the ETC Group, and senior affiliate at Centre for Environment and Development Studies, Uppsala University.
Jennie C. Stephens / Dean’s Professor of Sustainability Science and Policy at Northeastern University, and author of Diversifying Power.
Isak Stoddard / PhD candidate in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development at the Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University.
4.9 Drawdown Technologies - Rob Jackson / Earth scientist at Stanford University and Chair of the Global Carbon Project.
4.10 ‘A whole new way of thinking’ / Greta Thunberg
4.11 Our Imprint on the Land - Alexander Popp / Senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and leader of a research group on land-use management.
4.12 The Calorie Question - Michael Clark / Environmental scientist at the University of Oxford, focusing on food systems’ contribution to climate, biodiversity and well-being.
4.13 Designing New Food Systems - Sonja Vermeulen / Director of Programs at CGIAR, and Associate at Chatham House.
4.14 Mapping Emissions in an Industrial World - John Barrett / Professor in Energy and Climate Policy, University of Leeds, government advisor to DEFRA and an IPCC lead author. Alice Garvey / Researcher at the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds.
4.15 The Technical Hitch - Ketan Joshi / Freelance writer, analyst and communications consultant, who has previously worked for a variety of Australian and European climate organizations.
4.16 The Challenge of Transport - Alice Larkin / Vice-Dean and Head of School of Engineering and a Professor of Climate Science and Energy Policy at the Tyndell Centre, University of Manchester.
4.17 Is the Future Electric? - Jillian Anable / Co-director of the University of Oxford’s CREDS Centre for Research in energy demand solutions.
Christian Brand / Co-director of UK Energy Research Centre and Associate Professor at University of Oxford. Author of Personal Travel and Climate Change.
4.18 ‘They keep saying one thing while doing another’ / Greta Thunberg
4.19 The Cost of Consumerism - Annie Lowrey / Staff writer at the Atlantic, covering economic policy, and author of Give People Money.
4.20 How (Not) to Buy - Mike Berners-Lee / Professor at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre, Director of Small World Consulting Ltd and author of There is No Planet B.
4.21 Waste around the World - Silpa Kaza / Senior urban development specialist in the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice.
4.22 The Myth of Recycling - Nina Schrank / Senior campaigner for the Plastics Team at Greenpeace UK.
4.23 ‘This is where we draw the line’ / Greta Thunberg
4.24 Emissions and Growth - Nicholas Stern / Professor of Economics and Government; Chair of the Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.
4.25 Equity - Sunita Narain / Director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment, a not-for-profit public interest research and advocacy organization based in New Delhi.
4.26 Degrowth - Jason Hickel / Economic anthropologist, author and Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
4.27 The Perception Gap - Amitav Ghosh / Author of sixteen works of fiction and non-fiction; the first English-language writer to receive India’s highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award.
PART FIVE /
What We Must Do Now
5.1 ‘The most effective way to get out of this mess is to educate ourselves’ / Greta Thunberg
5.2 Individual Action, Social Transformation - Stuart Capstick / An environmental social scientist based at Cardiff University and Deputy Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations.
Lorraine Whitmarsh / Professor of Environmental Psychology, University of Bath; Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations.
5.3 Towards 1.5°C Lifestyles - Kate Raworth / Co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab and Senior Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute.
5.4 Overcoming Climate Apathy - Per Espen Stoknes / A psychologist, TEDGlobal speaker and Co-director of the Centre for Sustainability at the Norwegian Business School.
5.5 Changing Our Diets - Gidon Eshel / Professor of environmental physics at Bard College, New York.
5.6 Remembering the Ocean - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson / Marine biologist, co-founder of the policy think tank Urban Ocean Lab, co-editor of All We Can Save, and co-creator of How to Save a Planet.
5.7 Rewilding - George Monbiot / Writer, film-maker and environmental activist; author of a weekly column for the Guardian as well as various books and videos.
Rebecca Wrigley / Founder and Chief Executive of Rewilding Britain and has worked in conservation and community development for thirty years.
5.8 ‘We now have to do the seemingly impossible’ / Greta Thunberg
5.9 Practical Utopias - Margaret Atwood / Booker Prize–winning author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays.
5.10 People Power - Erica Chenoweth / Political scientist, Professor at Harvard University.
5.11 Changing the Media Narrative - George Monbiot / Writer, film-maker and environmental activist; author of a weekly column for the Guardian as well as various books and videos.
5.12 Resisting the New Denialism - Michael E. Mann / Atmospheric Science at Penn State, IPCC contributor, and author of many books, including The New Climate War.
5.13 A Genuine Emergency Response - Seth Klein / Team lead with the Climate Emergency Unit and author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency.
5.14 Lessons from the Pandemic - David Wallace-Wells / New York Times Opinion writer and magazine columnist. Author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming.
5.15 ‘Honesty, solidarity, integrity and climate justice’ / Greta Thunberg
5.16 A Just Transition - Naomi Klein / Journalist and bestselling author; UBC Professor of Climate Justice and Co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia.
5.17 What Does Equity Mean to You - Nicki Becker / Law student and climate justice activist from Argentina. Co-founder of Jovenes por el Clima; active in Fridays For Future MAPA.
Disha A. Ravi / Indian climate and environmental justice activist and writer.
Hilda Flavia Nakabuye / Climate and environmental rights activist who founded Uganda’s Fridays For Future movement.
Laura Verónica Muñoz / Ecofeminist from the Colombian Andean mountains involved in Fridays For Future, Pacto X el Clima and Unite for Climate Action.
Ina Maria Shikongo / Mother, climate justice activist and poet active in the Fridays For Future International movement.
Ayisha Siddiqa / Pakistani-American storyteller, climate justice advocate and Co-founder of Polluters Out and Fossil Free University.
Mitzi Jonelle Tan / Full-time climate justice activist based in the Philippines involved with Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines and Fridays For Future.
5.18 Women and the Climate Crisis - Wanjira Mathai / Kenyan environmentalist and activist, and Vice-President and Regional Director for Africa at the World Resources Institute.
5.19 Decarbonization Requires Redistribution - Lucas Chancel / Co-director of the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics and Affiliate Professor at Sciences Po.
Thomas Piketty / Professor at EHESS and the Paris School of Economics, Co-director of the World Inequality Lab and the World Inequality Database.
5.20 Climate Reparations - Olúfé. mi O. Táíwò / Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, and author of Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture.
5.21 Mending Our Relationship with the Earth - Robin Wall Kimmerer / SUNY Distinguished Teacher of Environmental Biology, founder and Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
5.22 ‘Hope is something you have to earn’ / Greta Thunberg
What Next?
How Climate Works
1.1 ‘To solve this problem, we need to understand it’ / Greta Thunberg
1.2 The Deep History of Carbon Dioxide - Peter Brannen / Science journalist, contributing writer at the Atlantic and author of The Ends of the World.
1.3 Our Evolutionary Impact - Beth Shapiro / Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California Santa Cruz and author of Life as We Made It.
1.4 Civilization and Extinction - Elizabeth Kolbert / Staff writer for the New Yorker and the author, most recently, of Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future.
1.5 ‘The science is as solid as it gets’ / Greta Thunberg
1.6 The Discovery of Climate Change - Michael Oppenheimer / Atmospheric scientist, Princeton University’s Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs and long-time IPCC author.
1.7 Why Didn’t They Act? - Naomi Oreskes / Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.
1.8 Tipping Points and Feedback Loops - Johan Rockström / Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor at Potsdam University.
1.9 ‘This is the biggest story in the world’ / Greta Thunberg
PART TWO /
How Our Planet Is Changing
2.1 ‘The weather seems to be on steroids’ / Greta Thunberg
2.2 Heat - Katharine Hayhoe / Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor at Texas Tech University and author of Saving Us.
2.3 Methane and Other Gases - Zeke Hausfather / Climate research lead at Stripe, research scientist at Berkeley Earth.
2.4 Air Pollution and Aerosols - Bjørn H. Samset / Senior researcher at CICERO Centre for International Climate Research, an IPCC lead author, and expert on the effects of non-CO2 emissions.
2.5 Clouds - Paulo Ceppi / Lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute and the Department of Physics at Imperial College London.
2.6 Arctic Warming and the Jet Stream - Jennifer Francis / Senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center and formerly Research Professor in Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University.
2.7 Dangerous Weather - Friederike Otto / Senior lecturer in Climate Science at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London and co-lead of World Weather Attribution.
2.8 ‘The snowball has been set in motion’ / Greta Thunberg
2.9 Droughts and Floods - Kate Marvel / Climate scientist at the Columbia University Center for Climate Systems research and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
2.10 Ice Sheets, Shelves and Glaciers - Ricarda Winkelmann / Professor of Climate System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the University of Potsdam.
2.11 Warming Oceans and Rising Seas - Stefan Rahmstorf / Head of Earth System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute and Professor of Physics of the Oceans at the University of Potsdam.
2.12 Acidification and Marine Ecosystems - Hans-Otto Pörtner / Climatologist, physiologist, Professor and Head of the Department of Integrative Ecophysiology at the Alfred Wegener Institute.
2.13 Microplastics - Karin Kvale / Senior researcher at GNS Science and expert in modelling the role of marine ecology in global biogeochemical cycles.
2.14 Fresh Water - Peter H. Gleick / Co-founder and president-emeritus of the Pacific Institute, member US National Academy of Sciences, hydroclimatologist.
2.15 ‘It is much closer to home than we think’ / Greta Thunberg
2.16 Wildfires - Joëlle Gergis / Senior lecturer in Climate Science at the Australian National University and lead author on the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
2.17 The Amazon - Carlos Nobre / Earth System scientist on The Amazon, Chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon and the convener of the Amazonia 4.0 project.
Julia Arieira / Plant Ecologist and Earth system scientist at Brazil’s Federal University of Espírito Santo.
Nathália Nascimento / Geographer and Earth system scientist at Brazil’s Federal University of Espírito Santo.
2.18 Boreal and Temperate Forests - Beverly Law / Professor Emeritus of Global Change Biology and Terrestrial Systems Science at Oregon State University.
2.19 Terrestrial Biodiversity - Andy Purvis / Biodiversity researcher at the Natural History Museum in London; leda chapter of the first IPBES Global Assessment of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services.
Adriana De Palma / World Economic Forum Young Scientist and senior researcher at the Natural History Museum in London.
2.20 Insects - Dave Goulson / Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex; author of over 400 scientific articles on insect ecology and, among other books, Silent Earth.
2.21 Nature’s Calendar - Keith W. Larson / Ecologist researching environmental change in the Arctic and Director of the Arctic Centre at Umeå University.
2.22 Soil - Jennifer L. Soong / Soil carbon scientist at Corteva; affiliate scientist at Colorado State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
2.23 Permafrost - Örjan Gustafsson / Professor in Biogeochemistry at Stockholm University, and elected Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
2.24 What Happens at 1.5, 2 and 4°C of Warming? - Tamsin Edwards / Climate scientist at King’s College London, an IPCC lead author and science communicator specializing in uncertainties in sea-level rise.
PART THREE /
How It Affects Us
3.1 ‘The world has a fever’ / Greta Thunberg
3.2 Health and Climate - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus / Director-general of the World Health Organization.
3.3 Heat and Illness - Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera / Environmental epidemiologist, leader of the Climate Change and Health research group at the University of Bern.
3.4 Air Pollution - Drew Shindell / Climate scientist and Distinguished Professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, author on multiple IPCC Assessments.
3.5 Vector-borne Diseases - Felipe J. Colón-González / Assistant Professor at the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
3.6 Antibiotic Resistance - John Brownstein / Chief innovation officer, Boston Children’s Hospital; Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School.
Derek MacFadden / Clinician scientist at the Ottawa Hospital; Junior Clinical Research Chair in Antibiotic Use and Antibiotic Resistance at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
Sarah McGough / Infectious disease epidemiologist, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Mauricio Santillana / Professor of Physics, Northeastern University, and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
3.7 Food and Nutrition - Samuel S. Myers / Principal research scientist, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Director, Planetary Health Alliance.
3.8 ‘We are not all in the same boat’ / Greta Thunberg
3.9 Life at 1.1°C - Saleemul Huq / Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh.
3.10 Environmental Racism - Jacqueline Patterson / Founder and Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project, a resource hub for Black front-line climate justice leadership.
3.11 Climate Refugees - Abrahm Lustgarten / Investigative reporter for ProPublica and the New York Times Magazine; author of a forthcoming book about climate-driven migration in the US.
3.12 Sea-level Rise and Small Islands - Michael Taylor / Caribbean climate scientist, IPCC lead author, professor and dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, the University of the West Indies, Mona.
3.13 Rain in the Sahel - Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim / Indigenous woman, geographer and coordinator of the Association of Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad; UN Sustainable Development Goals advocate.
3.14 Winter in Sápmi - Elin Anna Labba / Sámi journalist and writer working with indigenous literatures at Tjállegoahte in Jokkmokk, Sweden.
3.15 Fighting for the Forest - Sonia Guajajara / Brazilian Indigenous activist, environmentalist and politician, and coordinator of the Association of Indigenous People of Brazil.
3.16 ‘Enormous challenges are waiting’ / Greta Thunberg
3.17 Warming and Inequality - Solomon Hsiang / Scientist and economist, Professor and Director of the Global Policy Laboratory at UC Berkeley; co-founder of the Climate Impact Lab.
3.18 Water Shortages - Taikan Oki / Global hydrologist, former Senior Vice-Rector of the United Nations University, and an IPCC Coordinating Lead Author.
3.19 Climate Conflicts - Marshall Burke / Associate Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University and co-founder of Atlas AI.
3.20 The True Cost of Climate Change - Eugene Linden / Journalist and author; his most recent book on climate change is Fire and Flood. Previously, The Winds of Change won a Grantham Award.
PART FOUR /
What We’ve Done About It
4.1 ‘How can we undo our failures if we are unable to admit that we have failed?’ / Greta Thunberg
4.2 The New Denialism - Kevin Anderson / Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the Universities of Manchester, Uppsala and Bergen.
4.3 The Truth about Government Climate Targets - Alexandra Urisman Otto / Climate reporter at the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter and co-author of Gretas resa (Greta’s Journey).
4.4 ‘We are not moving in the right direction’ / Greta Thunberg
4.5 The Persistence of Fossil Fuels - Bill McKibben / Founder of the environmental organizations 350.org and Third Act and author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature and Eaarth.
4.6 The Rise of Renewables - Glen Peters / Research Director at the Centre for International Climate Research in Oslo; member of the executive team of the Global Carbon Budget; an IPCC lead author.
4.7 How Can Forests Help Us? - Karl-Heinz Erb / An IPCC lead author, Director of the Institute of Social Ecology and associate Professor at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.
Simone Gingrich / Assistant Professor, Institute of Social Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.
4.8 What about Geoengineering? - Niclas Hällström / Director of WhatNext?, President of the ETC Group, and senior affiliate at Centre for Environment and Development Studies, Uppsala University.
Jennie C. Stephens / Dean’s Professor of Sustainability Science and Policy at Northeastern University, and author of Diversifying Power.
Isak Stoddard / PhD candidate in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development at the Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University.
4.9 Drawdown Technologies - Rob Jackson / Earth scientist at Stanford University and Chair of the Global Carbon Project.
4.10 ‘A whole new way of thinking’ / Greta Thunberg
4.11 Our Imprint on the Land - Alexander Popp / Senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and leader of a research group on land-use management.
4.12 The Calorie Question - Michael Clark / Environmental scientist at the University of Oxford, focusing on food systems’ contribution to climate, biodiversity and well-being.
4.13 Designing New Food Systems - Sonja Vermeulen / Director of Programs at CGIAR, and Associate at Chatham House.
4.14 Mapping Emissions in an Industrial World - John Barrett / Professor in Energy and Climate Policy, University of Leeds, government advisor to DEFRA and an IPCC lead author. Alice Garvey / Researcher at the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds.
4.15 The Technical Hitch - Ketan Joshi / Freelance writer, analyst and communications consultant, who has previously worked for a variety of Australian and European climate organizations.
4.16 The Challenge of Transport - Alice Larkin / Vice-Dean and Head of School of Engineering and a Professor of Climate Science and Energy Policy at the Tyndell Centre, University of Manchester.
4.17 Is the Future Electric? - Jillian Anable / Co-director of the University of Oxford’s CREDS Centre for Research in energy demand solutions.
Christian Brand / Co-director of UK Energy Research Centre and Associate Professor at University of Oxford. Author of Personal Travel and Climate Change.
4.18 ‘They keep saying one thing while doing another’ / Greta Thunberg
4.19 The Cost of Consumerism - Annie Lowrey / Staff writer at the Atlantic, covering economic policy, and author of Give People Money.
4.20 How (Not) to Buy - Mike Berners-Lee / Professor at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre, Director of Small World Consulting Ltd and author of There is No Planet B.
4.21 Waste around the World - Silpa Kaza / Senior urban development specialist in the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice.
4.22 The Myth of Recycling - Nina Schrank / Senior campaigner for the Plastics Team at Greenpeace UK.
4.23 ‘This is where we draw the line’ / Greta Thunberg
4.24 Emissions and Growth - Nicholas Stern / Professor of Economics and Government; Chair of the Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.
4.25 Equity - Sunita Narain / Director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment, a not-for-profit public interest research and advocacy organization based in New Delhi.
4.26 Degrowth - Jason Hickel / Economic anthropologist, author and Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
4.27 The Perception Gap - Amitav Ghosh / Author of sixteen works of fiction and non-fiction; the first English-language writer to receive India’s highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award.
PART FIVE /
What We Must Do Now
5.1 ‘The most effective way to get out of this mess is to educate ourselves’ / Greta Thunberg
5.2 Individual Action, Social Transformation - Stuart Capstick / An environmental social scientist based at Cardiff University and Deputy Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations.
Lorraine Whitmarsh / Professor of Environmental Psychology, University of Bath; Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations.
5.3 Towards 1.5°C Lifestyles - Kate Raworth / Co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab and Senior Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute.
5.4 Overcoming Climate Apathy - Per Espen Stoknes / A psychologist, TEDGlobal speaker and Co-director of the Centre for Sustainability at the Norwegian Business School.
5.5 Changing Our Diets - Gidon Eshel / Professor of environmental physics at Bard College, New York.
5.6 Remembering the Ocean - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson / Marine biologist, co-founder of the policy think tank Urban Ocean Lab, co-editor of All We Can Save, and co-creator of How to Save a Planet.
5.7 Rewilding - George Monbiot / Writer, film-maker and environmental activist; author of a weekly column for the Guardian as well as various books and videos.
Rebecca Wrigley / Founder and Chief Executive of Rewilding Britain and has worked in conservation and community development for thirty years.
5.8 ‘We now have to do the seemingly impossible’ / Greta Thunberg
5.9 Practical Utopias - Margaret Atwood / Booker Prize–winning author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays.
5.10 People Power - Erica Chenoweth / Political scientist, Professor at Harvard University.
5.11 Changing the Media Narrative - George Monbiot / Writer, film-maker and environmental activist; author of a weekly column for the Guardian as well as various books and videos.
5.12 Resisting the New Denialism - Michael E. Mann / Atmospheric Science at Penn State, IPCC contributor, and author of many books, including The New Climate War.
5.13 A Genuine Emergency Response - Seth Klein / Team lead with the Climate Emergency Unit and author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency.
5.14 Lessons from the Pandemic - David Wallace-Wells / New York Times Opinion writer and magazine columnist. Author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming.
5.15 ‘Honesty, solidarity, integrity and climate justice’ / Greta Thunberg
5.16 A Just Transition - Naomi Klein / Journalist and bestselling author; UBC Professor of Climate Justice and Co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia.
5.17 What Does Equity Mean to You - Nicki Becker / Law student and climate justice activist from Argentina. Co-founder of Jovenes por el Clima; active in Fridays For Future MAPA.
Disha A. Ravi / Indian climate and environmental justice activist and writer.
Hilda Flavia Nakabuye / Climate and environmental rights activist who founded Uganda’s Fridays For Future movement.
Laura Verónica Muñoz / Ecofeminist from the Colombian Andean mountains involved in Fridays For Future, Pacto X el Clima and Unite for Climate Action.
Ina Maria Shikongo / Mother, climate justice activist and poet active in the Fridays For Future International movement.
Ayisha Siddiqa / Pakistani-American storyteller, climate justice advocate and Co-founder of Polluters Out and Fossil Free University.
Mitzi Jonelle Tan / Full-time climate justice activist based in the Philippines involved with Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines and Fridays For Future.
5.18 Women and the Climate Crisis - Wanjira Mathai / Kenyan environmentalist and activist, and Vice-President and Regional Director for Africa at the World Resources Institute.
5.19 Decarbonization Requires Redistribution - Lucas Chancel / Co-director of the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics and Affiliate Professor at Sciences Po.
Thomas Piketty / Professor at EHESS and the Paris School of Economics, Co-director of the World Inequality Lab and the World Inequality Database.
5.20 Climate Reparations - Olúfé. mi O. Táíwò / Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, and author of Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture.
5.21 Mending Our Relationship with the Earth - Robin Wall Kimmerer / SUNY Distinguished Teacher of Environmental Biology, founder and Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
5.22 ‘Hope is something you have to earn’ / Greta Thunberg
What Next?
Looking for a good book? 'Good' may not be the appropriate term for a book that backs the science of climate change and the problems we're looking at if we don't do something now, but The Climate Book, created and edited by Greta Thunberg is a powerhouse of information and appeals to humanity to take it seriously.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
4-1/2 stars
* * * * * *
The Climate Book
editor: Greta Thunberg
publisher: Penguin Press
ISBN: 9780593492307
hardcover, 464 pages
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