Reviews
Fixing Climate
Robert Kunzig and Wally Broecker
Profile, 269pp
Fixing Climate is a riveting book that tells the story of climate science with all the suspense and drama of a thoroughly good whodunit novel. The downside is that the victim is our entire global climate system. The upside is that the final twist in the story takes it from a whodunit to a rescue mission drama, and we find that the planet may yet be saved because the technology is on the way. The book is the brainchild of the leading scientist Wally Broecker, who wanted to write a popular climate book and invited Robert Kunzig, a science writer, to help him make his work accessible.
The book is divided into three main sections. The first part sets out the history of climate science from Broecker’s personal perspective. Readers of Third Way will be interested in his Christian upbringing and first degree at the well-known US Christian university, Wheaton College. After explaining Broecker’s own path towards climate change science, the book then begins to build up the evidence for climate change by introducing the work of the different scientists Broecker has encountered along his own path of discovery. Some of the scientific explanations might be challenging for non-science readers, but I found them accessible as they were introduced through the personalities of the scientists themselves, with all their quirks and eccentricities. I was thus carried through the complexities of how ice core data works, how changes in the Antarctic ice sheet could be measured by timing a microwave beam between two satellites, and many other technicalities.
Having built up a picture of the reality of climate change and the potential for sudden changes (over decades rather than centuries), the second section looks at climate today and focuses on two dangers: ice melt causing sea level rise; and the impact of megadroughts, particularly on the western USA. The picture presented is one of uncertainty. It was thought that ice caps melted slowly from the edges (like an ice cream cone) and that it would take centuries before there would be a problem. Now it is apparent that there are many other mechanisms at work, such as melt water opening up large fissures in the ice. These speed up the melting process, and the consequent major rise in sea level could happen in just a few decades, flooding major cities and whole regions such as southern Bangladesh. On drought, the western USA could ‘get lucky’, but is probably heading towards dust bowl conditions along with many other dry areas around the globe.
The third section looks at solutions. I found the chapter ‘Green Is Not Enough’ sadly accurate in its conclusion that renewable and nuclear energy sources will not be sufficient to replace carbon in the world’s energy demands. It is therefore inevitable that fossil fuels will continue to be used. For example, China has abundant coal and a very reasonable determination to industrialise to western standards of development. So, if carbon based energy is here to stay, an alternative solution is needed. In the 19th and 20th centuries, untreated sewage in our growing industrial cities led to major epidemics.
The problem was huge but has been largely dealt with in the west through legislation and investment. In the same way, now we know that carbon dioxide causes major problems for our climate, we need the legislation and investment to take this out of our atmosphere. This is when the book switches to a true rescue mission drama with an extraordinary story involving Broecker, a quirky theoretical physicist, a can-do research technician, and his genius mechanic brother. They are funded by a billionaire businessman, who terrified himself by sailing his private yacht from Greenland to Alaska through the Northwest Passage in 19 days. As they unveil their CO2 scrubbers and explain some of the science, the dream solution looks in sight.
So what are we to make of it all? The overall book is not only a great read, but also a well informed one, and I would recommend it for anyone who is wanting to gain an overview of climate change and the personalities behind the science. On the two major hazards (drought and sea level rise), I would have preferred more concentration on the humanitarian disaster already building in poorer countries such as Sudan and Bangladesh, rather than focusing on the looming danger to the western USA – but I suspect the authors know what will move their mainly US audience. I do not have the technological knowledge to determine whether the ‘scrubbers’ are feasible. If they are, I hope they will gain the funding they deserve to do something fast to safeguard the stability of our climate.
Margot Hodson
Post a comment