Climate scientists agree that unless we keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees centigrade, we are likely to face runaway climate change which will mean fierce storms, drought, flooding, agricultural failure, environmental disaster and enormous human tragedy. We now see the worrying changes of that warming on every side. We know that over the last two centuries – the period of the industrial revolution – emissions from carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal, oil and gas have already warmed our earth by about 0.8 of a degree centigrade.
Their argument focuses on the notion of a carbon budget. Mike Berners-Lee, an energy expert, and Duncan Clark, an environmental journalist with The Guardian, don’t mince words.
But difficult or not, the topic of climate change is of direct importance to each and every one of us, so we can either decide on the ostrich option, or turn gratefully to books where both the science and politics are discussed with clarity and courage.Īmong recent books the place to start is with The Burning Question published in 2013. And this in turn means ordinary folk like us feel overwhelmed and helpless as we try to make sense of the Alice in Wonderland world where there is a fracking rush for fossil fuels and dishonesty dominates the media and the claptrap of politicians.įor these reasons reading about climate change is not easy. What is lacking is political will at the top. The technology for doing this is available. There is only one remedy – to reduce global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels radically and without delay. The physics of climate change is inexorable. This is a measure of two things: that many people now understand the urgency of the climate crisis, and they also understand how, systematically, over the past thirty years the people who rule the world have failed to act to avert it. There are now plenty of books about climate change. The Burning Question: We Can’t Burn Half the World’s Oil, Coal and Gas.
How do we stop climate change? Nancy Lindisfarne assesses The Burning Question.
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