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Storms Of My Grandchildren: The Truth About The Climate Catastrophe And Our Last Chance To Save Humanity (2000)

by James Hansen(Favorite Author)

4.02 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1408807459 (ISBN13: 9781408807453)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

review 1: You may read a better book this year, but you won't read a more important one. This book, from 2009, is more relevant than ever because the tipping point looms bigger with each day. There is no issue greater than this: the fate of the earth. Our foremost climate scientist warns us to take major, radical action, before we pass a literal point of no return. He talks about the bipartisan fight against positive change, saying the Democrats were in some ways more obstructive to his efforts than the Republicans. He tears apart cap and trade and advocates a carbon tax with a direct rebate to citizens. Little could he know that President Obama ruled out a carbon tax unilaterally soon after being reelected, proof that it's not political resistance that prevents the Democrats from a... morecting; it's their own greed, blindness, denial, and stupidity. He says in the book that the single most significant aid to the process of enacting change would be campaign finance reform, because he recognizes that the intransigence of both parties is rooted in the desires of their corporate contributors. But that was four years ago. If nothing is done soon, if there isn’t a mass, immediate demand in the streets by the public for real action, you can tell your grandchildren exactly when their fates were sealed, when global climate instability and eventual global climate catastrophe became the norm and the future, instead of just some wild nightmare scenario.
review 2: First, Hansen isn't afraid to call out Democrats as well as Republicans for selling us short on honestly and seriously addressing global warming and climate change. Related to that, he's not afraid to call out international accords such as Kyoto as having an international political angle to them.Second, because of the "angle" of the book, what might seem scaremongering from many an author isn't from him. Maybe the "extinction of homo sapiens" is a bit that way, but, given that H. sapiens sapiens, post rise of civiilization 10,000-12,000 years ago, has become so anchored to a finely tuned climate, he may not even be wrong about that.As far as numbers, I have little doubt the world will crack 450ppm on CO2, at least, before reining it in. 500 ppm wouldn't totally surprise me, and if we hit that, Hansen's "runaway" theory may well become reality.Third, he's not afraid to call out environmental groups for either playing "political footsie" or for displaying a knee-jerk negative reaction to the one electric power source that offers the most hope at getting us out of this mess, especially regarding coal -- and that's fast breeder nuclear reactors.Hansen notes that breeder reactors would solve a fair amount of the nuclear waste problem associated with current reactors. As for the "terror" worry/hype, Hansen notes that other countries are going to be building these types of reactors anyway, and that we just need to spend some more money on security.Finally, Hansen provides enough in the way of easy-to-follow charts and diagrams, with footnotes to more sources of information, to back this up and make it all readily understandable.The one thing I disagree with him? The readiness of "we the people," whether in the U.S. or abroad, to demand the wrenching changes needed in numbers large enough to force politicians to act. Would that it were so, but I think Hansen's showing some Upper Midwest Scandinavian gentle-hearted naivete there. less

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