I had planned to do the "Random Review" thing on a regular basis, however being as I don't have so much time on my hands anymore (in fact none) and I haven't really had the chance to read, it has been some time since my last post of this nature.
This review is related to Climate Change (as everything I write appears to be nowadays). I work in the field as an engineer and have little time to actually look back at advancing climate chance science which evolves at a rate that I just can't keep up with, so I have been trying to brush up on the issues. If you are interested - read on...
Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" was an exceptionally important film. This was not because of the groundbreaking science contained within or because of any new concepts relating to emissions reduction scenarios. It was because of two reasons:
1. Al Gore is an excellent speaker
2. His film managed to explain climate change in simple terms to those who would otherwise have remained oblivious.
But this is a book review and as such relates to the accompanying tome which I first picked up in Chicago in late 2006. This gave me the opportunity to read the text before I saw the film. In many ways the book is still excellent. As with the film, the book follows Gore around the world as he presents his key-note speech on the dangers of climate change.
I don't have a copy with me now, but
one of the things that sticks in my mind is the photograph of mount Kilimanjaro a decade ago and the comparison with how it looks now, with vastly lessened permanent snows.
My main problems with the book
lie with the fact that far too much of the story is focussed on Gore and his childhood, this is good in one respect as it maintains interest in his struggle to get his message across - but ... if you were to make all of your opinions based upon his explanations he would have you believe that it wa
s his university lecturers who first discovered the problem, and it was he alone carrying the torch through the 80's and 90's which is a bit of a mistruth.
I am going to give it 3 Rabbit Raisins:
The main reason why I wrote the review of Al Gores book was that I wanted to make a comparison with Tim Flannery's "The Weather Makers".
I picked up the Weathermakers back in December '07 (a little late I know seeing as it was written in 2006) based upon recommendation from a much respected former colleague in the UK ... and wow was I blown away in just a few Chapters! Tim Flannery (Australian of the year for 2006) presents information on Climate Change science in a way I have never read before - with wit, excellent writing skills, and superb honesty. It is so easy for the layman to read - from start to finish.
He, unlike Gore presents arguments and scientific consensus complete with sources and potential counter arguments in a very complete text. He is an ecologist by profession and takes us from discussions on the fate of the golden toad in Costa Rica to concepts of evolution and the 'Gaia Hypothesis'. He tells stories of struggling scientists trying to get their ideas accepted into the mainstream which helps the reader to understand why (to the general public) it appears that this climate change thing has just been sprung on us.
Best of all, he gives possible outcomes in terms of impacts upon life. What will happen to use when energy becomes scarce and economies tighten up? And why have economists been forever arguing about the potential costs for climate change mitigation, and are they actually greater than the costs of dong nothing?
Some of his arguments run into the philosophical, he muses that the source of our civilisation is our cities. Large concentrations of people dependent on networks that supply them with food and water. He considers that in times of scarcity it will be the specialists that suffer as happens in nature (e.g. his golden toad). Therefore it will be those in non-essential jobs that feel the pinch first.
A few of my favourite extracts:
On global population:
"In that seemingly distant age [1961] there were just 3 billion people, and they were only using half of the total resources that our global ecosystem could sustainably provide. A short 25 years later, in 1986, we had reached a watershed, for that year our population topped 5 billion, and such was our collective thirst for resources that we were using all of the earths sustainable production. In essence [since 1986] we have been running the environmental equivalent of a budget deficit, which is only sustained by plundering our capital base."
On the Economic Cost of Climate Change:
"Since the 1970s insurance losses have risen at an annual rate of around 10 per cent , reaching $100 billion by 1999. Losses at this scale threaten the very fabric of our economic system ... such a rate of increase means that by 2065 or soon thereafter, the damage bill resulting from climate change may equal the total value of everything that humanity produced in the course of a year."
On Politics
"As early as 1977 the New York Times carried the headline 'Scientists Fear Heavy Use of Coal May Bring Adverse Shift in Climate' but it was not until the late 1980 when [it became apparent] that constraints could be applied to damaging emissions and action to restrict greenhouse emissions was emerging - that industry embarked upon its propaganda war. Among the first to move were US coal producers, Fred Palmer, then head of Western Fuels ... led a campaign - informed apparently by his personal beliefs - that the earth's atmosphere 'is deficient in Carbon Dioxide'"
Quite simply - an extremely important, yet little known book.
I am going to give the Weather Makers RCWR's first ever 5 Rabbit Raisin Rating:
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