ronanmcd's review against another edition
3.0
First things first, I've marked this down *as a book*. It's told through a series of pivotal moments in the career of this leading light in climate science. The problem is, as a book, this makes it very repetitive. Think lots of "which IPCC conference are we at now?"
That aside, it's a fascinating read, right into climate science as a study, the working of the IPCC, and how the earth is changing. Stott is at the pinnacle of these. There were few voices more qualified.
And finally, it's far more optimistic that i thought it would be. We obviously see the nefarious workings of the deniers and their short term greed, but ultimately we see hope. Even more amazing, Stott looks to Ireland for this, and our Citizens' Assembly!
Worth the read, but could be considerably shorter, hence my rating. It's not Stott, it's his editor!
That aside, it's a fascinating read, right into climate science as a study, the working of the IPCC, and how the earth is changing. Stott is at the pinnacle of these. There were few voices more qualified.
And finally, it's far more optimistic that i thought it would be. We obviously see the nefarious workings of the deniers and their short term greed, but ultimately we see hope. Even more amazing, Stott looks to Ireland for this, and our Citizens' Assembly!
Worth the read, but could be considerably shorter, hence my rating. It's not Stott, it's his editor!
sylda's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
3.5
The science is interesting, the history is frustrating; but well how could it not be?
grrlscientist's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
tense
medium-paced
3.0
capacitorofflux's review against another edition
It was depressing and not really what I was in the mood for. The tone of the writing was also off.
dear_old_world's review
informative
medium-paced
2.75
The first half of this book was really enjoyable and easy to read. Stott is a good writer. It was interesting to see the behind the scenes stuff on the IPCC reports.
But, man, did I get annoyed 3/4s of the way in. It got suuuuper repetitive. Not just the same process over and over, the same message over and over. Like damn. I fucking get it!! You're a scientist and your job is to explain the evidence bla bla bla bla. This is the part that frustrated me the most. I was hoping for a bit more depth from Stott, a bit more reflection, a bit more of an attempt to understand why he's spent the past 20 years of his career struggling to convince everyone of the need to act, and not really getting very far.
Instead I really got the impression that his view of the situation is incredibly narrow, and confined to the academic's disconnected naive, cluelessness about how the real-world works. There was little attempt to try to understand the political, economic, philosophical and sociological factors coming into play. It was just, "climate deniers = bad guys, climate scientists = good guys".
Come on!!! No fucking wonder scientists never got anywhere. Saudia Arabian delegates to the IPCC report discussions weren't being difficult just for the sake of being difficult, there was a godamn reason!
But, man, did I get annoyed 3/4s of the way in. It got suuuuper repetitive. Not just the same process over and over, the same message over and over. Like damn. I fucking get it!! You're a scientist and your job is to explain the evidence bla bla bla bla. This is the part that frustrated me the most. I was hoping for a bit more depth from Stott, a bit more reflection, a bit more of an attempt to understand why he's spent the past 20 years of his career struggling to convince everyone of the need to act, and not really getting very far.
Instead I really got the impression that his view of the situation is incredibly narrow, and confined to the academic's disconnected naive, cluelessness about how the real-world works. There was little attempt to try to understand the political, economic, philosophical and sociological factors coming into play. It was just, "climate deniers = bad guys, climate scientists = good guys".
Come on!!! No fucking wonder scientists never got anywhere. Saudia Arabian delegates to the IPCC report discussions weren't being difficult just for the sake of being difficult, there was a godamn reason!
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