thomcat's review against another edition
3.0
It will be interesting when we turn the COVID corner just what effect this last year has had on CO2 concentrations. I suspect it will prove we *can* contribute to improving our situation, and may convince people and governments to make further improvements. If they don't, we are screwed.
Not the planet, it will survive. It won't be a fun place to live, of course. The majority of species will be wiped out in a mass die-off that rivals the Permian extinction. The planet also won't sustain a population of 7 billion humans, either, and those deaths will be primarily by famine or war. Repeated natural disasters won't make life easy for those that do survive.
This was an interesting book, and was cited in another book I read more recently. The author surveyed a majority of papers modeling future climate and sorted those summaries into folders of 1-6 degrees of average temperature increase, making up the six primary chapters in this book. These studies are all documented in the extensive notes section, but were also all published before this book (2007). As such, some are out of date. The author doesn't necessarily summarize the papers, instead telling a story based on the results, from coral bleaching to loss of glaciers and sub-sea methane eruptions.
The conclusion of the book contains a brief discussion of some efforts to battle this, and is the most out of date. The one solid finding is that the best solution can be thought of as a pie chart, with various sized wedges representing different methods. Reducing CO2 emissions is just one wedge, and we have temporarily achieved that by working from home and limiting travel.
I added this book to my to-read pile a while back. Perhaps I should have skipped it and read the authors latest book (released April 2020) called [b:Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency|51471435|Our Final Warning Six Degrees of Climate Emergency|Mark Lynas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582063272l/51471435._SY75_.jpg|76135420]. Since we have already shot past the threshold for the 1 degree chapter, CO2 at 400 ppm, maybe it will be a little shorter.
Not the planet, it will survive. It won't be a fun place to live, of course. The majority of species will be wiped out in a mass die-off that rivals the Permian extinction. The planet also won't sustain a population of 7 billion humans, either, and those deaths will be primarily by famine or war. Repeated natural disasters won't make life easy for those that do survive.
This was an interesting book, and was cited in another book I read more recently. The author surveyed a majority of papers modeling future climate and sorted those summaries into folders of 1-6 degrees of average temperature increase, making up the six primary chapters in this book. These studies are all documented in the extensive notes section, but were also all published before this book (2007). As such, some are out of date. The author doesn't necessarily summarize the papers, instead telling a story based on the results, from coral bleaching to loss of glaciers and sub-sea methane eruptions.
The conclusion of the book contains a brief discussion of some efforts to battle this, and is the most out of date. The one solid finding is that the best solution can be thought of as a pie chart, with various sized wedges representing different methods. Reducing CO2 emissions is just one wedge, and we have temporarily achieved that by working from home and limiting travel.
I added this book to my to-read pile a while back. Perhaps I should have skipped it and read the authors latest book (released April 2020) called [b:Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency|51471435|Our Final Warning Six Degrees of Climate Emergency|Mark Lynas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582063272l/51471435._SY75_.jpg|76135420]. Since we have already shot past the threshold for the 1 degree chapter, CO2 at 400 ppm, maybe it will be a little shorter.
errogal's review against another edition
4.0
Read this book if you want to be terrified about how little we're currently doing to prevent climate change.
This book was super interesting. The author read a ton of different papers on climate change, separated them into categories by temperature (1 degree Celsius through 6 degrees Celsius), and then gave us the less technical rundown. It was really amazing (and super scary) reading about what the world would look like in a 1 degree change vs a 3/4/5 degree change took place.
It was a little disheartening that the book was written 10 years ago so we've already missed some of the dates on capping CO2 levels, but it was also super inspiring. 4 stars because I wish it had included maps and some images (I kept having to pause to look stuff up).
This book was super interesting. The author read a ton of different papers on climate change, separated them into categories by temperature (1 degree Celsius through 6 degrees Celsius), and then gave us the less technical rundown. It was really amazing (and super scary) reading about what the world would look like in a 1 degree change vs a 3/4/5 degree change took place.
It was a little disheartening that the book was written 10 years ago so we've already missed some of the dates on capping CO2 levels, but it was also super inspiring. 4 stars because I wish it had included maps and some images (I kept having to pause to look stuff up).
detailsandtales's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book as research for a novel I thought I was about to write. By the time I finished reading it, I had already figured out that this November would be dedicated to writing a different novel instead. By that point, however, I'd gotten pretty far into the book and determined that it was a detailed, readable description of all of the terrible things that will happen to our planet if we don't change our energy consumption habits. It's a depressing, scary picture, and one I can't quite wrap my head around as being true, but it was presented in a clear, memorable way with concrete examples from the past and specific descriptions of how we might or will be impacted in the future. Oddly, the biggest thing that bothered me is no fault of the author - it's that the book is 8 years old, and I know that so much might have changed in the intervening years. How far along the path are we now compared to then? What would he say about Superstorm Sandy's impact on New York City and its surroundings? Was that the kind of storm he was talking about in one of his earlier chapters? I wonder what Lynas would have to add if he were writing an updated version of the book today.
jjcrafts's review against another edition
DNF @40 I didn't realise this was written over a decade ago. There's probably newer info and didn't really like the writing.
sarefo's review
3.0
The book is horrifying and fascinating, but seems to have the problem that it always gives you the worst case, thus skewing the picture. Yes, what Lynas describes might happen, but it would have been more intellectually honest had he made more clear the range of possibilities.
loppear's review
4.0
A really clear presentation of swaths of climate change studies describing the impacts of the at-the-time-2007 expected range of warming 1-6 degrees by 2100. Combines model prediction studies and paleoclimate reconstructions to give a variety of regional and ecosystem/society depictions, and paints a bleak destructive view by 3 and certainly 4 degrees. More recent IPCC reports have extended plausible range of business as usual emissions to 8.5 degrees, and basically 2200 is beyond mentioning, so this was not light comfortable reading.
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