I have been consulting and conducting research on climate change for over 30 years as a member of the research staff at MIT. While I originally approached the topic from a technological viewpoint, I quickly understood that that was only one piece of the equation. It was also important to understand the science, the policy, the economics, the politics, and the social aspects of climate change. In selecting my book recommendations, I wanted to cover the many different aspects of climate change.
To understand climate change, you need to start with the scientific fundamentals. There is no one better to explain the fundamentals of climate change than Kerry Emanuel. Besides being a world-renowned climate scientist, Kerry is a great communicator. With all the misinformation floating around social media and the internet regarding climate change (and most other topics), this book is for anyone wanting to know the real facts about climate change and its implications for humanity. I have been lucky enough to get to know Kerry (we both work at MIT) and can personally attest that he is one of the most trusted sources for information about what we know and what we don’t know about climate change.
An updated edition of a guide to the basic science of climate change, and a call to action.
The vast majority of scientists agree that human activity has significantly increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere—most dramatically since the 1970s. Yet global warming skeptics and ill-informed elected officials continue to dismiss this broad scientific consensus. In this updated edition of his authoritative book, MIT atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel outlines the basic science of global warming and how the current consensus has emerged. Although it is impossible to predict exactly when the most dramatic effects of global warming will be felt, he…
I read this book because it got a lot of buzz in articles I read and on podcasts I listened to. The buzz was well deserved. This book won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and chronicles the significant impacts mankind is having on the Earth and its inhabitants. What makes the book so interesting is it also talks about past periods of mass extinctions. However, the sixth extinction is different because it is not caused by a catastrophic event, but by one species, Homo sapiens. It made me think of the collective power our species has and wonder how our species will wield that power going forward. Will we act responsibly and prevent the worst impacts of climate change?
Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions of life on earth.
Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Elizabeth Kolbert combines brilliant field reporting, the history of ideas and the work of geologists, botanists and marine biologists to tell the gripping stories of a dozen species - including the Panamanian golden frog and the Sumatran rhino - some already gone, others at the point of vanishing.
The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most…
The major source of greenhouse gases that are the root cause of climate change are from our energy use. Therefore, in order to understand how to effectively reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, one must understand our energy systems. I read this book many years ago, but it taught me so much about how the oil and gas industry works. The Seven Sisters refer to the seven major oil companies that dominated the oil industry in the 1960s and 1970s. Even though the industry has changed greatly since then, the story of how oil and gas came to dominate the world’s energy systems is still relevant today.
An account of the men and events behind the rise of the world's largest oil companies, their domination of the world petroleum industry, and their current status subsequent to their control being challenged by the producing nations
Climate change is difficult enough to address, even if everyone is on the same page. Unfortunately, climate change has become a very divisive issue in the United States. This book, by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, was maybe the first to comprehensively examine the source of this climate skepticism and how it manifested itself into our political system. Even though it was written about 25 years ago, the issues it raises are still with us today. Unless we can rise above them, getting sound climate policy implemented, which is essential to solving the problem, will be nearly impossible.
This book not only brings home the imminence of climate change but also examines the campaign of deception by big coal and big oil that is keeping the issue off the public agenda. It examines the various arenas in which the battle for control of the issue is being fought- a battle with surprising political alliances and relentless obstructionism. The story provides an ominous foretaste of the gathering threat of political chaos and totalitarianism. And it concludes by outlining a transistion to the future that contains, at least, the possibility of continuity for our organized civilization, and, at best, a…
This was the first Kurt Vonnegut book that I read (I subsequently read almost all of his works). The first chapter is entitled “The Day the World Ended”. It is not climate change that is the villain here, but Ice Nine. It tells the story about man’s hubris that can result in making our planet inhospitable to mankind and most other living creatures. Hopefully, climate change will not end this way, but it is a warning to take the issue seriously. Ice Nine is science fiction, climate change is real.
One of America's greatest writers gives us his unique perspective on our fears of nuclear annihilation
Experiment.
Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it.
Solution.
Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding fathers of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he is the inventor of ice-nine, a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three eccentric children, to a crazed dictator in the Caribbean, to…
I wrote this book for the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series to give a concise guide to carbon capture for the non-specialist. Carbon capture refers to a suite of technologies that reduce CO2 emissions by “capturing” CO2 before it is released into the atmosphere and then transporting it to where it will be stored or used. These technologies can also remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere. For many years, carbon capture was a promising but often overlooked climate change mitigation pathway. However, the recent increase in urgency to deal with climate change has elevated the interest in carbon capture.
My book explains the fundamentals of carbon capture, as well as the larger context of climate technology and policy.
To hide a corporation’s failure to properly service a space ship, Captain Jonas Stryker is prosecuted but saved from imprisonment by a dying man, who hires Stryker to collect asteroids for their mineral content. Stryker soon finds he must stop a shadowy corporate group called The Board, who employ space piracy, terrorism, and even weaponised asteroids to overthrow the Federation government.
Set in Lagrange points, space stations, the Moon and outback Australia, it is a fast-moving story with some speculative future technology. If you were interested in the NASA attempt to alter the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos, you might…
When a trial to cover-up a corporate failure ends Captain Jonas Stryker's career, he wants revenge against The Board, a ruthless, shadowy organization with limitless funds that employs space piracy, terrorism, and even weaponised asteroids. Posing as a space miner, Stryker learns that The Board wants him killed, while a young female SCIB police agent wants retribution against him for having her career spoiled at his trial. As Stryker avoids attempts to kill him, he becomes the only chance to prevent The Board from overturning the Federation Government and imposing a Fascist-style rule. A story of greed, corruption and honour,…
