Why am I passionate about this?

I am an astronomer and educator (Ph.D. Astrophysics, University of Colorado), and I’ve now been teaching about global warming for more than 40 years (in courses on astronomy, astrobiology, and mathematics). While it’s frustrating to see how little progress we’ve made in combatting the ongoing warming during this time, my background as an astronomer gives me a “cosmic perspective” that reminds me that decades are not really so long, and that we still have time to act and to build a “post-global warming future.” I hope my work can help inspire all of us to act while we still can for the benefit of all.


I wrote

A Global Warming Primer: Pathway to a Post-Global Warming Future

By Jeffrey Bennett,

Book cover of A Global Warming Primer: Pathway to a Post-Global Warming Future

What is my book about?

Our climate future may often seem a choice between bleak and bleaker, but it doesn’t have to be that way.…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Discovery of Global Warming

Jeffrey Bennett Why did I love this book?

I’ve known for a long time that scientific understanding of global warming has a long history, but I didn’t know very many of the details.

This book filled the gaps in my knowledge, and reminded me that while we still have a lot to learn, the basic science behind global warming has been known for more than a century. I also really appreciate the way this book describes some of the many efforts that have been undertaken to call attention to this issue – many dating back to decades before most people had ever heard of it.

By Spencer R. Weart,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Discovery of Global Warming as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The award-winning book is now revised and expanded.

In 2001 an international panel of distinguished climate scientists announced that the world was warming at a rate without precedent during at least the last ten millennia, and that warming was caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases from human activity. The story of how scientists reached that conclusion-by way of unexpected twists and turns-was the story Spencer Weart told in The Discovery of Global Warming. Now he brings his award-winning account up to date, revised throughout to reflect the latest science and with a new conclusion that shows how the scientific…


Book cover of Critical Mass

Jeffrey Bennett Why did I love this book?

This is a science fiction book and hence might seem an odd choice for a list of books about global warming.

However, this book does a great job describing what might happen in coming decades if we don’t take rapid action on climate change, so I think it can help inspire people to make sure that we do indeed act soon. I also loved the way the book shows how exploration of space can be part of the long-term solution to climate change, something that I also deeply believe in. 

By Daniel Suarez,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Critical Mass as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In New York Times best-selling author Daniel Suarez's latest space-tech thriller, a group of pioneering astropreneurs must overcome never-before-attempted engineering challenges to rescue colleagues stranded at a distant asteroid—kicking off a new space race in which Earth's climate crisis could well hang in the balance.

When unforeseen circumstances during an innovative—and unsanctioned—commercial asteroid-mining mission leave two crew members stranded, those who make it back must engineer a rescue, all while navigating a shifting web of global political alliances and renewed Cold War tensions. With Earth governments consumed by the ravages of climate change and unable to take the risks necessary…


Book cover of Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World

Jeffrey Bennett Why did I love this book?

I love the way this book brings perspective to modern issues by emphasizing the idea of “deep time” – that we are part of a long history that makes our current existence possible.

By thinking in this way, we also realize that our current predicament is one that we have the tools to address, and that by doing so, we would be honoring the miracles of nature that lie behind everything we are and do. Along the way, this book also helped me understand – and teach about – a variety of important geological processes.

By Marcia Bjornerud,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Timefulness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why an awareness of Earth's temporal rhythms is critical to our planetary survival

Few of us have any conception of the enormous timescales of our planet's long history, and this narrow perspective underlies many of the environmental problems we are creating. The lifespan of Earth can seem unfathomable compared to the brevity of human existence, but this view of time denies our deep roots in Earth's history-and the magnitude of our effects on the planet. Timefulness reveals how knowing the rhythms of Earth's deep past and conceiving of time as a geologist does can give us the perspective we need…


Book cover of Energy: A Human History

Jeffrey Bennett Why did I love this book?

I learned a lot from this book about the development of energy sources over the centuries, and how this history both leads to our current predicament with climate change and offers a path to solutions.

This history also points out that this is not the first time that we’ve needed to transition from one energy economy to another, and our past successes show that we can be successful again. I also enjoyed the descriptions of potential future solutions, including the book’s excellent discussion of nuclear energy.

By Richard Rhodes,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Energy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A "meticulously researched" (The New York Times Book Review) examination of energy transitions over time and an exploration of the current challenges presented by global warming, a surging world population, and renewable energy-from Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes.

People have lived and died, businesses have prospered and failed, and nations have risen to world power and declined, all over energy challenges. Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable…


Book cover of Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change

Jeffrey Bennett Why did I love this book?

When I was 8 years old, I plastered our house with anti-smoking stickers. It greatly annoyed my parents—but they quit smoking. Alas, a couple other close relatives did not, and both ended up dying from smoking-related diseases.

Part of the reason they did not quit was surely the decades-long campaign by tobacco companies to sow doubts about the dangers of smoking.

This book illuminates the strategies that the tobacco companies used to get a few scientists to spread these doubts, and I was amazed to see how the exact same strategies—and in some cases the very same scientists—have been used to sow doubt about climate change. Reading this book makes clear that the disinformation campaign is organized and dangerous.

By Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked Merchants of Doubt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. Our scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers. Merchants of Doubt tells the story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific…


Explore my book 😀

A Global Warming Primer: Pathway to a Post-Global Warming Future

By Jeffrey Bennett,

Book cover of A Global Warming Primer: Pathway to a Post-Global Warming Future

What is my book about?

Our climate future may often seem a choice between bleak and bleaker, but it doesn’t have to be that way. This book, written largely in Q&A format, teaches the science of climate change “with inspiration, not (only) fear,” by emphasizing that if we act rapidly and wisely, we still have a pathway to a “post-global warming” future, meaning a future in which today’s children will someday be able to talk about global warming as a once-serious problem that we found a way to solve.

Book cover of The Discovery of Global Warming
Book cover of Critical Mass
Book cover of Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World

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Spoliation

By Ian J. Miller,

Book cover of Spoliation

Ian J. Miller Author Of A Face on Cydonia

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Research scientist Composer Retired Theoretician

Ian's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

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…

Spoliation

By Ian J. Miller,

What is this book about?

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,…


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