My favorite books on the climate change debate: a clarion call to avoid a catastrophe

In this thought-provoking book, environmental science expert and professor Frank R. Spellman, PhD, gives a clear-eyed and concise overview of climate change—explaining what is really happening to our planet, why it is happening, and what can be done about it. Emphasizing scientific data and climate change indicators, Spellman gives a sober (but not panicked) assessment of the problems (natural and human-made) that we face and looks at possible mitigating factors and solutions. Understanding Climate Change: A Practical Guide is an invaluable resource to the student, policy maker, and others facing this crisis, which is to say near all of us except, perhaps, the die-hards who reject essential science. An extensive glossary demystifies much of the jargon employed in the public arena. Given the standards set in the market, however, $89.32 is steep for a paperback book.

This title sounds as if it was written by Karl Marx in the 1850s (“Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to but your oil-scarred planet.”) Huber advocates organizing and educating the working class as to who is doing what to whom; that is, who profits from continued use of fossil fuels, and who would benefit from a society that runs on clean energy. Huber argues that the carbon-intensive capitalist class must be confronted with the worldwide dangers of failing to react so that the atmosphere will be restored to normal. As in classical socialist movements, Huber asserts winning the climate struggle by forming an internationalist based on a planetary working class in solidarity. This is well and good, perhaps, but a scientific basis is required along with class struggle.

Yes, this is the Bill Gates, and judging by audience response at Amazon.com, with 9,781 ratings as of late July 2022, his book is at the top of the climate-change heap. While Matthew T. Huber believes that the uber-rich will have to be educated into a working-class point of view to take part in a worldwide climate-changing strategy, Bill Gates, who is about as oligarchic as they come (that is, one of the richest people on the Planet) joined with Knopf, one of publishing’s leading (and richest) voices, and Amazon.com, the biggest book dealer on the Planet, to argue the need for countering malign climate change, and doing it quickly. A review in Science, which is as good a source as possible, calls it “pragmatic and grounded in forward-thinking economic reasoning.” Don’t, however, accuse Gates of carpetbagging. He also has been offering solutions to “prevent the next pandemic,” when we don’t even know what it will be. Nonetheless, The New York Times says that Gates’ book can help move us to zero greenhouse-gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. 

I love Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide, by Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, because he is very good at combining a sterling knowledge of science with activism. This is exactly what I have been doing in several books on the world climate crisis during the last 25 years. While I have trouble with some of the connections he is that he is trying to make (does global warming really have a tie to vulcanism?), I really love McGuire’s easy-to-read style. The fact that he works both with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and as an author of books, as well as work several U.K. and U.S. newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian, The [London] Times, The Observer, New Scientist, Focus, and Prospect, means that his work speaks to several audiences at once. I agree wholeheartedly with several reviewers who stress that it is rare indeed, for a top scientist to spell out with blunt honesty the hell that we are heading into and that we (all of us!) should appreciate what we can do personally and professionally to deal with this crisis.