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Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet
A captivating exploration of climate change, through the lens of nine different emotions, to better understand the science, history, and future of our changing planet
Dr. Kate Marvel is a renowned climate scientist and researcher whose work on climate change led her to grapple with strong, complicated emotions. Initially, she resisted those feelings, afraid they would interfere with her objective scientific judgement. But over time she realized that there is no one way to think—or feel—about climate change. To live on and care for our changing planet, we need to embrace the full spectrum of human emotion.
That’s why she’s written Human Nature, the story of climate change told through nine different emotions. As Marvel argues, we need every emotion we can muster if we’re going to counter the usual myopic perspectives on climate change and care enough to make better decisions. And this book is a dazzling call to care.
In Human Nature, each chapter uses a different emotion to illustrate the science behind our changing climate. We feel the wonder of being able to use climate models to predict the future. We feel anger at those who have knowingly destroyed the planet for profit. We feel love for our beautiful Earth, the only good planet. With Marvel as our guide, we get to feel it all—and we can begin to turn our strong feelings into strong action.
Human Nature is a remarkable, hopeful look at climate science that prioritizes feelings—and in doing so charts a path forward for life together in our swiftly evolving world.
Dr. Kate Marvel is a renowned climate scientist and researcher whose work on climate change led her to grapple with strong, complicated emotions. Initially, she resisted those feelings, afraid they would interfere with her objective scientific judgement. But over time she realized that there is no one way to think—or feel—about climate change. To live on and care for our changing planet, we need to embrace the full spectrum of human emotion.
That’s why she’s written Human Nature, the story of climate change told through nine different emotions. As Marvel argues, we need every emotion we can muster if we’re going to counter the usual myopic perspectives on climate change and care enough to make better decisions. And this book is a dazzling call to care.
In Human Nature, each chapter uses a different emotion to illustrate the science behind our changing climate. We feel the wonder of being able to use climate models to predict the future. We feel anger at those who have knowingly destroyed the planet for profit. We feel love for our beautiful Earth, the only good planet. With Marvel as our guide, we get to feel it all—and we can begin to turn our strong feelings into strong action.
Human Nature is a remarkable, hopeful look at climate science that prioritizes feelings—and in doing so charts a path forward for life together in our swiftly evolving world.
304 pages, Paperback
Published June 30, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 160 reviews
June 23, 2025
*This was an ARC First Reads Giveaway*
I was nervous about reading this book, because I have a lot of climate anxiety, which I don't think is being talked about enough. I also don't like reading gushy hopeful books, and this is not that. As a long time climate scientist, she was very real about all the ways we are feeling, and the directions our Earth can go. This book includes great science, and most importantly, a history of the science of climate change. She acknowledges all of the factors we can and cannot control. The book is engaging to ready, funny, and most delightfully, full of rightful STEMinist rage.
I was nervous about reading this book, because I have a lot of climate anxiety, which I don't think is being talked about enough. I also don't like reading gushy hopeful books, and this is not that. As a long time climate scientist, she was very real about all the ways we are feeling, and the directions our Earth can go. This book includes great science, and most importantly, a history of the science of climate change. She acknowledges all of the factors we can and cannot control. The book is engaging to ready, funny, and most delightfully, full of rightful STEMinist rage.
July 9, 2025
Am I becoming a nature reader? If so, it goes back to Rachel Carson and The Sea Around Us. It does seem as if many of my favorite reads of the last few years have been books about the natural world. Add this one to the list! Kate Marvel's emotional soapbox, Human Nature, is everything I want in a book - and the narration is perfect. I enjoyed hearing Marvel's rants, and her wonder and delight, her personal stories and scientific explanations. This is a book about feelings. And, really, feelings are what will save us. If we are to be saved. Because logic alone is not going to turn this boat around. But if enough people catch feelings (I think that is the term kids use these days), then maybe we will find the will to make some much-needed course corrections. Marvel reminds us we have made big changes in the past, we can do so again. Thank you to the author, narrator (excellent job!), publisher, and NetGalley for the audioARC.
July 3, 2025
A bit disappointed because based on the title and the synopsis I had read, I thought this book would assume the reader already has a relatively good understanding of climate change and would focus more, as the title suggests, offering advice on how to deal with the complex emotions climate change evokes in us who lose sleep thinking about it. In fact this is not the primary focus and much of the content could have been included under any of the chapters that were titled after different emotions (anger, guilt, hope etc.) Instead it focuses more on depicting the author's own life story and relationship to nature and climate change, offering some level of relatability, but does not address or pay attention to the reader enough. But once I cast my own expectations aside, it was a decent and informative, though maybe a bit repetitive, read.
July 30, 2025
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson said this was the best climate book she'd ever read. Same here.
I love the framework, telling the story of climate change linked to various human emotions. I love how much I learned about the science of climate modeling. I love Marvel's writing, which is frequently beautiful:
"Baby sequoias born in fire are the lucky ones, phoenixes nurtured in the wreckage of the old forest, growing alongside the fire-scarred flanks of their elderly parents and hoping to quickly reach toward the sky. A little burn now and then is an immensely useful thing, clearing the clutter from the maternity ward and opening the nursery windows." p. 115
"As we become old, we accumulate layers of disaster, small and large, invisible mirrors of the fossilized death preserved under our feet. The happiest life is shot through with sadness, glimmers of unbearable grief shining cold and hard in the light like crystals of quartz in smooth granite." p. 120
"A climate model is to physics as a murmuration of starlings is to a single sitting bird. Everything is connected by a ragged weave of mathematics, isolated strands of spare truth braided into hard knots of complexity." p. 216
She also haunted me with this line:
"The most frightening thing about climate change is what it will make us do to each other." p. 98
Highest possible recommendation for this book. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.
"This is our curse: to shout, unheard, into the void. To make predictions that can't help but come true. To warn and warn and warn again until the entire world is engulfed in needless, predictable flames." p. 3
"Climate is the long-term average of weather: the background conditions in which it happens...Weather is what humans experience over our short lives. Climate is a matter for the gods." p. 18
"If policymakers truly understood the implications and moved to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, then Exxon would have to adapt to survive. On this, at least, Exxon was certain: If the choice were between changing the climate and changing its business model, the world would have to warm. We are just as sure that Exxon and its ilk lied about climate change as we are about the reality of climate change itself." p. 39
"If the wet-bulb temperature exceeds around 95 degrees F, a terrible threshold has been breached...Evaporation can no longer carry heat away from the body. Even if you are young and healthy, even if you are sitting calmly in the shade, even if you have all the drinking water you want, your body, so highly evolved to handle heat, will shut down. You did not evolve for this climate. If you go outside, you will be dead within hours." p. 89
"When a fossil fuel is combusted, it releases energy, which boils water, which turns to steam, which drives a turbine, which generates electricity. This is an almost comically inefficient process." p. 184
"Solar and wind, as well as the batteries needed to compensate for their intermittency, are getting cheaper at an astonishing rate. The price of onshore wind power plummeted 70 percent last decade, while solar costs fell by almost 90 percent." p. 185
"Almost 40 percent of Earth's ice-free land is used for farming, an area the size of Africa and South America combined. Three-quarters of this agricultural land is used for livestock, either as pasture or to grow crops for animal feed." p. 200
"Large numbers lend themselves to nihilism: They take up too much space to leave room for any meaning. They make you think that nothing really matters. But so much does." p. 212
"Water resists change. Its heat capacity is large, making it more difficult to heat and cool than land. The air over the ocean is therefore buffered from wild temperature swings, and the coastal climates over which that air moves tend to be mild as a result. Seattle has a maritime climate because the prevailing winds blow in over the ocean; the east coast of North America is colder and more continental because the winds blow away from the land toward the Atlantic. This is one of the reasons London winters are much warmer than New York City winters, despite Britain's more northern location." p. 215
"There is no such thing as 'human nature'. Anyone who says so knows very little about humans, and nothing at all about nature. We all contain, if not multitudes, at least a few squabbling contradictions." p. 227
I love the framework, telling the story of climate change linked to various human emotions. I love how much I learned about the science of climate modeling. I love Marvel's writing, which is frequently beautiful:
"Baby sequoias born in fire are the lucky ones, phoenixes nurtured in the wreckage of the old forest, growing alongside the fire-scarred flanks of their elderly parents and hoping to quickly reach toward the sky. A little burn now and then is an immensely useful thing, clearing the clutter from the maternity ward and opening the nursery windows." p. 115
"As we become old, we accumulate layers of disaster, small and large, invisible mirrors of the fossilized death preserved under our feet. The happiest life is shot through with sadness, glimmers of unbearable grief shining cold and hard in the light like crystals of quartz in smooth granite." p. 120
"A climate model is to physics as a murmuration of starlings is to a single sitting bird. Everything is connected by a ragged weave of mathematics, isolated strands of spare truth braided into hard knots of complexity." p. 216
She also haunted me with this line:
"The most frightening thing about climate change is what it will make us do to each other." p. 98
Highest possible recommendation for this book. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.
"This is our curse: to shout, unheard, into the void. To make predictions that can't help but come true. To warn and warn and warn again until the entire world is engulfed in needless, predictable flames." p. 3
"Climate is the long-term average of weather: the background conditions in which it happens...Weather is what humans experience over our short lives. Climate is a matter for the gods." p. 18
"If policymakers truly understood the implications and moved to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, then Exxon would have to adapt to survive. On this, at least, Exxon was certain: If the choice were between changing the climate and changing its business model, the world would have to warm. We are just as sure that Exxon and its ilk lied about climate change as we are about the reality of climate change itself." p. 39
"If the wet-bulb temperature exceeds around 95 degrees F, a terrible threshold has been breached...Evaporation can no longer carry heat away from the body. Even if you are young and healthy, even if you are sitting calmly in the shade, even if you have all the drinking water you want, your body, so highly evolved to handle heat, will shut down. You did not evolve for this climate. If you go outside, you will be dead within hours." p. 89
"When a fossil fuel is combusted, it releases energy, which boils water, which turns to steam, which drives a turbine, which generates electricity. This is an almost comically inefficient process." p. 184
"Solar and wind, as well as the batteries needed to compensate for their intermittency, are getting cheaper at an astonishing rate. The price of onshore wind power plummeted 70 percent last decade, while solar costs fell by almost 90 percent." p. 185
"Almost 40 percent of Earth's ice-free land is used for farming, an area the size of Africa and South America combined. Three-quarters of this agricultural land is used for livestock, either as pasture or to grow crops for animal feed." p. 200
"Large numbers lend themselves to nihilism: They take up too much space to leave room for any meaning. They make you think that nothing really matters. But so much does." p. 212
"Water resists change. Its heat capacity is large, making it more difficult to heat and cool than land. The air over the ocean is therefore buffered from wild temperature swings, and the coastal climates over which that air moves tend to be mild as a result. Seattle has a maritime climate because the prevailing winds blow in over the ocean; the east coast of North America is colder and more continental because the winds blow away from the land toward the Atlantic. This is one of the reasons London winters are much warmer than New York City winters, despite Britain's more northern location." p. 215
"There is no such thing as 'human nature'. Anyone who says so knows very little about humans, and nothing at all about nature. We all contain, if not multitudes, at least a few squabbling contradictions." p. 227
September 29, 2026
Outstanding stuff! I'm so pleased that I finally got around to reading it (particularly since I purchased it when it first came out).
There are so many things I enjoyed about this, but, more than anything else, the whole enterprise resonated with me and felt like more than the sum of its parts. And, forgive me for I am weak, but sometimes I need stuff like this, because reading (and writing and talking and advocating) about climate change makes me unspeakably angry, nay, furious, at our feckless politicians (for their inaction, ignorance, and, worse, cynical denial) ... and so many who simply can't imagine a world where they might have to drive less (or drive a smaller car, let alone an EV or a hybrid ... or, horrors, try, let alone advocate for or invest in public transport) or eat less meat ... or maybe balance their children (or the grandchildren's) quality of life against a short-term return on an investment or the rapid construction of another data center or ... but, as they say, I digress. Which is why I'm probably more susceptible to books like Boyd's I Want a Better Catastrophe, and, despite my efforts, I find insufficient comfort in the more optimistic of the climate authors (I'll use Hayhoe's Saving Us as an example of the more hopeful (sorry, no pun intended) offerings). And, at least for me, this fell somewhere in between, but, more often than not, struck the right tone or pushed the right buttons for me.
I enjoyed the organizational or thematic rubric, the nine ways to feel, which, let's keep in mind, isn't necessarily what you'd expect from a scientist that models global climate. I also thought the writing was accessible and effective, and I found the author's voice powerful and clear and, yes, at times, angry (or Good and Mad in the tradition of Rebecca Traister). And, yes, everyone likes/wants different things, but I loved the footnotes and appreciated the extensive endnotes.
Temporal note: it's as infuriating as it's heart-breaking to have read this book after the author resigned from NASA - see, generally, https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar... - as the current government sacrifices our children's' futures ... for what? So the auto industry and the oil industry can maximize profits before reality renders their business model obsolete (and, for the automakers, renders US manufacturers noncompetitive in the evolving hybrid and EV markets)? Because linking arms with the liars is more fun (or profitable) than respecting science or prioritizing (or caring) about public health or what will be left for future generations.... Science, the IPCC, the National Climate Assessment, the EPA ... how any of these became the enemy beggars belief, and yet here we are. Groan, enough spewing venom.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed the book. It's a unique and creative and evocative and impactful contribution to the (ever-increasing) body of work worth reading about climate change. I'll be (strongly) recommending this to others.
There are so many things I enjoyed about this, but, more than anything else, the whole enterprise resonated with me and felt like more than the sum of its parts. And, forgive me for I am weak, but sometimes I need stuff like this, because reading (and writing and talking and advocating) about climate change makes me unspeakably angry, nay, furious, at our feckless politicians (for their inaction, ignorance, and, worse, cynical denial) ... and so many who simply can't imagine a world where they might have to drive less (or drive a smaller car, let alone an EV or a hybrid ... or, horrors, try, let alone advocate for or invest in public transport) or eat less meat ... or maybe balance their children (or the grandchildren's) quality of life against a short-term return on an investment or the rapid construction of another data center or ... but, as they say, I digress. Which is why I'm probably more susceptible to books like Boyd's I Want a Better Catastrophe, and, despite my efforts, I find insufficient comfort in the more optimistic of the climate authors (I'll use Hayhoe's Saving Us as an example of the more hopeful (sorry, no pun intended) offerings). And, at least for me, this fell somewhere in between, but, more often than not, struck the right tone or pushed the right buttons for me.
I enjoyed the organizational or thematic rubric, the nine ways to feel, which, let's keep in mind, isn't necessarily what you'd expect from a scientist that models global climate. I also thought the writing was accessible and effective, and I found the author's voice powerful and clear and, yes, at times, angry (or Good and Mad in the tradition of Rebecca Traister). And, yes, everyone likes/wants different things, but I loved the footnotes and appreciated the extensive endnotes.
Temporal note: it's as infuriating as it's heart-breaking to have read this book after the author resigned from NASA - see, generally, https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar... - as the current government sacrifices our children's' futures ... for what? So the auto industry and the oil industry can maximize profits before reality renders their business model obsolete (and, for the automakers, renders US manufacturers noncompetitive in the evolving hybrid and EV markets)? Because linking arms with the liars is more fun (or profitable) than respecting science or prioritizing (or caring) about public health or what will be left for future generations.... Science, the IPCC, the National Climate Assessment, the EPA ... how any of these became the enemy beggars belief, and yet here we are. Groan, enough spewing venom.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed the book. It's a unique and creative and evocative and impactful contribution to the (ever-increasing) body of work worth reading about climate change. I'll be (strongly) recommending this to others.
September 15, 2025
One of the most inviting, captivating and endearing updates on our climate crisis - and our responses to it - as you'll ever find. Should be read everywhere and by as many people as possible. It's not over yet!
October 20, 2025
Decent read!
A fun book about (mostly) the perils of climate change and some ideas on what we can do to at least hinder it. It also outlined how fickle the climate system we have on this planet is and while solutions are easy to speculate it is way more nuanced than some climate activists/denialists would have you believe. Of course the author isn’t saying that climate change deniers are right in any sense whatsoever.
This book reminded me of why I’m glad I don’t have kids. While I love humanity I don’t think its stubbornness can outpace the consequences of our actions.
The author ends the book with a chapter about her mysterious illness and reflects on mortality. Was a beautiful ending and I wish her the best.
A fun book about (mostly) the perils of climate change and some ideas on what we can do to at least hinder it. It also outlined how fickle the climate system we have on this planet is and while solutions are easy to speculate it is way more nuanced than some climate activists/denialists would have you believe. Of course the author isn’t saying that climate change deniers are right in any sense whatsoever.
This book reminded me of why I’m glad I don’t have kids. While I love humanity I don’t think its stubbornness can outpace the consequences of our actions.
The author ends the book with a chapter about her mysterious illness and reflects on mortality. Was a beautiful ending and I wish her the best.
August 6, 2025
An articulate description of the history and science of climate change. I thought Marvel would expound more on our various emotional reactions to various crises through time (as advertised in the book's title), but the telling was more factual. Gloomy, sad, and hopeful, all at once.
June 3, 2026
It’s hard for me to read about climate change because it gives me so much anxiety. I pushed myself by reading this, and I’m glad I did. I loved her approach to viewing climate change through different lenses and emotions.
I also have a lot of mixed emotions about bringing a kid into a world that feels like it’s on fire, and it’s like the author read my mind
“Many people would argue that I am a bad person for bringing children into a world that I desperately hope they will change. I feel sorry for the people who wish my children nonexistent. But I cannot believe that the world would be better without the best thing it has ever given me. Having children is like a declaration of allegiance to the future, an expression of wild hope that people are fundamentally good, or at least redeemable enough to excuse the choice to make more of them.”
I also have a lot of mixed emotions about bringing a kid into a world that feels like it’s on fire, and it’s like the author read my mind
“Many people would argue that I am a bad person for bringing children into a world that I desperately hope they will change. I feel sorry for the people who wish my children nonexistent. But I cannot believe that the world would be better without the best thing it has ever given me. Having children is like a declaration of allegiance to the future, an expression of wild hope that people are fundamentally good, or at least redeemable enough to excuse the choice to make more of them.”
June 8, 2026
3.5⭐️ This was well done forsure, I just didn’t want to listen to it bc it gave me anxiety / a feeling of dread.. so I could only pick it up in little increments. Shoutout to book club for making me read this bc it’s definitely an important topic. Lower rating is more so for my own personal enjoyment.
January 17, 2026
This book was so good. I would really highly recommend it to anyone (who does not study climate science—it would be repetitive to you if so) who has had any sort of feelings about climate change or wants to learn more.
Marvel writes with beautiful prose that’s also well researched and well explained for an audience of laypeople.
I feel like I’m coming out of this book with a much broader understanding of the history of climate science and a better understanding of the ways that processes on Earth are tied to each other.
Marvel writes with beautiful prose that’s also well researched and well explained for an audience of laypeople.
I feel like I’m coming out of this book with a much broader understanding of the history of climate science and a better understanding of the ways that processes on Earth are tied to each other.
January 24, 2026
Een confronterend schoon pleidooi tegen egoïsme, een introductie tot klimaatwetenschap, een must-read.
January 16, 2026
This is probably the best book I have read on climate change for the lay person. The author makes a good connection to the reader. The side stories into history, mythology, literature hit home.
August 13, 2025
Hands down one of the best books I’ve read about climate change, and perhaps one of the best nonfiction science books, too. Marvel more than lives up to her name — you will find plenty in this book to marvel at. Her writing is poignant, sharp, and riotously funny, often in the same chapter. If more climate scientists could communicate this well, I doubt we’d still be in a crisis. I’m confident this will be a top recommendation of mine for many years to come.
May 30, 2025
Pre-Read Notes
That last paragraph sounds like such an interesting spin on a book, especially a non-fiction one. I'm seldom intrigued by the lackluster descriptions books often give, but this one piqued my interest.
I don't particularly care to read about climate change (although needless to say it is a very important topic and I would like to care/learn more, hence why I even checked out this book to begin with. It just has to be written in an enjoyable manner which I imagine isn't often the case). So I'm glad this book seemingly takes a unique approach to the topic. Which makes it more appealing to a wider audience.
I'll be sure to give a review soon.
__________________________________________
Review
DNF: 38% in and I realized I spent far too much time on this audiobook thinking it would somehow improve or I'd dislike it less.
The narrator is SOOO ill fitting for the way this book is written. She sounds so sterile and unenthused (and this is significantly more pronounced when listening at greater than 1x speed).
It sounds like an army instructor constantly drilling you on the 20 things you did wrong. And not in relation to her writing, but strictly in her delivery, and tone of voice. What makes this even worse is that she specifically chose a narrative approach for this (nonfiction) book (which is interesting and it's very nice to see a different approach being taken).
So unlike many other nonfiction books, this was meant to feel more like a story you could just casually (at least more casually than if it was purely just a dump of information on climate change) enjoy.
But the thing is the narrators voice didn't at all convey that playful, casual and relaxed tone that the writing style was more geared towards. It was so dry and incredibly authoritative therefore it completely clashed with the writing style. On the surface it definitely seems like she did her best to read this with some energy and emotion.
But the undertone of her voice absolutely SCREAMS someone who is VERY authoritative, disciplinary, rigid and strict. It's inescapable and ever present throughout the narration.
As my pre-read notes indicated, I was very happy an optimistic to give this a listen. But it didn't satisfy.
And again, the approach (and writing style) to this book seem really cool and unique, but I couldn't bare the incredibly misaligned voice/delivery of the narration.
Of course the physical copy will be completely devoid of that major shortcoming so I imagine it may be a much more enjoyable experience for readers.
That last paragraph sounds like such an interesting spin on a book, especially a non-fiction one. I'm seldom intrigued by the lackluster descriptions books often give, but this one piqued my interest.
I don't particularly care to read about climate change (although needless to say it is a very important topic and I would like to care/learn more, hence why I even checked out this book to begin with. It just has to be written in an enjoyable manner which I imagine isn't often the case). So I'm glad this book seemingly takes a unique approach to the topic. Which makes it more appealing to a wider audience.
I'll be sure to give a review soon.
__________________________________________
Review
DNF: 38% in and I realized I spent far too much time on this audiobook thinking it would somehow improve or I'd dislike it less.
The narrator is SOOO ill fitting for the way this book is written. She sounds so sterile and unenthused (and this is significantly more pronounced when listening at greater than 1x speed).
It sounds like an army instructor constantly drilling you on the 20 things you did wrong. And not in relation to her writing, but strictly in her delivery, and tone of voice. What makes this even worse is that she specifically chose a narrative approach for this (nonfiction) book (which is interesting and it's very nice to see a different approach being taken).
So unlike many other nonfiction books, this was meant to feel more like a story you could just casually (at least more casually than if it was purely just a dump of information on climate change) enjoy.
But the thing is the narrators voice didn't at all convey that playful, casual and relaxed tone that the writing style was more geared towards. It was so dry and incredibly authoritative therefore it completely clashed with the writing style. On the surface it definitely seems like she did her best to read this with some energy and emotion.
But the undertone of her voice absolutely SCREAMS someone who is VERY authoritative, disciplinary, rigid and strict. It's inescapable and ever present throughout the narration.
As my pre-read notes indicated, I was very happy an optimistic to give this a listen. But it didn't satisfy.
And again, the approach (and writing style) to this book seem really cool and unique, but I couldn't bare the incredibly misaligned voice/delivery of the narration.
Of course the physical copy will be completely devoid of that major shortcoming so I imagine it may be a much more enjoyable experience for readers.
September 12, 2025
Dr Marvel’s ‘Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet’ is a wonderfully balanced book. It offers clear and detailed scientific information, which logically ties all the climate clues together, while at the same being unashamedly and unapologetically a personal account of the range of feelings that the climate crisis brings.
Marvel’s writing is peppered with a sharp dry wit and crackles with a passion for climate action. She draws on the wonderful power of storytelling and compares the hubris of modern humans in their fossil fuel lives, with the classical figures of mythology to suggest that the lessons still haven’t been learned. The chapters of the book are entitled with major emotions, such as ‘Wonder’/ ‘Anger’/ ‘Fear’/ ‘Pride’ which read like mythological characters progressing on a quest. Marvel makes the powerful point that the humanity of climate scientists does not cloud their judgment, but rather enhances it with a love of what can be saved. “I’m sad, desperately so, when I think about all the things we’ll lose. I’m afraid of the disasters I know are coming. I’m proud and surprised and hopeful and utterly in love with our beautiful world, I feel so much.”
As a scientist well versed in using climate models to better understand the impact of climate scenarios, Marvel focuses our attention on our living model- one that is our home. “Scientists have used climate models for decades to see possible futures. Now these long-predicted changes are coming to pass…It’s not a toy planet burning; it’s our beloved Earth.” She compares climate scientists to modern day Cassandra- like figures: “We see the tragedy that awaits; we try to warn of it.”
“Yes, it’s real. Yes, it’s us. Yes, it’s bad. Yes, we’re sure.”
Repeatedly in the book, Marvel hammers home the point that the scientific information of climate change has been known for many decades and that we appear to be more interested in ‘watching Rome burn’, than in taking the action which will make us the heroes of our own story. “The evidence is overwhelming, the science unequivocal: The world is warming because of greenhouse gases.” She rails at the ignorance- oftentimes deliberate ignorance- of those who fail to understand scientific uncertainty and attempt to use it to delay further climate action. “I am angry at the cynicism, the lies, and the greed. I feel burning rage when I hear the same tired talking points, the falsehoods repeated credulously by people who should (and do) know better. And I’m absolutely furious when I see the uncertainty inherent in the scientific method twisted into something evil.”
Marvel’s writing style lifts the words off the page. Her command of the cadence and rhythm of language leads to arguments being well balanced and emphasised.
“We are more sure that greenhouse gases are warming the planet than we are that smoking causes cancer…To stop the planet warming, we simply have to stop emitting them.”
Marvel argues powerfully that we are the agents of change and the future that we hand to our children must contain the acknowledgement and apology that humans have been poor guardians of the planet so far. “When we accept our own responsibility, we gain a powerful truth: How bad it gets is up to us. The future is still in human hands.”
The future matters for Marvel and she argues that we have an immense and unprecedented challenge ahead of us, as the planet changes. “The future remains uncertain. But I’m sending my children there, and they are never coming back.” The political choices that humans make now to act cooperatively, will create this future world- whether it is a world of conflict, limited resources and fear, or whether it will be a peaceful world remains in our control. “We can’t predict what future climate disruption will do to geopolitics, conflict, or the risk of war. But it would be unwise to think it will make the world a more peaceful place.” Marvel continues this argument, that our future world depends on our choices now by saying, “It’s true we don’t know what future climate change will look like. And this is mostly because we don’t know what choices humans will make.” Unprecedented human action to fight against this all too real climate monster is a choice that we need to make so that compound climate events do not continue to imperil us.
The world is not supposed to warm this quickly
Marvel negates the arguments from climate deniers and delayers that ‘climate change has always happened’ by adroitly pointing out that, “The planet’s temperature goes up and down irregularly, like many unsynchronised hearts beating together. What it does not do is rise consistently for more than a century.” This pace that we have caused and then witnessed rightfully causes concern. “The pace of recent climate change is stunningly, bewilderingly fast…The world is not supposed to warm this quickly, to change this suddenly. It never has, or at least not since humans (or anything like humans) have existed. It feels wrong. It is wrong.”
Marvel urges that in this climate emergency, we should be ‘throwing everything at the problem’, but cautions against the ‘silver bullets’ of geoengineering, which continue to hold unknown dangers. She acknowledges that, “Miracles are possible. But it’s a terrible strategy to bet the planet on one.”
We are urged not to be the ‘mad scientists’ of shock horror B movies, creating the golems of climate technological saviours, as we have no idea what climate chimeras we might unleash.
Marvel asks instead that we act out of love and compassion- compassion for our world and for ourselves, so that future generations may look on us with pride and gratitude for a job well done. She quotes the great Carl Sagan, “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” We are the writers of this new climate story- one which will be passed down generations, as the myths of the classical past have been gifted to us. Marvel describes this simple and powerful act- a journey that no one has gone on before, but a path which we all must chart.
“At bedtime we read stories about heroes and monsters, quests fulfilled against impossible odds. I tell him that to stop climate change, we will have to do something that no one has done before. But that, he knows, is what happens in any story worth telling.”
Leibniz’s words, popularised by Voltaire, bring Marvel’s ‘Human Nature’ to a close. ‘All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.’ We are reminded again by Marvel that the planet that we have damaged, and continue to damage, is our only home- our once and future home.
“We can only live here, together. Here in the world that we have changed so much. Here, shining out into cold space where there is no darkness, only light we cannot see.”
Marvel’s writing is peppered with a sharp dry wit and crackles with a passion for climate action. She draws on the wonderful power of storytelling and compares the hubris of modern humans in their fossil fuel lives, with the classical figures of mythology to suggest that the lessons still haven’t been learned. The chapters of the book are entitled with major emotions, such as ‘Wonder’/ ‘Anger’/ ‘Fear’/ ‘Pride’ which read like mythological characters progressing on a quest. Marvel makes the powerful point that the humanity of climate scientists does not cloud their judgment, but rather enhances it with a love of what can be saved. “I’m sad, desperately so, when I think about all the things we’ll lose. I’m afraid of the disasters I know are coming. I’m proud and surprised and hopeful and utterly in love with our beautiful world, I feel so much.”
As a scientist well versed in using climate models to better understand the impact of climate scenarios, Marvel focuses our attention on our living model- one that is our home. “Scientists have used climate models for decades to see possible futures. Now these long-predicted changes are coming to pass…It’s not a toy planet burning; it’s our beloved Earth.” She compares climate scientists to modern day Cassandra- like figures: “We see the tragedy that awaits; we try to warn of it.”
“Yes, it’s real. Yes, it’s us. Yes, it’s bad. Yes, we’re sure.”
Repeatedly in the book, Marvel hammers home the point that the scientific information of climate change has been known for many decades and that we appear to be more interested in ‘watching Rome burn’, than in taking the action which will make us the heroes of our own story. “The evidence is overwhelming, the science unequivocal: The world is warming because of greenhouse gases.” She rails at the ignorance- oftentimes deliberate ignorance- of those who fail to understand scientific uncertainty and attempt to use it to delay further climate action. “I am angry at the cynicism, the lies, and the greed. I feel burning rage when I hear the same tired talking points, the falsehoods repeated credulously by people who should (and do) know better. And I’m absolutely furious when I see the uncertainty inherent in the scientific method twisted into something evil.”
Marvel’s writing style lifts the words off the page. Her command of the cadence and rhythm of language leads to arguments being well balanced and emphasised.
“We are more sure that greenhouse gases are warming the planet than we are that smoking causes cancer…To stop the planet warming, we simply have to stop emitting them.”
Marvel argues powerfully that we are the agents of change and the future that we hand to our children must contain the acknowledgement and apology that humans have been poor guardians of the planet so far. “When we accept our own responsibility, we gain a powerful truth: How bad it gets is up to us. The future is still in human hands.”
The future matters for Marvel and she argues that we have an immense and unprecedented challenge ahead of us, as the planet changes. “The future remains uncertain. But I’m sending my children there, and they are never coming back.” The political choices that humans make now to act cooperatively, will create this future world- whether it is a world of conflict, limited resources and fear, or whether it will be a peaceful world remains in our control. “We can’t predict what future climate disruption will do to geopolitics, conflict, or the risk of war. But it would be unwise to think it will make the world a more peaceful place.” Marvel continues this argument, that our future world depends on our choices now by saying, “It’s true we don’t know what future climate change will look like. And this is mostly because we don’t know what choices humans will make.” Unprecedented human action to fight against this all too real climate monster is a choice that we need to make so that compound climate events do not continue to imperil us.
The world is not supposed to warm this quickly
Marvel negates the arguments from climate deniers and delayers that ‘climate change has always happened’ by adroitly pointing out that, “The planet’s temperature goes up and down irregularly, like many unsynchronised hearts beating together. What it does not do is rise consistently for more than a century.” This pace that we have caused and then witnessed rightfully causes concern. “The pace of recent climate change is stunningly, bewilderingly fast…The world is not supposed to warm this quickly, to change this suddenly. It never has, or at least not since humans (or anything like humans) have existed. It feels wrong. It is wrong.”
Marvel urges that in this climate emergency, we should be ‘throwing everything at the problem’, but cautions against the ‘silver bullets’ of geoengineering, which continue to hold unknown dangers. She acknowledges that, “Miracles are possible. But it’s a terrible strategy to bet the planet on one.”
We are urged not to be the ‘mad scientists’ of shock horror B movies, creating the golems of climate technological saviours, as we have no idea what climate chimeras we might unleash.
Marvel asks instead that we act out of love and compassion- compassion for our world and for ourselves, so that future generations may look on us with pride and gratitude for a job well done. She quotes the great Carl Sagan, “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” We are the writers of this new climate story- one which will be passed down generations, as the myths of the classical past have been gifted to us. Marvel describes this simple and powerful act- a journey that no one has gone on before, but a path which we all must chart.
“At bedtime we read stories about heroes and monsters, quests fulfilled against impossible odds. I tell him that to stop climate change, we will have to do something that no one has done before. But that, he knows, is what happens in any story worth telling.”
Leibniz’s words, popularised by Voltaire, bring Marvel’s ‘Human Nature’ to a close. ‘All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.’ We are reminded again by Marvel that the planet that we have damaged, and continue to damage, is our only home- our once and future home.
“We can only live here, together. Here in the world that we have changed so much. Here, shining out into cold space where there is no darkness, only light we cannot see.”
March 11, 2026
I cannot stress enough how good a writer Kate Marvel is. While most of the information in the book is not new to me, as someone who studied climate change in undergrad, the WAY that she delivered it was perfect. She is both a funny, personable storyteller and a passionate, poetic scientist. If you need a reason to feel hope about tackling the climate crisis (which I did), a refresher on all the earth’s processes in play here, or even a brief history of earth, fossil fuels, and humans, this is your one-stop shop.
Breaking the climate crisis into chapters associated with emotions is a clever concept that Marvel carried out well. Would recommend this book to anyone really, especially those that know mildly about climate change and that it’s bad, but maybe want more depth!
Breaking the climate crisis into chapters associated with emotions is a clever concept that Marvel carried out well. Would recommend this book to anyone really, especially those that know mildly about climate change and that it’s bad, but maybe want more depth!
October 7, 2025
I really liked the framing around emotions.
Reading about climate change can be stressful but the framing around emotions allowed me to have a bit of a warning for each chapter.
The anger chapter was cathartic and the surprise chapter made me LOL multiple times.
The only thing I felt was missing was more info and simplifications around the climate modeling that is the author’s expertise. The overall book was very broad and I think I prefer climate books that have a more pointed focus.
Also—just to avoid a jump
Scare—there is a random HP reference that was completely unnecessary.
Overall an interesting read. Most of the literary and film references enhanced the book.
Reading about climate change can be stressful but the framing around emotions allowed me to have a bit of a warning for each chapter.
The anger chapter was cathartic and the surprise chapter made me LOL multiple times.
The only thing I felt was missing was more info and simplifications around the climate modeling that is the author’s expertise. The overall book was very broad and I think I prefer climate books that have a more pointed focus.
Also—just to avoid a jump
Scare—there is a random HP reference that was completely unnecessary.
Overall an interesting read. Most of the literary and film references enhanced the book.
Read
August 31, 2025if you know anything about the science of climate change, I think you can skip this. If you have read a recent book of nature writing that discusses loss, i think you can also skip this. it would have been much more successful as nature writing or personal essay. instead, it's personal anecdotes interspersed with relatively basic climate science & historical facts presented in a way that suits the narrative at hand. (the narrative being x person was bad, x person was good, all people are human). Not bad, but not substantive in the way that the topic requires.
June 27, 2026
this has been one of my favorite nonfiction reads, and i feel like everyone should read this. kate marvel does a stellar job at using both her expertise as a climate scientist and personal experiences to inform the reader about climate change (one of THE most important topics in all of human history!) while also being a witty, entertaining writer. the unique format of each chapter representing a way to "feel" regarding climate change really brought some additional flavor into the topic. i resonated with practically every word marvel wrote. please listen to the scientists!
June 26, 2025
Written by a scientist, Human Nature: Nine Ways To Feel About Our Changing Planet, dives into climate change. Using climate models and science to explain what the causes behind climate changes are, Marvel shows just how important and relevant this topic is. A good mixture of history, why we cannot exactly predict the future and ways to decrease carbon output, I found I learned a lot!
Paired with different emotions, we are guided through the science and Marvel states a good argument for why we should all care and how we need to take action now, for a better future for our children.
The book isn’t all doom and gloom. I appreciate her hope at the end. A good read for those that want to better understand the science behind climate change.
Thank you Ecco books for the physical copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Paired with different emotions, we are guided through the science and Marvel states a good argument for why we should all care and how we need to take action now, for a better future for our children.
The book isn’t all doom and gloom. I appreciate her hope at the end. A good read for those that want to better understand the science behind climate change.
Thank you Ecco books for the physical copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
August 11, 2025
Pretty good! I enjoyed Kate Marvel's writing about as much as I do her science. I think the "Nine Ways to Feel" subtitle made me think this was going to be something a little different from what it actually was, but it definitely succeeded at being the thing it actually aimed to be. Surprisingly heavy ending that I did not see coming. Would recommend.
August 5, 2026
4.5 stars rounded up
The personal insights on emotion and climate were really moving. I was hoping for more exploration of the emotional politics / politics of emotion around climate - there was discussion of politics and there was discussion of emotion but they were largely kept separate. Maybe that’s a different book. If I was a high school teacher this would definitely be on the curriculum!!
The personal insights on emotion and climate were really moving. I was hoping for more exploration of the emotional politics / politics of emotion around climate - there was discussion of politics and there was discussion of emotion but they were largely kept separate. Maybe that’s a different book. If I was a high school teacher this would definitely be on the curriculum!!
December 7, 2025
Really great science writing and a delight to read. It’s hard to feel optimistic about a problem that requires everyone on earth to work towards a common good, but the author provides reasons for hope and love.
June 3, 2026
By far the best book I have come across on climate change and the science behind it. The book is grounded by facts and the science behind them - really helped me understand climate science for better. This is a must read for anyone who doesn't believe in climate change, wants to understand the complexity of it, and how our actions affect it everyday.
July 13, 2026
A great book on our changing climate (probably what I would recommend first for someone learning about the topic). The framing of the issue though the often conflicting human emotions we feel about it made this compelling
July 5, 2025
Amazing.
I took off a star because of the Harry Potter reference and that transphobic mess.
I took off a star because of the Harry Potter reference and that transphobic mess.
August 30, 2025
This was a fascinating read. I enjoyed learning about different aspects of climate change and how our climate is constantly changing due to a variety of factors.
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April 4, 2026
This book was structured in an interesting way that kept my attention. However it didn’t really help my climate anxiety but it did make me think about how life on earth could be one giant cycle that takes eons to get through. Perhaps we’re simply further in the cycle than I’d like and I just have to make peace with that.
January 5, 2026
This is a wonderful book that explores climate change through nine core human emotions — wonder, anger, guilt, fear, grief, surprise, pride, hope, and love.
I enjoyed Kate Marvel’s writing style and narrative framework. I loved the descriptions of Greek mythology that are immediately followed by concise explanations of contemporary climate science ideas. This is executed beautifully. I also loved the use of historical events and references that were directly or indirectly influenced by changes to the weather and climate. For example, Ghengis Khan’s rise to power being affected by the abundance of grass and available food supplies to support large-scale militaristic endeavors.
I recommend this for anyone wanting to learn more about our changing climate and the various emotions that we might experience in relation to this. I would recommend other books for anyone wanting to learn the technical details of our changing climate, or specific actions we can take as individuals to enact positive change in the world.
••••
“Climate models run on this magic. We build our little worlds from many equations, layering complex structure on top of solid foundations. We start with a star and a rock. Then we make an atmosphere, a tall column of sky in which air may rise and rain can fall. We expand that sky in every direction to give the winds a place to blow. We dig deep pits below and fill them with salt water to understand the ocean currents. Somehow, from a mess of math and code, we find something beautiful and true. We call it a climate model.” — Page 4
“Here, then, is a simple model for a living planet: Take one ordinary star. Add a small rock ninety-four million miles away. If the rock is too cold, add a sky. Then watch as the magic happens. The sun shines, the planet tries to return its borrowed light to space, and little dancing gases in the atmosphere play a constant game of catch and release, throwing some of the outgoing light back down to its surface. The temperature rises and stabilizes, the rock swings round its mediocre little star, and all the stories on Earth begin...” — Pages 7-8
“Physics is often described as cold, clinical, and boring, the antithesis of a good story. And the simple cautionary tale of Icarus does indeed fall apart when confronted by reality. But I think there’s something wonderful in knowing how the world works, in understanding that when the sky cools with height, it forms clouds and makes rain. Physics, and the climate models based on it, tell the truth, rich and complex and full of life. Reality is a beautiful canvas for telling stories; I prefer it to any myth. It seems a fair exchange to me: lose one neat cautionary tale, gain a whole world of new possibilities, better futures, happier endings.” — Page 10
“The climate models I use every day tell me why the world is the way it is. They tell me that the planet is spherical, watery, and turning. It’s heated by the sun. Air rises from the warm, moist tropics and sinks in the desert subtropics. In sinking, it presses down hard on the surface, forcing the air below to move toward areas of lower pressure. The world turns beneath the moving air, which is deflected into trade winds. The winds move over the sea surface, shoving the water along at the boundary between ocean and sky. The water obeys, but recalcitrantly, slowed by its own choppy roughness and bent at an angle by the spinning world. The ocean layers below the surface are dragged by the moving current above. Water rains into the ocean and evaporates back to the sky. These are the foundations. You can always add more and more complexity, building the model up further. Add swirling confrontations between stray warm air just up from the tropics and cold air dripping down from the poles. Now add the boundaries of continents. Now add mountains. Now add forests that exhale great breaths of cloud. Now add cities, cars, factories. Now add yourself. The rules, shaped for so long only by physics, are changing now. There are new characters in the story, entities not describable by the laws of physics but still subject to their consequences. They are tiny but powerful, capable of changing the very sky under which they live. These characters can think and feel and read. They are us.” — Page 19
“The world is much older than we are, and long ago the sun shone on a planet every bit as alive as it is now. The plants made sugar from sunlight, the animals made dinner from plants, and everyone died in the end with the remnants of their last meals stored inside them. Some became fossils, which we now make into fuels. When humans exhume these ancient corpses and set them on fire, this frees the last vestiges of primordial sunlight. Bodies trapped in deep Earth are transfigured to light and heat and motion and an invisible miasma of carbon dioxide. We humans have done wonderful and terrible things with the trapped energy of the long-ago sun. We build gleaming cities and humming machines. We live longer and more comfortably, and we also kill each other more efficiently and in greater numbers. All the while, the color-less, odorless residues of all this activity linger in our sky.” — Page 21
“Scientists are supposed to be circumspect with their emotions, to work toward a kind of detached objectivity that allows us to float above feelings, biases, and politics into a more elevated rational plane. But I don’t think that we enhance our credibility by pretending we feel nothing when we are ignored or belittled or insulted. It hardly makes us more honest to lie about our emotions. So here it is: I’m mad. I am angry at the cynicism, the lies, and the greed. I feel burning rage when I hear the same tired talking points, the falsehoods repeated credulously by people who should (and do) know better. I’m annoyed at how I and my fellow scientists have been treated. And I am absolutely furious when I see the uncertainty inherent in the scientific method twisted into something evil. Scientists don’t know everything, it’s true. But my God, I want to scream, we don’t know nothing.” — Page 26
“The Sahara became a desert because of a tiny change in Earth’s orbit. Right now the planet is closest to the sun in January. Most of us don’t seem to notice; seasons, after all, are caused by the tilt of Earth’s axis, not by our distance from the sun. But ten thousand years ago, the planet was closest to the sun in June. And this made the north of Africa a little sunnier and warmer than it is now. The warmer surface drew in moist air from the colder Atlantic, which condensed into torrential rains. Every year, for thousands of years, there was a summer monsoon in northern Africa. And then it stopped. The planet wobbled in its orbit, the rains began to decline and fail, and the lakes and grasses, the animals and the people, vanished into the dust. It left behind a desert that covers 8 percent of the land on the globe…” — Page 57
“… The rich make choices, while the poor feel the consequences. The people suffering the most from climate change are those least guilty of causing it.” — Pages 68-69
“… The statistics are staggering. To cite the 2023 U.S. National Climate Assessment, in the 1980s there was one (inflation-adjusted) billion-dollar disaster in the United States every four months. Now there is one every three weeks.” — Page 74
“Whether a downpour turns into a flood depends largely on the ground where it falls. Heavy rainfall on pavement and asphalt lands differently than on parkland or beaches. Predictably, the places better protected by green space tend to be wealthier and whiter. Hurricane Harvey’s waters disproportionately flooded Spanish-speaking households in Houston, not because rainfall discriminates, but because the country does.” — Page 81
“At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the central Asian steppe was a harsh place to live. Natural variability in the climate system had led to a devastating drought in the late twelfth century. And as had happened many times before, these adverse conditions had resulted in political instability. The ensuing social chaos empowered a strongman, exactly as it had in Rome a millennium before. The warring factions of Mongolia coalesced around a brilliant military leader named Temüjin. In 1206, he formally adopted a new name: Genghis Khan. Having united the Mongols, he turned his attention to the world beyond the steppe. And then, again through the randomness of natural variability, the local climate changed. The period between 1211 and 1225 CE was the wettest period on record in Mongolia. It was also fairly warm, and in these favorable conditions grass grew abundantly. Suddenly there was enough food to feed an army. Genghis Khan’s horde began to move, conquering neighboring states with astonishing rapidity. By 1227, the Mongol empire stretched from the Caspian Sea to the east coast of China, from Siberia to Tibet. After the Khan’s death, his successors carried on the family business of slaughter and conquest. The Mongols were amazingly skilled horsemen led by brilliant generals. But their greatest weapon was fear. Rumors spread: roads lined with skulls, cities ablaze, massacres of men, women, children, even dogs and cats. Many cities, knowing even the slightest act of resistance might provoke destruction, simply surrendered to the oncoming hordes. Still, between twenty and fifty million people died in the conflict. Nobody saw it coming. A small change in the climate, a short period of abundance in the central Asian steppe, and within a few years the world became unrecognizable…” — Page 95
“… So yes, I’m scared of what climate change will bring: the floods and droughts, the unbearable heat, the strengthening storms. But what scares me the most isn’t the rising seas or the extreme weather. The most frightening thing about climate change is what it will make us do to each other.” — Page 98
“There are certain feedback processes that we understand very well. It’s no surprise that ice melts in the heat; a warmer planet is very obviously a less icy one. When ice melts, it reveals darker ground or water underneath, which absorbs more of the sun’s energy, which makes it even warmer. This is an example of a destabilizing feedback. It’s one all climate models (and all scientists) agree on: It gets warmer, ice melts, it gets warmer still. There are other known feedback loops. For example, hot air is known to hold more water vapor, which itself is a greenhouse gas that traps more heat from the planet below: another destabilizing feedback. As the planet’s temperature increases, it loses more energy to space: a stabilizing feedback. All of these things follow from very basic physics; there’s really no argument about how these feedbacks work. But there is one feedback loop that still mystifies scientists, one process that explains most of the uncertainty in climate sensitivity: clouds.” — Pages 134-135
“We don’t know how bad climate change will get, because we don’t know how much carbon dioxide there’s going to be. And this is because we have no idea what the living world has in store for us. Plants thrive on carbon dioxide, and more of it in the atmosphere might mean more plants grow, sequestering more carbon in their leaves and stalks and soil. On the other hand, CO2 makes the planet warmer and, in many cases, more flammable. Trees that die in the heat or burn in wildfires lose their ability to take carbon out of the atmosphere. At the same time, carbon dioxide does not dissolve as well in warming ocean waters, meaning that more of it could accumulate in the atmosphere as the planet heats up. And as permafrost thaws, additional methane and carbon will be released into the atmosphere…” — Pages 140-141
“… So, like all methods of carbon removal, enhanced rock weathering has the potential to help, if deployed correctly. And, like all carbon removal methods, it also has the potential to do enormous harm. No one has yet demonstrated the potential of direct air capture, marine carbon removal, enhanced rock weathering, or any other method at large scales, and there are many things that could derail the technology — scientific considerations not yet understood, technological difficulties, political opposition, economic constraints. Still, science is powerful and creative, humans have a long history of innovating our way out of trouble, and in the deepening climate crisis more and more brilliant people are turning their attention to the problem of carbon removal. Miracles are possible. But it’s a terrible strategy to bet the planet on one.” — Page 176
“I’ve been trained to see some of the invisible forces that underlie this spectacle. I understand the mathematics that describes the seasons and tides, how the warming Earth might heat the ocean and fill the rivers with snowmelt earlier in the spring. The fish and the animals and people who depend on them are linked together by something deep and universal. All of us obey the same laws, whether we know them or not. We are held together in a magnificent prison made by the laws of physics. When the sun shines, we warm. When gravity pulls, we have no choice but to fall. We resist only with more physics, redirecting energy and momentum and mass to other uses, borrowing it for a brief moment from the rest of the universe.” — Page 224
I enjoyed Kate Marvel’s writing style and narrative framework. I loved the descriptions of Greek mythology that are immediately followed by concise explanations of contemporary climate science ideas. This is executed beautifully. I also loved the use of historical events and references that were directly or indirectly influenced by changes to the weather and climate. For example, Ghengis Khan’s rise to power being affected by the abundance of grass and available food supplies to support large-scale militaristic endeavors.
I recommend this for anyone wanting to learn more about our changing climate and the various emotions that we might experience in relation to this. I would recommend other books for anyone wanting to learn the technical details of our changing climate, or specific actions we can take as individuals to enact positive change in the world.
••••
“Climate models run on this magic. We build our little worlds from many equations, layering complex structure on top of solid foundations. We start with a star and a rock. Then we make an atmosphere, a tall column of sky in which air may rise and rain can fall. We expand that sky in every direction to give the winds a place to blow. We dig deep pits below and fill them with salt water to understand the ocean currents. Somehow, from a mess of math and code, we find something beautiful and true. We call it a climate model.” — Page 4
“Here, then, is a simple model for a living planet: Take one ordinary star. Add a small rock ninety-four million miles away. If the rock is too cold, add a sky. Then watch as the magic happens. The sun shines, the planet tries to return its borrowed light to space, and little dancing gases in the atmosphere play a constant game of catch and release, throwing some of the outgoing light back down to its surface. The temperature rises and stabilizes, the rock swings round its mediocre little star, and all the stories on Earth begin...” — Pages 7-8
“Physics is often described as cold, clinical, and boring, the antithesis of a good story. And the simple cautionary tale of Icarus does indeed fall apart when confronted by reality. But I think there’s something wonderful in knowing how the world works, in understanding that when the sky cools with height, it forms clouds and makes rain. Physics, and the climate models based on it, tell the truth, rich and complex and full of life. Reality is a beautiful canvas for telling stories; I prefer it to any myth. It seems a fair exchange to me: lose one neat cautionary tale, gain a whole world of new possibilities, better futures, happier endings.” — Page 10
“The climate models I use every day tell me why the world is the way it is. They tell me that the planet is spherical, watery, and turning. It’s heated by the sun. Air rises from the warm, moist tropics and sinks in the desert subtropics. In sinking, it presses down hard on the surface, forcing the air below to move toward areas of lower pressure. The world turns beneath the moving air, which is deflected into trade winds. The winds move over the sea surface, shoving the water along at the boundary between ocean and sky. The water obeys, but recalcitrantly, slowed by its own choppy roughness and bent at an angle by the spinning world. The ocean layers below the surface are dragged by the moving current above. Water rains into the ocean and evaporates back to the sky. These are the foundations. You can always add more and more complexity, building the model up further. Add swirling confrontations between stray warm air just up from the tropics and cold air dripping down from the poles. Now add the boundaries of continents. Now add mountains. Now add forests that exhale great breaths of cloud. Now add cities, cars, factories. Now add yourself. The rules, shaped for so long only by physics, are changing now. There are new characters in the story, entities not describable by the laws of physics but still subject to their consequences. They are tiny but powerful, capable of changing the very sky under which they live. These characters can think and feel and read. They are us.” — Page 19
“The world is much older than we are, and long ago the sun shone on a planet every bit as alive as it is now. The plants made sugar from sunlight, the animals made dinner from plants, and everyone died in the end with the remnants of their last meals stored inside them. Some became fossils, which we now make into fuels. When humans exhume these ancient corpses and set them on fire, this frees the last vestiges of primordial sunlight. Bodies trapped in deep Earth are transfigured to light and heat and motion and an invisible miasma of carbon dioxide. We humans have done wonderful and terrible things with the trapped energy of the long-ago sun. We build gleaming cities and humming machines. We live longer and more comfortably, and we also kill each other more efficiently and in greater numbers. All the while, the color-less, odorless residues of all this activity linger in our sky.” — Page 21
“Scientists are supposed to be circumspect with their emotions, to work toward a kind of detached objectivity that allows us to float above feelings, biases, and politics into a more elevated rational plane. But I don’t think that we enhance our credibility by pretending we feel nothing when we are ignored or belittled or insulted. It hardly makes us more honest to lie about our emotions. So here it is: I’m mad. I am angry at the cynicism, the lies, and the greed. I feel burning rage when I hear the same tired talking points, the falsehoods repeated credulously by people who should (and do) know better. I’m annoyed at how I and my fellow scientists have been treated. And I am absolutely furious when I see the uncertainty inherent in the scientific method twisted into something evil. Scientists don’t know everything, it’s true. But my God, I want to scream, we don’t know nothing.” — Page 26
“The Sahara became a desert because of a tiny change in Earth’s orbit. Right now the planet is closest to the sun in January. Most of us don’t seem to notice; seasons, after all, are caused by the tilt of Earth’s axis, not by our distance from the sun. But ten thousand years ago, the planet was closest to the sun in June. And this made the north of Africa a little sunnier and warmer than it is now. The warmer surface drew in moist air from the colder Atlantic, which condensed into torrential rains. Every year, for thousands of years, there was a summer monsoon in northern Africa. And then it stopped. The planet wobbled in its orbit, the rains began to decline and fail, and the lakes and grasses, the animals and the people, vanished into the dust. It left behind a desert that covers 8 percent of the land on the globe…” — Page 57
“… The rich make choices, while the poor feel the consequences. The people suffering the most from climate change are those least guilty of causing it.” — Pages 68-69
“… The statistics are staggering. To cite the 2023 U.S. National Climate Assessment, in the 1980s there was one (inflation-adjusted) billion-dollar disaster in the United States every four months. Now there is one every three weeks.” — Page 74
“Whether a downpour turns into a flood depends largely on the ground where it falls. Heavy rainfall on pavement and asphalt lands differently than on parkland or beaches. Predictably, the places better protected by green space tend to be wealthier and whiter. Hurricane Harvey’s waters disproportionately flooded Spanish-speaking households in Houston, not because rainfall discriminates, but because the country does.” — Page 81
“At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the central Asian steppe was a harsh place to live. Natural variability in the climate system had led to a devastating drought in the late twelfth century. And as had happened many times before, these adverse conditions had resulted in political instability. The ensuing social chaos empowered a strongman, exactly as it had in Rome a millennium before. The warring factions of Mongolia coalesced around a brilliant military leader named Temüjin. In 1206, he formally adopted a new name: Genghis Khan. Having united the Mongols, he turned his attention to the world beyond the steppe. And then, again through the randomness of natural variability, the local climate changed. The period between 1211 and 1225 CE was the wettest period on record in Mongolia. It was also fairly warm, and in these favorable conditions grass grew abundantly. Suddenly there was enough food to feed an army. Genghis Khan’s horde began to move, conquering neighboring states with astonishing rapidity. By 1227, the Mongol empire stretched from the Caspian Sea to the east coast of China, from Siberia to Tibet. After the Khan’s death, his successors carried on the family business of slaughter and conquest. The Mongols were amazingly skilled horsemen led by brilliant generals. But their greatest weapon was fear. Rumors spread: roads lined with skulls, cities ablaze, massacres of men, women, children, even dogs and cats. Many cities, knowing even the slightest act of resistance might provoke destruction, simply surrendered to the oncoming hordes. Still, between twenty and fifty million people died in the conflict. Nobody saw it coming. A small change in the climate, a short period of abundance in the central Asian steppe, and within a few years the world became unrecognizable…” — Page 95
“… So yes, I’m scared of what climate change will bring: the floods and droughts, the unbearable heat, the strengthening storms. But what scares me the most isn’t the rising seas or the extreme weather. The most frightening thing about climate change is what it will make us do to each other.” — Page 98
“There are certain feedback processes that we understand very well. It’s no surprise that ice melts in the heat; a warmer planet is very obviously a less icy one. When ice melts, it reveals darker ground or water underneath, which absorbs more of the sun’s energy, which makes it even warmer. This is an example of a destabilizing feedback. It’s one all climate models (and all scientists) agree on: It gets warmer, ice melts, it gets warmer still. There are other known feedback loops. For example, hot air is known to hold more water vapor, which itself is a greenhouse gas that traps more heat from the planet below: another destabilizing feedback. As the planet’s temperature increases, it loses more energy to space: a stabilizing feedback. All of these things follow from very basic physics; there’s really no argument about how these feedbacks work. But there is one feedback loop that still mystifies scientists, one process that explains most of the uncertainty in climate sensitivity: clouds.” — Pages 134-135
“We don’t know how bad climate change will get, because we don’t know how much carbon dioxide there’s going to be. And this is because we have no idea what the living world has in store for us. Plants thrive on carbon dioxide, and more of it in the atmosphere might mean more plants grow, sequestering more carbon in their leaves and stalks and soil. On the other hand, CO2 makes the planet warmer and, in many cases, more flammable. Trees that die in the heat or burn in wildfires lose their ability to take carbon out of the atmosphere. At the same time, carbon dioxide does not dissolve as well in warming ocean waters, meaning that more of it could accumulate in the atmosphere as the planet heats up. And as permafrost thaws, additional methane and carbon will be released into the atmosphere…” — Pages 140-141
“… So, like all methods of carbon removal, enhanced rock weathering has the potential to help, if deployed correctly. And, like all carbon removal methods, it also has the potential to do enormous harm. No one has yet demonstrated the potential of direct air capture, marine carbon removal, enhanced rock weathering, or any other method at large scales, and there are many things that could derail the technology — scientific considerations not yet understood, technological difficulties, political opposition, economic constraints. Still, science is powerful and creative, humans have a long history of innovating our way out of trouble, and in the deepening climate crisis more and more brilliant people are turning their attention to the problem of carbon removal. Miracles are possible. But it’s a terrible strategy to bet the planet on one.” — Page 176
“I’ve been trained to see some of the invisible forces that underlie this spectacle. I understand the mathematics that describes the seasons and tides, how the warming Earth might heat the ocean and fill the rivers with snowmelt earlier in the spring. The fish and the animals and people who depend on them are linked together by something deep and universal. All of us obey the same laws, whether we know them or not. We are held together in a magnificent prison made by the laws of physics. When the sun shines, we warm. When gravity pulls, we have no choice but to fall. We resist only with more physics, redirecting energy and momentum and mass to other uses, borrowing it for a brief moment from the rest of the universe.” — Page 224
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