Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era

by Jeremy Leggett

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Genres: Science, Environment, Nonfiction

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Dr. Jeremy Leggett is an expert on renewable power, energy policy and climate change. He worked as an oil geologist before become an environmental campaigner for Greenpeace. A prominent commentator around the world, Jeremy is executive chairman of the UK’s leading solar company, founding director of the world’s first private equity fund for renewable energy, and author of Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis (titled Empty Tankin the US).

He is founder and CEO of Highlands Rewilding.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My wife found this old book on a second-hand shelf in late 2017. It's a gripping, saddening you-were-there account of the years from the mid-80s when awareness of global warming gained momentum, to the late 1990s. The author trained as an oil geologist then converted to work for first, New Scientist and then Greenpeace. He describes with calm anger the bad guys of the “Carbon Club” whose job it was to poison and jam many conferences over the years and put out lies to the public. Especially prescient (though too little came from it) was his own work with insurance companies and re-insurance companies to get them to take notice of weather catastrophes (“cats,” he calls them). I don’t know if anyone is carrying on in this sector.
In the years since the book ends, the world has learned much but done little. In 2018 the USA, which leads the world in per capital greenhouse gas emissions has lost its bearings completely.
Jeremy Leggett thought in the late 1990s that the era of oil was coming to an end. Little did he know.
An important book for those interested in the epistemology of global warming and climate change. The story is not a triumph of the human spirit. Getting ready to post this review, I found to my delight that Dr Leggett has a second book The Winning of the Carbon War with a hopeful title from 2015. I'll try to find it for solace. But would he still say we are winning?

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was initially a little disappointed when I looked at the publication date (months after I bought it, of course) and realized that this book was written in 1999, and thus probably wouldn't do much to bring me further up to date on the topics of peak oil or climate change. However, it turned out to be a rather lively page-turner written by an oil industry consultant-turned-Greenpeace scientist-turned-college professor-turned-solar energy CEO. This is a first-person firsthand account of the sequence of international political events that eventually led to the Kyoto Treaty, written in much the same style as John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hitman." It won't do much to inform the reader on developments since Bush Jr. took office, but it is good for what it is.

[Christopher Lascelles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeremy Leggett has done great things for our planet by bringing the climate warming issues we face to the attention of the business community. He will be remembered for it. While the book says what it does on the tin, it's quite a dry read about a list of climate change conferences and you need to have a real interest in climate change (as I do!) to get through it. I wouldn't say it's aimed at a mass readership but worth the read if you are worried about the oil lobby and their attempts to deny climate change is an issue.

[gary pollack · Rating 4 out of 5]

rock on. picked this book up for a buck, thought i'd put it down before i reached its midpoint, but i ate it up, being the public policy junkie that i am. i don't think painting the oil and coal lobbyists as bad guys will ever be dull.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

great little review of carbon politics in the 90s... nice little intro (for me) into the insurance world, which i thought of often during the 04/5 hurricane seasons. if someone know of a more recent book on that area, please let me know.