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Our Biggest Experiment: An Epic History of the Climate Crisis
Traversing science, politics, and technology, Our Biggest Experiment shines a spotlight on the little-known scientists who sounded the alarm to reveal the history behind the defining story of our age: the climate crisis.
In 1856, American scientist and women's rights activist Eunice Newton Foote first warned the world that an atmosphere heavy with carbon dioxide could send temperatures here on Earth soaring. No one paid much attention.
Our Biggest Experiment tells Foote's story, along with stories of the many scientists who helped build our modern understanding of climate change. It also tells the story of our energy system, from whale oil to kerosene and beyond, the first steamships, wind turbines, electric cars, oil tankers, and fridges. The story flows from the Enlightenment into World War II and later, tracing the development of big science and our advancing realization that global warming was a significant global problem. With precision and wit, Bell chronicles the growth of the environmental movement, climate skepticism, and political systems such as the UN climate talks.
As citizens of the twenty-first century, it can feel like history has dealt us a bad hand with the climate crisis. In many ways, this is true. Our ancestors have left us an almighty mess. But they left us tools for survival too, and Our Biggest Experiment tells both sides of the story.
In 1856, American scientist and women's rights activist Eunice Newton Foote first warned the world that an atmosphere heavy with carbon dioxide could send temperatures here on Earth soaring. No one paid much attention.
Our Biggest Experiment tells Foote's story, along with stories of the many scientists who helped build our modern understanding of climate change. It also tells the story of our energy system, from whale oil to kerosene and beyond, the first steamships, wind turbines, electric cars, oil tankers, and fridges. The story flows from the Enlightenment into World War II and later, tracing the development of big science and our advancing realization that global warming was a significant global problem. With precision and wit, Bell chronicles the growth of the environmental movement, climate skepticism, and political systems such as the UN climate talks.
As citizens of the twenty-first century, it can feel like history has dealt us a bad hand with the climate crisis. In many ways, this is true. Our ancestors have left us an almighty mess. But they left us tools for survival too, and Our Biggest Experiment tells both sides of the story.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published September 21, 2021
56 people are currently reading
2730 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
December 2, 2021
There's nothing particularly wrong with this book, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. The author delivers what the title promises - a history of the climate crisis. I like science and I'm very interested in the climate crisis and what we can do to prevent it getting worse or deal with what can't be changed. But I'm not a fan of history. The book sets forth when, why, and how the climate crisis began and when and how it came to be recognized for the crisis it is. Scientists and amateurs alike are named and credited. That much I expected and was willing to plow through, but I expected it to be brought right up to the current day and to discuss what is being done to deal with it. Unfortunately, near the very end the author comes out and says that as a historian she shouldn't be writing about anything within the last ten years because there's no perspective, so she stops there. What!? She does end with a chapter of her own views and speculations, but it tends to be more along the lines of assigning blame and discussing policies and politics, not cures or hopeful avenues being explored. In other words, it's all history, not science.
July 6, 2021
Weaves together the story of fossil fuels, science and environmentalism into an ambitious, panoramic history of how climate change went from rumour to fact to emergency. If you enjoy popular histories or biographies, this is a really good way into the topic of climate change.
March 15, 2022
A well researched and readable history of climate change from the early-on warnings up to present day and future concerns. Early eighteenth century warnings of the causes of climate change by little known scientists and experimenters were ignored either as supposition or as insignificant at the time - something that the future will bear by which time we will supposedly know how to prevent or minimize the impact of climate change. The author recognizes that climate change has also been attributed to natural causes - volcanic eruptions, for example, but she states, "the warming we're talking about isn't just the sorts of climate fluctuations that would be happening whether humans lived on this planet or not, but has been caused by the massive influx of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution." Because of the broad scope of this environmental, scientific, and technological history, the large number of players involved, and the engaging stories and details, the book becomes a bit overwhelming with all the information included. It is well worth the read, however, for an understanding of the history of climate change and how we got to where we are now.
May 15, 2023
3.75⭐️ Very sad to think how early humans knew that there was a problem, but chose not to act more aggressively.
October 14, 2021
Meticulous and tightly focused, Our Biggest Experiment draws out the individual strands that make up the complex texture and weave of the huge history of climate change research. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2021...
August 17, 2021
What I Didn’t Like:
-Very dry. This one reads like a textbook. Lots of words on a page, lots of pages, and a lot to focus on. There’s a lot of facts, dates, names, places, and events to read through. That makes this one really hard to latch onto for continuous reading.
-Lack of action-forward focus. This is a nonfiction history of the climate crisis. While it does a decent job of laying out the past, I would’ve liked to see more time spent on the history and actionable steps. Of course, that wasn’t the point of the book, but it would’ve helped the downer mood.
-Lack of focus in some chapters. There were definitely times when I felt like I was in a sort of rabbit hole, chasing the past of one person or another. I kept forgetting what the heck that person had to do with the topic at hand (energy and the climate crisis).
What I Did Like:
-Obviously well researched. No one could ever accuse this author of not knowing everything about these topics. The massive list of sources (both in the footnotes and in the appendix) make it VERY clear this one is carefully researched. I love that in nonfiction!
-Laid back tone. The author writes this one almost as if she’s writing to a friend. There’s few (if any) multi-syllable scientific words. This was written as a way to show the average person that climate change is a very real thing and explain how we created this problem.
Who Should Read This One:
-Science minded curious readers who want to know about the history of energy in the world. It’s exactly the audience it was intended for!
My Rating: 3 stars. The research is refreshing and well organized and the history is accurate.
-Very dry. This one reads like a textbook. Lots of words on a page, lots of pages, and a lot to focus on. There’s a lot of facts, dates, names, places, and events to read through. That makes this one really hard to latch onto for continuous reading.
-Lack of action-forward focus. This is a nonfiction history of the climate crisis. While it does a decent job of laying out the past, I would’ve liked to see more time spent on the history and actionable steps. Of course, that wasn’t the point of the book, but it would’ve helped the downer mood.
-Lack of focus in some chapters. There were definitely times when I felt like I was in a sort of rabbit hole, chasing the past of one person or another. I kept forgetting what the heck that person had to do with the topic at hand (energy and the climate crisis).
What I Did Like:
-Obviously well researched. No one could ever accuse this author of not knowing everything about these topics. The massive list of sources (both in the footnotes and in the appendix) make it VERY clear this one is carefully researched. I love that in nonfiction!
-Laid back tone. The author writes this one almost as if she’s writing to a friend. There’s few (if any) multi-syllable scientific words. This was written as a way to show the average person that climate change is a very real thing and explain how we created this problem.
Who Should Read This One:
-Science minded curious readers who want to know about the history of energy in the world. It’s exactly the audience it was intended for!
My Rating: 3 stars. The research is refreshing and well organized and the history is accurate.
January 8, 2022
This is a very thorough history of the the Climate Crisis. I love the way Alice writes about the scientists involved and presents them as humans not only discussing their contributions to knowledge but also how the wider context of society and their own flaws and relationships with others has influenced the future we now live in. Chapters 3-7 were my favourites and I learnt as much about how the world we live in now was created and how a relatively small group of people made discoveries and creations that have let us live the way we do (and created the problems we have). It took me a while to read this as it is so in depth but it’s also provided me with a reading list to keep me busy for years to come.
February 23, 2023
Promising, but a slow slog of a read. Too much crammed into one book without a real narrative thread to follow.
December 1, 2021
A few years ago, I encountered on social media a reference to a “Popular Mechanics” article from 1912 describing how the burning of coal adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. “This tends to make the air a more effective blanket for the earth and to raise its temperature,” an illustration caption read. “The effect may be considerable in a few centuries.”
I found it remarkable that the basic facts of climate change were understood and reported in a well-known magazine more than 100 years ago. How is it, then, that nobody did anything about it?
It was with that question in my mind that I read Alice Bell’s new book, “Our Biggest Experiment: An Epic History of the Climate Crisis.” In 331 pages (not counting acknowledgements and a list of sources), Bell tries to answer that question and more. In most of the book, Bell uses alternating chapters to chronicle both the increasing use of fossil fuels by human societies and the scientific discoveries that have led to the knowledge of how this use is impacting the earth’s climate.
“I’m not going to offer you villains and heroes,” Bell writes in her introduction. I was indeed struck by how the desire to advance science is a driving force in both stories. While many of those enabling the use of coal, gas, and oil and the electrification of modern life certainly made a lot of money, they also provided illumination, heating and cooling, faster transportation, and other things that have seemingly made the lives humans live better. On the other side of the coin, many of those in the “environmentalist” chapters have their dark sides. In particular, Bell recounts how many early conservationists were white supremacists and eugenics enthusiasts.
Sometimes Bell’s digressions into the quirks and foibles of the characters in her history seem like distractions from the main story, although I’m sure it would have been difficult for her to leave out these juicier bits of their biographies. The writing can be choppy at times. In her notes, she references books she used as sources with phrases like “entertaining” and “a blistering read.” It would be hard to use those descriptions for Bell’s own prose. The lack of an index is also annoying; with so many people discussed in this book, it would be nice to be able to readily find where they previously appeared in the narrative.
That said, the breadth of what Bell covers is impressive – and I did get the answer to the question that had prompted me to pick up the book in the first place. It seems that those who early on made a connection between increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and increased temperatures were not themselves all that concerned about it. In some cases, they thought some warming might be a good thing to thwart a future ice age. It really wasn’t until the late 1950s that any scientists starting consistently discussing how continued burning of coal and oil could lead to melting of the polar ice caps. By that point, Bell’s book is already through more than 240 of its pages.
Bell stops her history with a discussion of the 2009 UN climate talks in Copenhagen, although she touches on more recent events in her concluding chapter, titled “End Point?” As one might guess, her conclusions are not particularly optimistic, but Bell notes that at least we have the knowledge that climate scientists have accumulated over the decades she details: “We could, all too easily, be sitting around thinking ‘the weather’s a bit weird today. Again.’”
I found it remarkable that the basic facts of climate change were understood and reported in a well-known magazine more than 100 years ago. How is it, then, that nobody did anything about it?
It was with that question in my mind that I read Alice Bell’s new book, “Our Biggest Experiment: An Epic History of the Climate Crisis.” In 331 pages (not counting acknowledgements and a list of sources), Bell tries to answer that question and more. In most of the book, Bell uses alternating chapters to chronicle both the increasing use of fossil fuels by human societies and the scientific discoveries that have led to the knowledge of how this use is impacting the earth’s climate.
“I’m not going to offer you villains and heroes,” Bell writes in her introduction. I was indeed struck by how the desire to advance science is a driving force in both stories. While many of those enabling the use of coal, gas, and oil and the electrification of modern life certainly made a lot of money, they also provided illumination, heating and cooling, faster transportation, and other things that have seemingly made the lives humans live better. On the other side of the coin, many of those in the “environmentalist” chapters have their dark sides. In particular, Bell recounts how many early conservationists were white supremacists and eugenics enthusiasts.
Sometimes Bell’s digressions into the quirks and foibles of the characters in her history seem like distractions from the main story, although I’m sure it would have been difficult for her to leave out these juicier bits of their biographies. The writing can be choppy at times. In her notes, she references books she used as sources with phrases like “entertaining” and “a blistering read.” It would be hard to use those descriptions for Bell’s own prose. The lack of an index is also annoying; with so many people discussed in this book, it would be nice to be able to readily find where they previously appeared in the narrative.
That said, the breadth of what Bell covers is impressive – and I did get the answer to the question that had prompted me to pick up the book in the first place. It seems that those who early on made a connection between increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and increased temperatures were not themselves all that concerned about it. In some cases, they thought some warming might be a good thing to thwart a future ice age. It really wasn’t until the late 1950s that any scientists starting consistently discussing how continued burning of coal and oil could lead to melting of the polar ice caps. By that point, Bell’s book is already through more than 240 of its pages.
Bell stops her history with a discussion of the 2009 UN climate talks in Copenhagen, although she touches on more recent events in her concluding chapter, titled “End Point?” As one might guess, her conclusions are not particularly optimistic, but Bell notes that at least we have the knowledge that climate scientists have accumulated over the decades she details: “We could, all too easily, be sitting around thinking ‘the weather’s a bit weird today. Again.’”
August 30, 2021
Fantastic book that tells the story of climate change and the scientists and individuals who revealed it to themselves and to the world and the place in which society is placed when they heard that news. Very compelling and gives details and context that paint the picture of how we got to the year 2021 with 1.1degrees of warming (according to the IPCC Report 6). Also has a very extensive reading list that is connnected to the main text via footbotes throughout, making it a great starting point for anyone to engage with the topic. Both science and history, telling the story of consumerism, our addicition to energy, travel and plastics.
Also fascinating conclusion about how climate change was discovered by geologists and metereologists - the military- and how this did not fit as well for WWF and Greenpeace ect who had biology, ecology and plant biology on their side.
* Colonialism fuelled climate change.
* Before we mined the earth for fossil fuels, we mined the ocean for whales. Humans problem with energy use is larger than fossil fuels.
* Interesting charts the resistance to gas lighting rather than whale blubber.
* Colonial expansion created the need and desire for weather predictions, especially in shipping.
* 1912 and 1920s: atmospheric carbon dioxide not yet decisively linked to warming, but global cooling was a bigger fear to have another ice age.
* In 50s and 60s people thought nuclear would usurp fossil fuels and so global warming would not be a problem.
Also fascinating conclusion about how climate change was discovered by geologists and metereologists - the military- and how this did not fit as well for WWF and Greenpeace ect who had biology, ecology and plant biology on their side.
* Colonialism fuelled climate change.
* Before we mined the earth for fossil fuels, we mined the ocean for whales. Humans problem with energy use is larger than fossil fuels.
* Interesting charts the resistance to gas lighting rather than whale blubber.
* Colonial expansion created the need and desire for weather predictions, especially in shipping.
* 1912 and 1920s: atmospheric carbon dioxide not yet decisively linked to warming, but global cooling was a bigger fear to have another ice age.
* In 50s and 60s people thought nuclear would usurp fossil fuels and so global warming would not be a problem.
July 15, 2022
Disappointingly lightweight. History should be more than potted life descriptions and who did what to whom, without ever getting to the meat of climate change.
November 20, 2021
I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. It is refreshing in taking a long view of the climate crisis we are in - telling the astonishing story of the growth of fossil fuels as THE STORY of human history over the last 250 years. It shows that story was not inevitable or pre-written, exploring the many roads not taken, such as early electric cars. But it explains it as an interaction between vast bottom-up forces - the desire of millions of people to have better, more prosperous more convenient lives, which after all is what more light, more heat, the ability to move great distances more quickly etc etc afforded - and the top-down attempts of business and political elites to shape our energy story in a particular direction, to serve those desires and to shape them, to describe what progress looked like and to deny the criticisms of those who questioned it. There are many fascinating examples of that interaction at play, for example the US car industry's coining of 'jaywalking', in the early C20 of the Model T as personal car use exploded, as an attempt to focus attention dozy or rulebreaking pedestrians rather than what was a scary and threatening change to the fabric of communities. The book is well-written and researched and full of brilliant characters.
July 16, 2022
Okay... so this low review is partly my fault. If I'd realised that the most important word in this book's title was 'history' maybe I would have come in with different expectations and thus enjoyed it more (or just not read it).
Alice Bell has compiled a phenomenal, detailed history of humans, societies and technologies related to all aspects of the climate... from how we tell the weather, to electricity usage, to transport running, and beyond.
For me, unfortunately, the level of detail was just all wrong. It went into far, far too much information about the individual lives of people from 400 years ago and didn't offer nearly enough insight, evaluation of theorisation to bring it all together in an interesting way. I would have appreciated the book much more if Bell had shortened the detailed historical descriptions and spent more time going into WHY that history impacts us today / into the future.
If you love history then you'll probably enjoy this book more than I did. If you're interested in politics / global affairs / the climate crisis that we face today, then you may find this book frustrating, as I did.
Alice Bell has compiled a phenomenal, detailed history of humans, societies and technologies related to all aspects of the climate... from how we tell the weather, to electricity usage, to transport running, and beyond.
For me, unfortunately, the level of detail was just all wrong. It went into far, far too much information about the individual lives of people from 400 years ago and didn't offer nearly enough insight, evaluation of theorisation to bring it all together in an interesting way. I would have appreciated the book much more if Bell had shortened the detailed historical descriptions and spent more time going into WHY that history impacts us today / into the future.
If you love history then you'll probably enjoy this book more than I did. If you're interested in politics / global affairs / the climate crisis that we face today, then you may find this book frustrating, as I did.
November 15, 2021
This is a very detailed history of our uses of energy during the industrial revolution to the present and the parallel discoveries of scientists about our earth's atmosphere and the effects carbon dioxide can have on climate. Before reading this book I knew that Arrhenius had identified the potential for CO2 to act as a greenhouse gas in the 19th century, but I did not realize he was not the first, and that the first to make this discovery was actually a woman.
It was also enlightening to learn that concerns about the potential for climate change to actually happen began to be discussed as early as the 1930s, with a quite a bit more clarity in the 1950s. Scientists have known about this potential disaster in the making for a lot longer than many realize, and the scientific consensus was well established by the 1980s. Climate skepticism has done great damage in eroding an effective response, and we are far past the point where we should have enacted much greater measures to mitigate climate change. I only hope it is not too late now.
It was also enlightening to learn that concerns about the potential for climate change to actually happen began to be discussed as early as the 1930s, with a quite a bit more clarity in the 1950s. Scientists have known about this potential disaster in the making for a lot longer than many realize, and the scientific consensus was well established by the 1980s. Climate skepticism has done great damage in eroding an effective response, and we are far past the point where we should have enacted much greater measures to mitigate climate change. I only hope it is not too late now.
April 16, 2024
A surprisingly fascinating history of the science and humanity that led us to understanding the science behind global warming and the political struggles that have ensued as we try to save our planet from becoming overcooked. It took work by scientists along a number of fronts to get a perspective on the whole planet. For example, there's the warming properties of CO2, the study of weather patterns over time, the answer to the question, 'how is the earth not freezing cold, given how far it is from the sun -- what holds the heat?' and so on. The chapter on whales and their role in the cultural approaches to science and warming, alone is worth the price of admission. And I loved in particular the study of some of the earliest scientific work -- dealing with phlogiston and other such intellectual impediments took many minds, many slices of the cake, and some really interesting personalities.
February 12, 2022
Anyone who loves history will enjoy "Our Biggest Experiment." When I first picked up this book, I anticipated it would be a long discourse into the science of climate change and how it is affecting our lives. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out it was more a history of energy development in the United States and much of the world.
The fascinating stories will grab any lover of history. For example, author Alice Bell tells the story of the controversy over AC (alternating current) and how Edison, of all men, tried to dissuade customers from using the "dangerous" current to power stores and homes and instead use his preferred method (DC) or direct current.
The book is filled with these interesting anecdotes that put into perspective where we are as a civilization today with respect to energy and global warming and how we got there.
The fascinating stories will grab any lover of history. For example, author Alice Bell tells the story of the controversy over AC (alternating current) and how Edison, of all men, tried to dissuade customers from using the "dangerous" current to power stores and homes and instead use his preferred method (DC) or direct current.
The book is filled with these interesting anecdotes that put into perspective where we are as a civilization today with respect to energy and global warming and how we got there.
September 7, 2021
This is a history book, about the evolution of the climate change science, full of nice details, written in a very street way, which I really liked. Alice tries to be very aseptic in her writing, and when she doesn't is because she shouldn't. I wish she could have pushed a bit further the envelope at the very end, it seems she was VERY eager to finish the book, I imagine she will come back with a more compact and recent version of the last years not included into this volume. BTW the book is filled with great book references, there is a nice source of boo to read, but maybe later, after my climate depression subside a bit. Worth reading!
September 9, 2022
I like historical nonfiction. Especially when it reveals the dirty little secrets that have been hiding in plain site. I have thought for a long time that the oil and auto industry have been hiding the real research on climate change, and this book proves me right. What I didn't know is how long ago the coal industry bigwigs knew the dangers, even before automobiles became useful enough to be widely used. There's a lot of blame to spread around. It's time they start paying some of the price to mitigate the issue. Bell gives us at least a partial list of companies and families to start with.
June 30, 2022
This took me quite a while to read! It wasn't that is was bad. Just a lot of information. I could have done with less names. It was really hard to keep track of every white man the author detailed as part of the history of climate change, its discovery, and mitigation. Generally I enjoy history and this was nice information to have to sprinkle into my frequent conversations on the topic of climate change. 3.75*
October 26, 2022
Our Biggest Experiment was, for me, a big disappointment. Although this is a thorough and well-researched history, the author's seemingly casual attitude about the climate crisis is baffling. Does 'journalistic integrity' require her to shun any sense of urgency? And given all that she knows, and that we know, about both the severity of the issue we face and the documented evidence of oil industry obfuscation, why is there no outrage? I just don't get it.
March 24, 2023
There's a lot of valuable information contained within, but the writing style is a bit dry. I found myself very rarely reading more than 15 pages at a time.
I would have liked an extension to the last chapter, which seemed to end all too abruptly, when I feel there was a lot more to say about the last 10 years or so of the climate crisis.
However, it's thoroughly researched, and if you're interested in the topic, then I would recommend it.
I would have liked an extension to the last chapter, which seemed to end all too abruptly, when I feel there was a lot more to say about the last 10 years or so of the climate crisis.
However, it's thoroughly researched, and if you're interested in the topic, then I would recommend it.
April 4, 2023
Really well-written and enjoyable to read, amazing to follow the huge cast of people who have influenced our climate or knowledge of it. I was fascinated by the early science, incredulous at the scheming oil barons and frustrated by the inaction of the 1980s - 2000s. I loved the conclusion about appreciating the contributions to our understanding and applying the tools to the future. Important reading!
July 28, 2024
A wonderfully narrated COMPLETE history of the story of climate science. A perfect introduction to the longest and most relevant story of science. However, owing to the breadth covered, the contents felt a little shallow. But, I strongly feel this opinion is due to having read other books on specific topics covered within this book (Those books have been cited in this!!!!). The smart comments by the author sprinkled throughout add a different flavour.
October 7, 2022
Overall the book gives a sense of what it was like to live in pre-modern times before electricity and oil were used in mainstream society and provides some insights into early climate science that I found genuinely surprising. However, it's not exactly riveting and requires some tenacity to get through.
August 27, 2023
Bell does a beautiful job diving into little-known facts about the history of climate change. She highlights important discoveries that have been intentionally looked over in the pursuit of getting richer at the expense of future generations. A great introductory book that covers a variety of industries!
January 19, 2025
Everyone and anyone with an interest or care for the state of our environment should read this book. Offered excellent detail about our history with fossil fuels and the painfully long delay before scientists discovered their terrible consequences.
Becoming more informed about our relationship with fossil fuels allows me to make more informed decisions for my future.
Becoming more informed about our relationship with fossil fuels allows me to make more informed decisions for my future.
February 5, 2023
Skøn historisk gennemgang af både klimaforskning/videnskab og hvordan den verden/industri der har opbygget vores fossil-samfund har gjort det!
Godt, nemt og sjovt skrevet. Lidt æv at hun ikke har fodnoter dog…
Godt, nemt og sjovt skrevet. Lidt æv at hun ikke har fodnoter dog…
March 16, 2024
enjoyable book, dense at points but with lots of sources and lots of points on the people involved. i wouldve liked more on recent history (2000s and on), but the conclusion makes a reasonable argument why that wasnt included as much.
Want to read
September 4, 2021Library Journal Sep 2021, Vol. 146 no. 9
December 24, 2021
Not as insightful and comprehensive about Climate Change as I would have thought.
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