Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity

by James Hansen

In Storms of My Grandchildren, Dr. James Hansen—the nation’s leading scientist on climate issues—speaks out for the first time with the full truth about global warming: The planet is hurtling even more rapidly than previously acknowledged to a climatic point of no return.

Although the threat of human-caused climate change is now widely recognized, politicians have failed to connect policy with the science, responding instead with ineffectual remedies dictated by special interests. Hansen shows why President Obama’s solution, cap-and-trade, which Al Gore has signed on to, won’t work; why we must phase out all coal; and why 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a goal we must achieve if our children and grandchildren are to avoid global meltdown and the horrific storms of the book’s title. This urgent manifesto bucks conventional wisdom (including the Kyoto Protocol) and is sure to stir controversy, but Hansen—whose climate predictions have come to pass again and again, beginning in the 1980s when he first warned Congress about global warming—is the single most credible voice on the subject worldwide.

Hansen paints a devastating, all-too-realistic picture of what will happen in the near future, mere years and decades from now, if we follow the course we’re on. But he is also an optimist, showing that there is still time to do what we need to save the planet. Urgent, strong action is needed, and this book will be key in setting the agenda going forward to create a groundswell, a tipping point, to save humanity—and our grandchildren—from a dire fate more imminent than we had supposed.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Environment, Climate Change, Politics, Nature, Sustainability

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

Dr. James Hansen is perhaps best known for bringing global warming to the world's attention in the 1980s, when he first testified before Congress. An adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and at Columbia's Earth Institute, and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, he is frequently called to testify before Congress on climate issues. Dr. Hansen's background in both space and earth sciences allows a broad perspective on the status and prospects of our home planet.

Reviews

[Emma Sea · Rating 2 out of 5]

oy vey.

The problem here is that this isn't a book about climate science. This is a memoir about Hansen's "experiences as a scientist interacting with policy makers" (p. xi)

You can see the approaching flaw, already, right?

"On June 23, 1988, I was a witness, an official witness, when I testified to a Senate committee chaired by Tim Wirth of Colorado . . ." (p. xv)

"I was escorted from the briefing by David Halpern, a staff member in Marburger's OSTP, who commented that they would have another presentation the following week on the same topic - by Richard Lindzen" (p. 53).

"I received a call from a reporter at national Public Radio (NPR). The reporter had obtained a copy of a memo to NASA employees from Glenn Mahone, . . . " (p. 110).

"I decided to write a letter . . ."

"I began my lecture . . ."

"I met local resident . . . "

The actual science that is in the book = six stars.
The description of the government processes around the science = OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP.

This is Hansen's big, fat I Fucking Told You So, and I do not begrudge him that. But it did not make for a engaging book. To say the least.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

James Hansen is possibly the best-known climate scientist around, as famous for what he wasn't allowed to say as what he did say. He has been an accomplished researcher and a strong voice for taking actions to avert climate change.

This book is an unhappy combination of climate science primer and political memoir. The science is fairly intense (not hard, but he doesn't waste time getting to details) but scattered and the political memoir is, frankly, boring. It is an important book in that this is where Hansen gets to say to future generations, "I tried and this is what I did," but I did not find it compelling reading. Important, maybe, but not compelling.

I have written many reviews here on goodreads decrying journalist-written science books as being engaging but shallow and anecdote-driven. This book, unfortunately, is an example of why those books exist - I think that climate science is fascinating (and flatter myself that I can understand most of the pop science treatments) but I found this book slow going and difficult to finish.

There are better climate change books out there (see The Weather Makers, the reason to read this is the author's name and history.

[Luke Marsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the attainment, recently, of the ominous global climatic milestone of 400ppm atmospheric CO2 concentration, and 2015 to date producing record high global temperatures I felt it was a timely moment to read this classic work.

Pulished in 2009, some of it has not dated particularly well - especially the accounts of meetings on green issues with politicians of the Bush and Obama administrations, which are now a bit dull (reading blow-by-blow accounts of political workshops and conversations from six-plus years ago was enough to make me want to stick pins in my eyes, although they did illustrate that little has changed since then - fast forward to the present day and the same energy-sapping discussions are still being had at government level). They do, however, provide important historical context - these meetings were taking place at what should have been a critical time in climate policy-making and legislation but, as we now know, they amounted to virtually nothing aside from false promises, greenwash and token gestures. Wading through these sections gives you an idea of the frustration that Hansen must have felt in that period (comparable to reading Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate, during which I felt personally oppressed by the Soviet communist regime), and his anger at moments such as when a crucial satellite-based experiment he proposes, for better understanding on the effect of particulate matter on warming, is blocked by politicians on spurious grounds.

The explanations of the fundamentals of planetary atmospheric science are the best and clearest I have read, ever. What makes this a great book, though, is that it represents the heartfelt cry of a visionary scientist at the top of his field - stepping out and declaring that he is sick of the (to paraphrase Churchill) procrastination, half-measures, and soothing and baffling expedients of corporate puppet governments. Through this book and some of his other publications, Hansen has broken the customary reticence of the scientific community when it comes to expressing their opinions. By doing so, he has risked his reputation, future career and life's work, but has done so for a cause that he feels is so exigent that it can wait no longer for someone of his standing and authority to call it out. His unequivocal message: that there is now an imbalance in the amount of heat absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere and that emitted by it. This has been provoked by our loading of the atmosphere with ancient Carbon, and it is currently pushing the planet towards a new, hotter, equilibrium state. Worse: governments, despite their fake summits and empty pledges, are doing nothing to address it. In the years since the book was written, Hansen's worst-case scenario is becoming a reality - Canada's tar sands operations have been scaled up, Australia's coal extraction has been expanded, the US has gone nuts for shale oil and the Arctic has been opened up for drilling. He leaves no doubt that these actions put us on course for changing the Earth into a planet resembling Venus - and he spent decades as a planetary scientist studying Venus. In the shorter term, we can expect the epic Storms of my Grandchildren, of the title, to occur as the ice caps disintegrate and create storm tracks where vast regions of cold meltwater meet hotter surrounding oceans and water vapour-laden atmosphere. The way things are panning out, the book should have been titled "Storms of my Old Age".

Whether it will fall to non-political leaders, along the lines of Elon Musk, to step up where politicians have failed and mitigate the damage already done, or whether large-scale civil disobedience (a possibility that Hansen considers later on in his book) will play a role in putting civilization back on the right track will be fascinating to observe over the coming years and decades. To round off, here is a big picture of the Earth today (27th July 2015), showing ocean temperature anomalies versus 1979-2000 baseline (which was already well above pre-industrial average). The oceans are our best global thermometer. A big El Niño can be observed forming in the Eastern Pacific, which will disgorge much of the excess heat that has accumulated in deep ocean waters over the past years, raising global atmospheric temperatures further. In the North Atlantic, a huge, anomalously cold ocean region caused by meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet can be seen - just as Hansen predicts in his book - setting up a storm track leading towards western Europe which should result in some extreme weather this winter. Epic to behold:



Source: Climate Reanalyzer

Luke F. D. Marsden (author of Wondering, the Way is Made)

[Willowwind · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Ladies and gentlemen, your governments are lying through their teeth." Now 70, famed NASA scientist and whistleblower James Hansen has nothing to loose but the future of our grandchildren - and the earth. Hansen navigates a plethora of data, graphs, explanations and personal anecdotes describing why climate change is a real and immediate threat to all species on earth. And why little of substance is being done. Besides an explanation of why the scientific evidence is being distorted and withheld from the public, this is an excoriating commentary on how special interests subvert democracy.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Richard Heinberg's "The Party's Over," an excellent dissection of our current energy predicament, I vowed to take a break from "heavy" books and read something a tad lighter. I broke my vow, deciding instead to read James Hansen's "Storms of My Grandchildren," a brilliant walk through the science of global warming and the evidence that we are on the precipice of catastrophic environmental problems.
I couldn't resist another heavy book, because I consider "Storms" to be a companion to "The Party's Over," since it is as much about our profligate energy use as it is about the consequences of global warming.
The two are obviously connected. I just wanted to know more about that connection, and Hansen's book served that purpose well.
The book requires your strong attention and concentration, because it does not spare the reader the details of the complexities of climate change. But it's well worth it. Hansen dives into everything from the Bush administration's attempts to silence him and to censor the evidence of global warming to climate "forcings," both natural and human-caused, that are in play as we step ever closer to catastrophic and irreversible damage to the planet.
Hansen makes it clear that he has broken from what he had for years perceived to be his duty to strictly serve the science. Focus on the research, don't get into politics or, for that matter, policy. Leave that to the politicians. Because the stakes are so high, Hansen believes, he must do the opposite. In his book, he walks you through the monied interests that are preventing us from honestly dealing with global warming. And he recommends policy actions, including his primary recommendation: unless and until a viable carbon-capture-and-sequestration program is achieved, we must immediately begin phasing out all coal burning activities. As Hansen shows, the burning of coal, one of the most toxic fossil-based fuels on the planet, is the biggest contributor to global warming.
Hansen also bucks a certain conventional wisdom, arguing that the Kyoto Protocol has been largely ineffective. He demonstrates this by showing that Japan, admirable for the measures it has adopted to become more energy efficient and to use renewables, failed to meet its energy-use objectives under Kyoto. Likewise, Germany, also a country credible in trying to use more renewables and to curb energy use, also has failed to meet its objectives. In fact, Hansen shows, industrialized countries are building more coal-fired plants, including China which has now surpassed the U.S. in greenhouse gas emissions, although the U.S. remains, in the aggregate, this biggest polluter on the planet.
But before I continue on with the implications of Hansen's critique of the Kyoto Protocal, I'd like to return to his points about the science of global warming and his battles with the Bush administration.
As Hansen painstakingly demonstrates, human beings are shoving earth into an "energy imbalance," one in which the planet is no longer able to move through its normal, paleoclimatic conditions. This is happening because our energy use - i.e., our burning of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - is spewing greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere which is overwhelming the planet's natural ability to process such gases. The effect, as Al Gore demonstrated in "An Inconvenient Truth," is to essentially build heat-trapping gases into earth's atmosphere, thus cooking the planet because the planet can no longer adequately absorb heat from the sun and then reflect it back into space. In other words, our human footprint is throwing earth out of balance.
Hansen says that we must take immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gases, with the objective of reducing them to 350 parts per million; if we cross into the territory of 450 ppm, we are in grave trouble. In fact, at that point, it's probably too late. I believe we are somewhere in the range of 385 ppm, but don't hold me to it. I was just now looking for the figure in Hansen's book and was unable to find it.
In any case, a major roadblock to getting this kind of information to the public so that are democracy may work toward honest policy solutions is the corrosiveness of our politics. The Clinton-Gore administration failed to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Hansen demonstrates, but the Bush administration was even worse.
Hansen, the first scientist to bring global warming to the public's attention in the 1980s, is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. His expertise is extensive. His published papers are many. But in the Bush administration he ran smack into politicians who wanted only to be told what they wanted to hear. In fact, Hansen made waves when he publicly criticized the Bush administration for censoring evidence of global warming on the event of the 2004 presidential election. The political appointees of the Bush administration's NASA public affairs (propaganda) office cracked down on Hansen, ordering him to not grant any media interviews on global warming and to continuously inform them of his schedule and work activities. These ministers of misinformation even took down relevant scientific information from a NASA website.
But Hansen pressed on, publicly speaking out about the dangers of global warming. He continues to do so to this day. His book is the latest manifestation of his work to bring the truth to the public. In bringing an activist's sense of urgency to the issue, Hansen criticizes the "targets" and "offsets" that governments seem to favor in trying to curb global warming. In fact, he says Kyoto has failed because it set moving targets and allowed countries to buy dubious offsets to justify spewing more toxics into the atmosphere. If any politician ever tells you that "targets" and "offsets" work, don't believe them, Hansen argues. They're lying to you, and they're doing their best to keep the status quo - as protected by coal, oil and gas interests - in place.
"A successful new policy cannot include any offsets," Hansen writes. "We specified the carbon limit based on the geophysics. The physics does not compromise - it is what it is."
Hansen also goes after the current cap-and-trade legislation in Congress, comprehensively taking it down as yet another attempt to prop up the status quo, enrich Wall Street and stick to the public in the process. Hansen writes that Obama, while he has publicly stated he will "listen to scientists," is evidently listening to his political advisers because he supports a cap-and-trade system.
Hansen offers a counterproposal: a fee-and-dividend system. Under such a system, fees would be levied on coal, oil and gas production at their sources. The fee - essentially a tax on carbon, which Hansen argues is critical - would rise over time and the dividend, instead of going to Wall Street traders, as they would under a cap-and-trade system - would be divided up among the public. As the carbon tax rises, there would be greater disincentives to burn fossil fuels and more incentives to adopt renewables. In fact, the more a household reduces its carbon footprint, the higher the monthly dividend. The fee-and-dividend system, unlike cap-and-trade, is a progressive tax that would move the economy away from fossil fuels while nudging the earth back into balance.
The critical companion piece to the fee-and-dividend system is the phase-out of the burning of coal. Meanwhile, governments must encourage, by way of policies such as the fee-and-dividend system, the development of renewable energies, including solar and wind. These renewable energies must become part of a new energy portfolio to replace fossil fuels. But again, as Hansen hammers home, we must stop building coal-fired power plants and we must phase out the ones we have.
Of course, wind and solar, because they are variable (the sun doesn't always shine; the wind doesn't always blow) we'll need a new zero-carbon emitting source of energy: nuclear. I've been a skeptic of nuclear, but, based on Hansen's book, I'm now leaning fairly strongly in favor of it.
And Hansen brings to light something I never knew: the U.S. government, before it succumbed in the 1970s to strong (and not always scientifically backed) arguments against nuke power, was conducting good research into the fourth-generation nuclear power plants. These fourth-generation facilities are vastly safer than the third-generation facilities that are considered to be the safest now.
Hansen calls for reinvigorating the program to build fourth-generation nuclear power plants. To be sure, I've been skeptical of the ability to ramp up such a program, largely because of the scale and costs of such a project. But Hansen argues that we did it with the Manhattan Project and can do the same with the fourth-generation nuclear power plant.
And Hansen says that these facilities are able to take nuclear waste from the building of nuclear weapons and use them as part of the process of generating nuclear-powered energy. So not only do you build nuke plants, with zero carbon emissions, but you also address the problem of nuclear waste.
It sounds promising. Hansen says that if we want to keep electricity flowing - and prevent devastation of the planet from greenhouse gas emissions - nuclear power must be part of our long-term plans.
Short-term plans, really. Because Hansen demonstrates that we don't have much time to save the planet. We need to act now, phase out coal burning, adopt renewables, build nuclear plants, implement a carbon tax, and increase comprehensive conservation and energy-efficiency measures.
Time and again, Hansen makes clear the primary problem is the burning of coal for electricity. This is the source of energy that countries are increasingly turning to as oil and gas depletion rises and as countries such as China and India ramp up their plans to industrialize.
And there is no such thing as "clean coal," Hansen says, arguing that when politicians and business interests utter these words they are engaging in greenwashing - otherwise known as lying. In fact, Hansen says, coal is the only source of energy that is not regulated under the federal Clean Air Act. That's right, the federal government, under intense lobbying efforts, grandfathered coal-fired power plants when it adopted Clean Air legislation. They were supposed to come back and close that loop. They never have, and those grandfathered coal-fired power plants remain in use. And more are being planned and built, sometimes with greenwashing in tow as politicians and business interests announce the new plants have the "capacity" for storage and sequestration. Total, unadulterated bullshit.
Despite an entrenched status quo, Hansen is hopeful. He sees leaders and scientists in different countries recognizing they must act soon to prevent a global meltdown. He sees civic activists achieving successes. And he sees strong efforts on the part of governments to get serious about the problem, including British Columbia which recently enacted a carbon tax.
But he also sees grave problems. A media that treats seriously global warming contrarians whose positions have been debunked. A citizenry caught in the middle as politicians lie and accept huge sums of money from fossil-fuel interests while special interests muddy the science with propaganda. We don't have much time. Levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are increasing. Ice sheets are melting. Sea levels will rise, engulfing populations. Storms, terrible storms, are on the horizon.
Civil disobedience, which Hansen has engaged in, definitely is in the offing.

[Keith Akers · Rating 5 out of 5]

The content of this book is great, even though it's hard to get through. If you read it conscientiously, as I did, there is a lot of technical stuff and terms which I hadn't encountered elsewhere -- like "climate forcings." So this isn't just your rehash of "An Inconvenient Truth."

But if you stick with it, it's really educational and motivational. He talks about the possibility of a runaway greenhouse effect in which the Earth essentially turns into a planet like Venus. He talks about resistance, and it's clear that he's in favor of resistance, though he doesn't discuss this in great depth.

Money quote: "I've come to conclude that if we burn all reserves of oil, gas, and coal, there is a substantial chance we will initiate the runaway greenhouse. If we also burn the tar sands and tar shale, I believe the Venus syndrome is a dead certainty."

I'm giving it 5 stars instead of 4 because I'm not sure I could have done a better job explaining the technical stuff. I think I might have, if you gave me access to James Hansen and a couple of months full-time to work on it, so it might rate only 4 stars, but I'm not sure, so it gets the benefit of the doubt.

[BTW, a good web site for climate skeptics can be found by a Google search on "How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic" by Coby Beck.:]

[Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

Witness, Preacher or Prophet?

James Hansen tells us, “My role is that of a witness, not a preacher.” In the late 1980’s he was one of the first major climate scientists to publicly state that anthropogenic global warming was a serious problem. While the idea was not new, he was willing to draw firm conclusions from evidence that most other scientists did not consider to be sufficiently certain. His predictions turned out to be reasonably accurate. Now he is trying to repeat this accomplishment, making even bolder predictions from less certain evidence. In this book we witness a distinguished scientist taking on the role of not just preacher, but prophet, going well beyond the majority of his colleagues in his view of the consequences of climate change.

The main storyline is Hansen's interactions with government, embedded with lengthy attempts to explain the underlying climate science. His exploration of policy and interaction with government institutions is much better than his scientific explanations. To his credit, Hansen does not fit the usual environmentalist stereotype. He does not endorse voluntary poverty, nor does he think that conservation and renewable energy can provide the needed energy. Instead, he thinks that nuclear energy is the only realistic option. He states, "The antinuke advocates are so certain of their righteousness that they would eliminate the availability of an alternative to fossil fuels, should efficiency and renewables prove inadequate to provide all electricity. What if the utility executives are right, and we must choose between coal or nuclear for base load power? Even if renewables are sufficient to produce the electricity needed by the United States, what about India and China. It's one world, and we have to live with pollution from India and China."

He rightly scorns "government greenwash" policies that pretend to reduce carbon dioxide production. Instead, he advocates "fee and dividend", better known as a carbon tax. All fuels that produce carbon dioxide are taxed, and the money is redistributed to the population. This avoids government-knows-best micromanagement of the energy sector, and gives incentives for industry and consumers to reduce carbon dioxide use.

He slams the cap-and-trade schemes favored by governments, which pretend to the public that someone else will pay the costs. Governments, influenced by lobbyists, arbitrarily decide caps on emissions. The trade part will be controlled by the same people who brought us the banking crisis. They will make their fortune no matter what actually happens to carbon dioxide production.

Hansen does a surprisingly poor job explaining his profession. One would expect an introduction to teach the reader how the climate works. The usefulness of global average temperature, the meaning of climate sensitivity, the role of uncertainty should all be explained. There is none of this, or even any sense of the wonder and beauty of science. Instead he launches directly into rather technical dialog, interspersed with exhortations to the poor reader to pay attention, this is important. I doubt the average reader will understand any of it, and will simply skip to Hansen’s conclusion of what it all really means. It is unclear exactly who is the intended audience. The general public will appreciate the policy writing but will not be able to follow the science. Technical readers will not be impressed by the lack of references provided, which are mainly to his own papers, and not always published in peer reviewed journals.

As for the science itself, Hansen says that the best evidence for understanding climate is based on paleoclimate - the study of the climates of the past. He explicitly states that climate models cannot be used to determine climate sensitivity, which is the response of the climate to changes in carbon dioxide levels. In the chapter “A Visit to the White House” he estimates this climate sensitivity by comparing the difference in climate between the previous ice age and today. This approach uses the Earth itself as a “computer model” which includes all the physics that affect climate, whether we presently understand them or not. This is good, but then he does a quick calculation based on only two of the many feedbacks, to get a climate sensitivity of 3 degrees for every doubling of carbon dioxide.

While this kind of technical detail may impress (or intimidate) the casual reader, one familiar with the subject knows that the value is reasonable but the precision is misleading. Note that today’s world is very different from that of the last ice age. Climate sensitivity is now lower because there is much less ice at low latitudes, which reduces a major feedback. It would be better to explain at a more basic level what an ice age is about, and what causes the transition to an interglacial climate like the one we are in now. Demonstrate that small changes caused by variations in the Earth’s orbit led to large changes in climate, so changes we make to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may also have significant effects. Then provide an appendix or decent references for someone who wants more detail. In this case the chapter summary did not even reference the relevant paper.

In “Dangerous Reticence” he talks about trying to publish his paper “Can We Defuse the Global Warming Time Bomb” in Scientific American, saying they wanted to change it to conform to the standard IPCC view. Then he says, “with the paper’s extensive criticisms of the IPCC, there was no realistic change of publishing it in a regular scientific journal – most of the likely referees for the paper were contributing authors of IPCC.” This is exactly the same claim that global warming skeptics like to make. I do not know how much of a real problem there is with conformism in mainstream climate science. I think it is more likely that these works from both sides really fail to meet scientific standards, and whining about bias is a great excuse. The chapter title refers to his perception that scientists are dangerously reticent to tell the public what they really know. I suggest instead there is a benign reticence to publicly criticize a well-known scientist who has lost his objectivity, knowing there is a legion of unscrupulous “skeptics” who will take advantage of anything to push their belief that climate change is not real.

The final two chapters not only describe a disaster, they are a disaster. In “The Venus Syndrome” he claims that burning all the available fossil fuels will cause a runaway greenhouse effect like on Venus. This was based on a simulation with a an obsolete climate model. These models, as Hansen himself points out, are challenged to achieve what they are intended to, and cannot be relied upon to determine climate sensitivity. But he then tortures the model by running it under conditions for which it was not designed to handle. Hansen’s claims have not been published in any peer reviewed journal, so they have little credibility. Those scientists who are experts in the field categorically state that a human induced runaway greenhouse effect is not possible.

The final chapter goes completely off the rails, including a hokey science fiction story about aliens coming to Earth to escape their ravaged planet, only to find the Earth wrecked by the human induced runaway greenhouse effect. Then he asks people to indulge in the environmentalist version of greenwashing – pointless demonstrations against coal plants and pipelines. This is great for making people feel they are “taking action” while ignoring the real work of building a sustainable energy system.

Several times in the book Dr. Hansen reports his encounters with his nemesis, atmospheric scientist Richard Lindzen of MIT. While they both agree on the basics of climate science, Lindzen soothes us with assurances about negative feedbacks such as reflective clouds or masses of warm moist air rising from the tropics, while Hansen scares us with methane time bombs and a runaway greenhouse effect. In science it is useful to constantly challenge the current theories. But they both present their conclusions as revealed truth to their legions of uncritical believers, the deniers and the doomsters respectively. Hansen’s unfortunate transition from respected scientist to prophet of doom is only going to further polarize the climate change debate. Because Hansen does not clearly distinguish between his own and the mainstream view, and does not discuss uncertainty, the critical reader will have a hard time knowing what to believe. This book is a lost opportunity to appraise the public on the current state of climate science.

[Preston Kutney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storms of my grandchildren

"I did not want my grandchildren, someday in the future, to look back and say, 'Opa understood what was happening, but he did not make it clear.'"

James Hansen is known as the father of climate change for his work at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. This is basically his memoir/PSA setting the record straight on his career, his research, and its implications. The book has a lot of flaws - it is poorly organized, and he spends a lot of time airing professional grievances. I skipped through a few painful sections of him explaining how this or that congressional committee wouldn't take his research seriously, bureaucracy, red tape etc. But the science! He is a fabulous teacher of climate science, which carries the book.

I want to share what I learned from this book, because I think it's important, so this will be my little PSA on climate change.

Is the climate changing?

Yes. Hansen spent a lot of his career persuading stubborn people of this, but today the question doesn't require further discussion.

How can a warming of several degrees destroy civilization?

1. A minor change in average global temperature sets in motion a number of runaway feedback loops. These can perpetuate and accelerate the warming to levels that would completely alter life on earth. Some feedback examples include:

- The albedo effect, where melting snow and ice decrease the reflectivity of the earth's surface and increase the heat absorbed
- Warmer air holds more water vapor, a greenhouse gas which then traps more heat.
- As ice sheets melt, they becomes darker, absorbing more sunlight. As the thickness decreases, the surface is at a lower altitude, where it is warmer.
- The solubility of CO2 in the ocean decreases at warmer temperatures - warmer oceans release CO2.

2. These feedback loops have been activated in the past and caused massive changes on the planet in timescales relevant to human life. In the last Major Ice Age, 20,000 years ago, the global average temperature was 5°C colder than today's. An ice sheet more than a mile thick covered present day Canada and northern parts of the United States, including Seattle and New York City. About 14,000 years ago sea level increased 4 to 5 m per century for several consecutive centuries.

3. Sea level rise is undeniably a danger to society a) because its effects are so large and b) because it would be irreversible on any time scale humanity can imagine. Ice sheets take thousands of years to rebuild from snowfall.

4. Geopolitics. Imagine the 100 million Bangladeshis streaming into India. Most of South Florida gone. Millions in sub Saharan Africa migrating to better farming conditions. Sea level rise and climate change will exacerbate any geopolitical conflicts, and create many of their own.

5. Surely it is in the common good to preserve species, sea level, and the climate zones that existed during the period that civilization developed.

So what do we do about it?

1. The science demands a simple rule: coal use must be prohibited unless and until the emissions can be captured and safely disposed of.

2. Technologically, what is needed most is a replacement for the baseline load, which is most frequently supplied by coal. Baseload means a source of electric power capable of continuous operation, unlike the current capabilities of wind and solar. Improved batteries or widespread connected grids that take advantage of the fact that the sun is shining or wind blowing somewhere, are plausible solutions. There is widespread agreement that there are now just two options for nearly carbon-free large scale base load electric power: coal with carbon capture and storage, and nuclear power.

3. Carbon capture is possible, but still far too expensive. Nuclear, on the other hand, has been plagued by PR disasters that far exaggerate the actual risks involved. One million people die prematurely from air pollution to which coal fired power plants undoubtedly contributes a significant amount. In the U.S., the worst nuclear disaster in history (Three Mile Island) did not cause a single death. So we need to embrace nuclear.

4. Fast breeder nuclear reactors. This blew my mind. The next generation of nuclear reactors (that we would have today if nuclear research hadn't been shut down because of negative public opinion) promises to:
- Extract almost 100x the energy from the radioactive fuel.
- Use nuclear waste produced by existing reactors as fuel.
- Produce a much smaller quantity of nuclear waste with a half life in the hundreds of years, rather than thousands.
What is the sensible thing to do now?
Build and test a fast nuclear reactor power plant.

7. If you are still reading - THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT, ACTIONABLE PART!
We need to Introduce a Fee and Dividend Carbon Tax.
A fee is collected at its first sale in the country (i.e. At the mine, or well, or port of entry). The fee is uniform, a single number in dollars per ton of co2 in the fossil fuel source. The public does not directly pay any fee or tax, but the price of goods increases in proportion to how much fossil fuel is used in their production. The carbon fee will start small and rise gradually to give the public to adjust their lifestyle. Under Fee-and-Dividend, 100 percent of the money collected from the fossil fuel tax is distributed uniformly to the public. Thus, those who do better than average in reducing their carbon footprint will receive more in the dividend than they will pay in the added costs of the products they buy.

We tax the consumption of products whose use society deems harmful to the collective, and few products have the potential to harm civilization more than carbon. It's way past time to tax it.

I hope that this wasn't too boring, and that I maybe persuaded a few people to pay more attention to climate policy, or enlightened someone about what is at stake.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best book yet written covering the global warming issue. It is the first book from the preminent scientist in the field, a man who has been studiying the science involved for more than 35 years. He is the expert of experts on the technical issues concerned.
He is very clear in the book about what we know and what we don't know.
One thing we do know is that the West Antarctic ice sheet is going to collapse if CO2 emissions are not curtailed. We don't yet know when the collapse will start, but we know it will because it has many times in the geologic past when CO2 levels were not much higher than they are today.
When the collapse does start there is nothing human beings can do to stop it and sea level will rise more than 20 feet. A billion people will be forced inland with resulting war and famine.
The only thing that can be done is to curtail the green house gas emissions before it is too late.
The upshot is we need to switch from coal to nuclear power as fast as we can.

[Gendou · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of boring politics, but makes up for it with superb explanations of climate science.

Hansen insists he doesn't mean to fear monger, but goes on to use terms like global catastrophe, end of the world, a planet in peril, death of the planet, etc. These emotionally charged terms seem totally out of place in his otherwise sane presentation of scientific information.

He obviously knows little to nothing about biology or astronomy, because he states over and over that all life on Earth will be extinguished by "business as usual", and that Earth will end up similar to Venus. Rising ocean levels, more severe storms: certainly. Sterilization of life: are you kidding? Like Stewart Brand says, "Earth will be fine. It's humans that are in trouble". He also vehemently rejects even the remote possibility of humans settling extra-solar planets. What a pessimist!

Obvious hyperbole aside, it was a good Earth science book. Worth a read.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very hard to rate with a number between one and five. It is a topic of literally vital importance and I give it five stars because of the function the book intends to serve. It is written by one of the world's leading climate researchers. Rather than discussing the science (which I expected, but there's only one chapter on it) he goes into detail about how the science is getting blocked on the policy level. Given that atmospheric CO2 has increased more than 30% since 1960 and human policy is now the driving forcing factor in climate change; policy is important. "Wait and see", that is, doing nothing is also a policy and it is a policy often pursued. The danger is in reaching the tipping point (e.g. melting permafrost, ...) after which humans can do nothing. The policy option will not always be there. This is why it is important to understand how climate change policy operates and why I would recommend reading this book.

[Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really sure how to rate this. It was really boring and kind of a chore to read, but I wanted to read it because I respect his scientific research and I wanted some of that knowledge imparted on me. This was James Hansen's first book written for non-scientists, and like... you could tell. Every so often he would kind of put in an aside apologizing for it being too dense. It's clear that the information was good and that our planet is royally effed. Also I learned a lot about nuclear energy and how governmental science works.

But dang it took me a long time to get through all of that.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hansen is a scientist turned modern day prophet. Must read for anyone who cares about the future of our world and her children.

[Andy Gibb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this were better written because it's so important and from such an authoritative figure. However, it is hard to read and has skippable political reminiscence passages.

The latter can be summarised in one word - censorship, both by the US administration and NASA muzzling their scientists. This seems to surprise Hansen. He also has touching faith in informing the public. They don't care, James. They're only concerned with Strictly Come Dancing and their pay cheques. Effective action will have to bypass them as well as government.

There is some meat: the distinction between climate forcings and feedback loops is a useful clarification. Forcings include CO2, volcanoes, the Earth's axial tilt and precession (the latter two driving the Pleistocene's recurrent ice ages). Feedbacks include Arctic ice cover and hence the planet's albedo. This is what tips the climate rapidly between hot and cold. Recent news on that front should have the whole of humanity racing for the fire pumps.

This Generation Becalmed
In another section of the book Hansen keeps his thoughts about the legal system mercifully short but does title it "Obstruction of Justice". I think he's being ironic: the Law has nothing to do with justice and, like government and the public, needs to be bypassed.

A book for the converted, alas, but I think I've already stated that more information isn't going to kick industrial civilisation out of its inertia anyway.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important book -- and while it is cliché to say " is a 'must read'", James Hansen's "Storms Of My Grandchildren" really is one. Dr. Hansen does an excellent job explaining and fitting together the many puzzle pieces of anthropogenic climate change: the what & why of greenhouse gases, changing weather patterns (intensity/deluge/drought), and atmospheric & oceanic warming (and acidification). Also, where things are unknown/uncertain/conflicting, Dr. Hansen says so -- for example many will be surprised to learn that he is not a fan of planet atmospheric models while still using them for specific & constrained analyses. I found this to be an outstanding book for getting the most up to date information that now has the vast majority of professional scientists convinced that the planet is indeed warming, and addressing important questions including: to what extent are humans the cause, why are hurricanes gaining in strength, why are places like Africa getting warmer & drier while other places like England & Northern Europe seem to be cooler & wetter. Dr. Hansen also gives his ringside perspective of the politics & policies of climate change (in particular his censuring under the Busch administration), and while these at least as important as the science, the book is noticeably weaker on the politics/policies -- although this is no surprise since Dr. Hansen is the first to admit that he is a reluctant and amateur participant / commentator in climate politics.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This manifesto by the director of NASA's Goddard Space Institute is a difficult, distubing read. I'm not sure what is more frightening: Hansen's descriptions of an imbroglio at NASA in which he butted heads with its public affairs office (the head of which had formerly held positions in public relations for Southern Company, the second-largest holding company of coal-burning utilities in the United States) and entailed the amazing disappearing mission statement (NASA's mission statement was surreptitiously revised to exclude the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet"); or his descriptions of what the twenty-first century will be like if we continue with business-as-usual carbon emissions. The phrase "runaway greenhouse effect" sends chills down my spine. But I am not a scientist, and have to take Hansen at his word, just like a growing percentage of Americans are taking climate change contrarians at their word. It's going to be an interesting century.
**Note: a few minutes after writing this, I realized I made it sound like a real downer. Which it is, but Hansen also proposes solutions. I hope it gets the audience it deserves.

[Crossett Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Greenwashing, expressing concern about global warming and the environment while taking no actions to actually stabilize climate or preserve the environment, is prevalent in the United States and other countries, even those presumed to be the "greenest."

"If the sun becomes brighter, it is a climate forcing that would tend to make earth warmer. A human-made change of atmospheric composition is also a climate forcing."

"The largest human-made climate forcing is due to greenhouse gases."

"What is clear is that human-made climate forcings added in just the past several decades already dwarf the natural forcings associated with the Little Ice Age." (The Little Ice Age ended in 1850 when New York Harbor and the River Thames frequently froze over)

...and I'm only on page 8. Scary.

5/4/11 - I didn't actually finish it; it was a little heady for me. The book is very statistical and delves into the political and social aspects of climate change. Hanson testified before Vice President Cheney and other groups during the Bush administration to his frustration. Recommended for environmental students. It's on the new book shelf now.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hansen deals unflinchingly with the tricky intersections where science collides with policy. One dramatic change this book had on me is my view of nuclear power: along with Beyond Oil and $20 Per Gallon, this book has made me see that we are going to need efficient nuclear power that reuses 99% of its waste to replace fossil fuels, especially coal, for electricity generation. Another important point Hansen convinces me of is that preventing a new Ice Age is a trivial matter (no more than a few factories will suffice), whereas preventing glacial meltdown and loss of oceans and atmosphere for humanity to have enough time to either reduce emissions, physically adapt, escape to another inhabitable planet, or allow another planet's intelligent species to escape to Earth requires much greater effort, cooperation, and moral as well as political will. The greatest morality I can conceive of is to work for the human species to last on Earth at least as long as our sun -- another billion years.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hansen provides a fascinating description of his experiences at NASA and how climate change was dealt with by the Bush administration and the politics that came with the position. He then turns to the science and discusses why it's so important to change course.

Don't expect all science, I wish there had been more too because he writes about the science so well and in layman terms. It is not a textbook, it's a look into Hansens perspective and the motivations of his passion whilst providing the ready with a lot of great information on climate and the issues humanity is going to face as emissions (of any magnitude) continue.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Difficult to digest at times, but worth the effort. This is a must-read, one that I'll definitely be re-reading.

[Draco Ruffinius Feralcrow · Rating 1 out of 5]

Climatologist and scientist James Hansen leads a neo-Paul Revere's ride warning the world about the rising, catastrophic, chaos inducing, extinction threat of global warming. Standard governmental protocol, drifting deeper into the hubris range, demands, amongst other things, a severe avoidance of alarmism. The derivation of this complacency itself is what alarms. It is also essential that this foolishly long discretionary period imbued with inaction and empty talk end. From what legitimate source, other than the science and climatology, could such a self destructive, idiotic method of denial manifest itself? The proper fixation is not on this impervious, twisted, dogged, and blind global political response. Fear and dread of catastrophe must first be recognized, and then used to drive a resolution. The saga of humanity sits at the threshold of still avoidable destruction and yet global warming sensitive people play the role of a rogue, rebel alliance fated to clash with Imperial hegemony. Stay tuned for real time Star Wars.

I cried when I began to read this book. I also opened up a Time magazine a while back filled front to back with global warming coverage. Humanity glowed and lamented as our final farewells to Earth were insidiously growing in our throats and creeping closer to our tongues with profound poignancy.

Sappho wrote:

"Say what you please

Gold is God's child;
neither worms nor
moths eat gold; it
is much stronger
than a man's heart"

This is how Hansen in the book would describe the "special interest" infestation in Washington; scuttling around for money while scandalizing science in the interest of the lucrative fossil fuel industries. I can only surmise the psychology behind such prerogatives. The extent and expanse of media control and the obscuration of the minds of humanity world-wide that such forces and inertia exert is tremendous. When government panels of the most prominent political figures - under such dire circumstances - gather to make determinations about climate change and juxtapose global warming denier vanguard, Richard Lindzen (who has a record of defending tobacco companies under the premise that smoking cigarettes is not detrimental to health), with the hard science and climatology of James Hansen and other concerned scientists and peoples of the earth, anyone with common sense should immediately see deeper into the window of crisis.

One quickly learns upon engaging the hard science of the book that the global warming situation is difficult to condense into a quick and ready expository undertaking that boils down to a simple graph or a concise single statement encompassing every variable. Nevertheless, as one reads this book, the puzzle pieces can readily be placed together to form a cogent picture that spells emanant disaster if fossil fuel use - of most immediate concern: the burning of coal - is not phased out world-wide. The timescale is still uncertain, as earth paleoclimate records do not offer any sort of reference for such a rapid climate forcing as caused by civilization's industrialization which should make us nervous. Hansen places the benchmark at roughly the year 2030 when coal power needs to be eliminated to ensure that the earth does not reach a runaway green house effect "tipping point" of no return which could potentially be massively exacerbated by the melting of methane hydrates on the ocean floor due to rising ocean temperatures. This rise in ocean temperatures will occur - if the burning of coal and other fossil fuels continues in a "business as usual" manner - and will be affected by a shifting and warming of ocean circulation currents due to the melting of polar ice caps which is already blatantly evident and occurring alarmingly faster than expected despite the sun being at a periodic low level of irradiance or intensity. This is again somewhat inexact science as the sun's irradiance has only been monitored closely since about 1970. Research suggests the sun operates on a 11-12 year irradiance cycle and despite being at a significant low end of the cycle, global average temperature continues to reach record highs in addition to increased intensity of weather. Meanwhile, tarsand pursuits and other exhaustive, rampant fossil fuel exploitation continues. Across the globe, there are at least 1,200 coal plants now on the drawing board - three quarters of which are designated for China and India. There are currently around 2300 (7000 individual units) dirty, toxic, green house gas emitting-producing coal burning power stations world-wide in operation. As the situation stands currently, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air has reached a level of 395ppm (parts per million), continues to rise, and is approaching a runaway condition that will cause the complete melting of polar ice caps and glacial ice raising sea levels 250ft. Hansen analyzes with climatological science and exhorts that in order to maintain a planetary energy balance; carbon dioxide levels should not exceed 350ppm. Is it not human race suicide attempt to so ambitiously plan the construction of new coal burning power plants and to continue burning fossil fuels ad infinitum ad nauseam?

James Hansen's plan, and really humanity's only current viable solution to this problem, while maintaining a functioning civilization machine, is the mass implementation of nuclear power as well as other finer points of governmental policy to assist in the phasing out of the burning of other fossil fuels. The prospect of fourth generation fast breeder nuclear reactors and the current fuel stockpile of an estimated 1000 years of burn time is more than enough to bide time for the development of other energy sources like fusion or even anti-matter power generation in the future. Nuclear waste is a minor issue and a glad alternative compared to what is at stake to the continued burning of fossil fuels: Earth's habitability closure.

Please feel free to comment and spread this pamphlet widely.

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was granted the gift of prophecy but was later cursed so that no one would ever believe her predictions. When she foresaw the destruction of Troy, she was unable to do anything to prevent or forestall these tragedies despite her desperate warnings and pleas.

It seems to me that James Hansen is a modern-day Cassandra. He knows, through the gifts of hard work and science, that civilization is causing its own demise through its obsessive compulsion to burn every drop of fossil fuel (coal, oil, and gas). Even so, it seems, he is unable to persuade the people who can make a difference of the dire urgency of our situation as they are too financially and/or politically vested in the fossil fuel industry.

Dr. Hansen is 70 years old. He knows he will not be around to witness or suffer any of the severe consequences of humanity's foolishness and greed, but he also knows that his children and grandchildren are undoubtedly inheriting a world that will not be so kind to them as it has been to us. So, it is for his grandchildren that he has written this book, and he continues to speak out as loudly and as actively as he can for this cause, despite the knowledge that the time for effective action is probably past.

This is a very scientific book. I've read dozens of books on this subject and this one is probably the most detailed in its explanation of the science of anthropogenic (man-made) climate change. It's not simple, but it is understandable with a little effort to most people who have a basic scientific education.

Even though Dr. Hansen is fairly optimistic and hopeful throughout this book, my main reaction to reading it was anger and despair. How can so many people with virtually no practical knowledge of this subject be so arrogant as to insist that they are right while the thousands of scientists who have pursued the study of this subject relentlessly for years are all completely wrong? It's because of this willful and arrogant ignorance and unwavering blind faith in an anti-science ideology that a huge percentage of Americans trust non-scientists (anti-scientists?) like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck on this subject over reputable scientists. Very discouraging.

Excellent book but, alas, no one who should read it will.

[Hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, this is my 1,000th "read" book on GoodReads...but more about that nonsense at the end of this.

I read the first chapter of this book nearly three months ago and got sidetracked on many other more entertaining, but clearly less important books (e.g. Fletch). In pursuing the science, Dr. Hansen found that politics has continued to block action (and in Hansen's case even communication). This book shares his personal story as a scientist, who is focused on discovering the objective information found in earth and space science, and as a human/father/grandfather, who can not understand the political inaction.

Dr. Hansen does a good job presenting the science and politics, though the book does drift at times, specifically with the sci-fi scenario that closes the final chapter. Thankfully, the Afterword brings a proper close to the volume:

"The picture has become clear. Our planet, with its remarkable array of life, is in imminent danger of crashing. Yet our politicians are not dashing forward. They hesitate, they hang back.

Therefore it is up to you. You will need to be the protector of your children and grandchildren on this matter. I am sorry to say that your job will be difficult--special interests have been able to subvert our democratic system. But we should not give up on the democratic system--quite the contrary. We must fight for the principal of equal justice.
...
It is our last chance."

-----
So, yeah. One thousand books. Roddy Doyle almost got the 1000th book mark, but it really is just a number because there are many more that I did not track. My guess is that there are another 2,000 books from my childhood and early years through my college years. I have a few of those marked, but not many. I feel lucky to have traveled all those journeys and can't wait to knock out the next thousand!

Quick stats:

Paper -vs- Electronic: 98.8% paper, 0.2% electronic
--Steve Jobs read on iPhone; Go the Fuck to Sleep read via an internet slideshow

Blind Guess at books from library: 65%-75%

Books by male authors / female authors: Too depressing to actually track. I need to work on my author diversity.

[Matteo Negro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sono numerosissimi i libri pubblicati aventi come tema il riscaldamento globale e le conseguenza che ciò implica sugli ecosistemi e sulle attività umane. Alcuni di questi saggi sono estremamente banali, altri si basano più che altro su sensazioni personali, pochi sono effettivamente interessanti e oggettivi nella trattazione dell'argomento. Se avete qualche dubbio sulla preparazione dell'autore del presente saggio James Hansen, vi consiglio di scrivere il suo nome su Google. Vi renderete immediatamente conto che vi trovate di fronte ad uno dei più grandi esperti mondiali sull'argomento, autore di centinaia di articoli scientifici di altissimo livello, consulente del governo e ricercatore della NASA. Dopo una vita spesa a denunciare il problema del riscaldamento climatico Hansen tenta la strada della sensibilizzazione dell'opinione pubblica producendo questo importantissimo saggio accessibile a tutti sebbene alcuni temi trattati non siano facili ai più. Nei vari capitoli denuncia la totale immobilità dei governi, in particolare di quello degli Stati Uniti, che negli hanni non solo non ha riconosciuto il problema del riscaldamento globale ma spesso ha agito, sotto la pressione delle lobby del petrolio, cercando di creare disinformazione, per smantellare la credibilità dei ricercatori che da decenni denunciano con un'infinita mole di dati il problema. Credo che questo saggio sia indispensabile per aumentare la nostra consapevolezza di fronte ad un problema che condizionerà sicuramente la nostra vita futura indipendentemente dall'opinione che ci siamo fatti. L'unica cosa da fare è agire immediatamente, ma prima di agire bisogna essere consapevoli del problema! Hansen ci può dare una mano....

[Morten Greve · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fascinating story of how James Hansen went from being a classic scientist - concerned only with his research, getting to the best possible understanding of his chosen subject - to a status as a desperate political activist. Not because the latter role suited him, but because his findings forced his hand.

There are perhaps better, more up-to-date general introductions to climate science (although this one is surely up there...). However, Hansens unique personal story makes for an interesting, if deeply worrying read.

A couple of objections though: It seems that his discussion of fourth generation nuclear power as a possible medium-term solution is out of step with the general assessment in the literature (that the "solution" is probably a chimera). And: Like many other writers he disregards the importance of individual everyday decisions - flying, eating unsustainable foods, etc. Personal hypocricy among "environmentalists" runs rampant...

His basic conclusions still stand, though. If anything the urgency has increased considerably since the publication of this book. We have a couple of decades to begin a fast transition away from fossil fuels. Otherwise, we will have to prepare for a bleak future. It's as simple as that.

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chilling. I have understood the issues in general about climate change but never in the detail explained in this book. I have a much better appreciation of what are meant by "tipping points."
Hansen lays out the evidence as of 2009 and if anything, I think the evidence is leaning towards the less desirable outcomes compared to the mean value as expressed in the book (ie, certain aspects of climate change are occurring faster than anticipated).
He points out clearly that he historical record can show instances where sea level has risen drastically in as short as 100 years or less. He provides his opinion to solutions to the problem and the solutions he suggests are very far from the direction the country and world are going in today.
A must read if you want to understand why 98-99% of the climatologists are convinced we are heading towards serious trouble.

[M. Azhaari Shah Sulaiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storms of my Grandchildren memotretkan kisah benar perjuangan James Hansen (penulis), saintis Fizik dan Astronomi bersama Pasukan Petugas Iklim Naib President (Dick Cheney) dan bersama A Team (pasukan pengkaji akademik yang ditubuhkan oleh James Hansen) dalam usaha untuk meyakinkan kerajaan Amerika tentang keperluan untuk mengurangkan pelepasan CO2 dan impaknya kepada pemanasan global.

James Hansen bukanlah seorang whistle-blower, beliau memilih untuk berada di 'saluran yang betul ' untuk dengan mengambil pendekatan sederhana memperjuangkan kesedaran mengenai perubahan iklim dan pemanasan global kepada kerajaan dan juga golongan saintis lainnya.

Buku ini adalah memoir yang mengisahkan perjuangannya selama bergelar saintis untuk masa depan anak cucunya yang lebih baik cerah.

[Scott Bischke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing read that should be required for every college student, for every governor, for every Congressman, for the President! Hansen tells it like it is, laying out the rational for our pending climate disaster, plus how we can avoid it *but* only if we act now! Perhaps the most important book ever written. Funny thing--one of Hansen's premises is that scientists need to better learn to communicate with the public; unfortunately as important as this book is I must wonder aloud if he met his own goal. Some (many?), I fear, may come away glaze-y eyed. Oh that that does not happen! Please read this book!

[John Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A passionate tour d'force from one of the world's foremost climate scientists. Hansen was chief climate scientists for NASA for many years, and has decided the issue has become so dire that he needs to speak out and warn people of the coming catastrophe. In this book Hansen cites a lot of recent research to illustrate the current situation and how it has progressed in the last ten years. Along the way you will learn a lot about climate science. Hansen punctuates the book with personal anecdotes about his career and about his grandchildren, for whom he is most worried. One of the best books on climate change you'll find.

[Fraser Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone needs to read this book. If you think climate change is not happening, or if you think we can't do anything about it, then arm yourself with knowledge, just have the intellectual honesty to to change your mind when presented with new information. For the rest of us who agree with the majority of scientists and experts, that climate change is real, that action needs to be taken... This book tells us that it's probably not too late to do something, but it very soon will be and if we let it happen we will have to explain to our grandchildren how we stood back and let the world as we know it get destroyed by events that were known about and fully preventable.