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composed's review against another edition
5.0
Important book! Stay informed, and don't get overwhelmed. This is a crucial time in climate history.
textpublishing's review against another edition
5.0
[I]t's now clear that the tools required to avoid a climate disaster already exist, even if some of them require more research and development. Between deep, rapid emissions cuts and third-way technologies, we can do it.
True to his title, Tim Flannery ends on a hopeful note, after cycling through some of the options we have in countering the spectre of climate change.
But things aren't rosy just yet. Read this review of Atmosphere of Hope in the Sydney Morning Herald
True to his title, Tim Flannery ends on a hopeful note, after cycling through some of the options we have in countering the spectre of climate change.
But things aren't rosy just yet. Read this review of Atmosphere of Hope in the Sydney Morning Herald
fictionfan's review against another edition
4.0
A roller-coaster ride...
In December this year, the next United Nations Climate Change Conference will convene in Paris to make decisions on how to cap carbon emissions at a level that will ensure that global temperatures will rise by no more than 2° Celcius compared to pre-industrial levels. This book is a summary of where we are now and an action plan for the future.
The book is heavily polemical, very much Tim Flannery's personal attempt to influence the decision makers. As a scientist and leading environmentalist of long-standing, Flannery is Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne, a member of the Australian Independent Climate Council and chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council; so he's certainly qualified to speak authoritatively on the subject.
This was a bit of a roller-coaster read for me, both in terms of style and content. In the introduction, Flannery lays out his stall. Taking as his starting point his own earlier book, The Weather Makers, he sets out to show how things have developed over the decade since, where his opinions have changed over the years, and what he now thinks are the best ways forward if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change. At this stage, I was concerned I might find the book unreadable. His style is abrasive, self-aggrandizing and arrogant and much of the introduction and early chapters read like a piece of self-advertisement. He mentions his previous book umpteen times, dismissing anyone who has criticised any aspect of it over the years, and spends far too long justifying his then conclusions. In fact, at times there is a sense almost of paranoia – as if he is the victim of a conspiracy of vested interests trying to discredit his work. He is vitriolic about the Abbott government in Australia – still in power when he was writing but now gone. Of course, as the cliché goes, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you...
However, having vented his spleen, Flannery then settles down into a series of well-written chapters where he lays out the current situation very clearly. He starts with a bleak picture of what may happen if temperatures are not contained to the 2°C target – to the Arctic and Antarctic, to forests, wildlife and oceans, and not least to humanity in those parts of the world most sensitive to rising temperatures. It's all stuff we've heard before, but brought up to date with the latest science. Flannery assumes throughout that by this time only those with vested interests in the carbon industries are still denying the link between man's activities and climate change, and so is dismissive and even occasionally virulent about deniers. There is throughout a feeling of urgency – no time left to waste preaching to the unconverted, let's just ignore them and get on with what needs to be done. Fine by me, but this is not a book to win over waverers with charm.
The next few chapters take us through individual aspects of energy production, starting with the dirty ones and moving on to the clean. This was the part of the book that gave me a sense of hope – assuming Flannery's figures are correct, and I see no reason to doubt them, then fossil fuels seem to be losing their overwhelming attractiveness as renewables become both more efficient and cheaper due to economies of scale. We're nowhere near out of the woods, but Flannery made me feel as if perhaps we've spotted the path.
In the final section, Flannery discusses how he believes we should proceed. His position is that, even in the unlikely (but not impossible) event that we reduce fossil fuel use to zero over the next few decades, we will still have the problem of existing CO2 in the atmosphere to deal with. He discusses the difficulties of the task and goes into some detail on some of the schemes that have been put forward. To my unscientific mind, lots of these sound like pie-in-the-sky schemes, or actually poison-in-the-sky, to be more accurate. Flannery himself isn't keen on the kind of geo-engineering scheme that suggests pumping other stuff, like sulphur, into the atmosphere in order to induce cooling, on the grounds that firstly, we can't foresee all the possible implications and secondly, the underlying problem of too much carbon still remains.
He suggests what he calls a 'third way' – a mixture of preparing for climate change by making necessary adaptations at a local level while attempting to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by a variety of schemes, from massive seaweed farms to storing carbon in rocks and plastics, that he feels could be effective without the risks of geo-engineering. To be honest, much of this sounded impractical and a bit like wishful thinking to me, but hey! Most of it was well over my head scientifically and he's an expert, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. It's always been my opinion that it will have to be the scientists who solve this problem in the end, and the role of governments and the people should be to give them the finances and resources they need, while trying to stop any of them accidentally blowing up the galaxy in their enthusiasm.
However, after cheering me up in the earlier chapters, I'm afraid this final section plunged me back into gloom – the sheer scale of the task and the short-termism of so many governments make it all seem pretty overwhelming. I comforted myself with the thought that perhaps Flannery had done this deliberately, so that no-one would be approaching the Paris Conference feeling over-confident. Overall well worth reading – a good introduction for anyone new to the subject and a thorough update for those with a little more knowledge. Let's hope the politicians attending the Conference will pay attention to the science more than the politics for once... the world will be watching. Won't we?
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Grove Atlantic.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
In December this year, the next United Nations Climate Change Conference will convene in Paris to make decisions on how to cap carbon emissions at a level that will ensure that global temperatures will rise by no more than 2° Celcius compared to pre-industrial levels. This book is a summary of where we are now and an action plan for the future.
The book is heavily polemical, very much Tim Flannery's personal attempt to influence the decision makers. As a scientist and leading environmentalist of long-standing, Flannery is Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne, a member of the Australian Independent Climate Council and chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council; so he's certainly qualified to speak authoritatively on the subject.
This was a bit of a roller-coaster read for me, both in terms of style and content. In the introduction, Flannery lays out his stall. Taking as his starting point his own earlier book, The Weather Makers, he sets out to show how things have developed over the decade since, where his opinions have changed over the years, and what he now thinks are the best ways forward if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change. At this stage, I was concerned I might find the book unreadable. His style is abrasive, self-aggrandizing and arrogant and much of the introduction and early chapters read like a piece of self-advertisement. He mentions his previous book umpteen times, dismissing anyone who has criticised any aspect of it over the years, and spends far too long justifying his then conclusions. In fact, at times there is a sense almost of paranoia – as if he is the victim of a conspiracy of vested interests trying to discredit his work. He is vitriolic about the Abbott government in Australia – still in power when he was writing but now gone. Of course, as the cliché goes, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you...
However, having vented his spleen, Flannery then settles down into a series of well-written chapters where he lays out the current situation very clearly. He starts with a bleak picture of what may happen if temperatures are not contained to the 2°C target – to the Arctic and Antarctic, to forests, wildlife and oceans, and not least to humanity in those parts of the world most sensitive to rising temperatures. It's all stuff we've heard before, but brought up to date with the latest science. Flannery assumes throughout that by this time only those with vested interests in the carbon industries are still denying the link between man's activities and climate change, and so is dismissive and even occasionally virulent about deniers. There is throughout a feeling of urgency – no time left to waste preaching to the unconverted, let's just ignore them and get on with what needs to be done. Fine by me, but this is not a book to win over waverers with charm.
The next few chapters take us through individual aspects of energy production, starting with the dirty ones and moving on to the clean. This was the part of the book that gave me a sense of hope – assuming Flannery's figures are correct, and I see no reason to doubt them, then fossil fuels seem to be losing their overwhelming attractiveness as renewables become both more efficient and cheaper due to economies of scale. We're nowhere near out of the woods, but Flannery made me feel as if perhaps we've spotted the path.
In the final section, Flannery discusses how he believes we should proceed. His position is that, even in the unlikely (but not impossible) event that we reduce fossil fuel use to zero over the next few decades, we will still have the problem of existing CO2 in the atmosphere to deal with. He discusses the difficulties of the task and goes into some detail on some of the schemes that have been put forward. To my unscientific mind, lots of these sound like pie-in-the-sky schemes, or actually poison-in-the-sky, to be more accurate. Flannery himself isn't keen on the kind of geo-engineering scheme that suggests pumping other stuff, like sulphur, into the atmosphere in order to induce cooling, on the grounds that firstly, we can't foresee all the possible implications and secondly, the underlying problem of too much carbon still remains.
He suggests what he calls a 'third way' – a mixture of preparing for climate change by making necessary adaptations at a local level while attempting to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by a variety of schemes, from massive seaweed farms to storing carbon in rocks and plastics, that he feels could be effective without the risks of geo-engineering. To be honest, much of this sounded impractical and a bit like wishful thinking to me, but hey! Most of it was well over my head scientifically and he's an expert, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. It's always been my opinion that it will have to be the scientists who solve this problem in the end, and the role of governments and the people should be to give them the finances and resources they need, while trying to stop any of them accidentally blowing up the galaxy in their enthusiasm.
However, after cheering me up in the earlier chapters, I'm afraid this final section plunged me back into gloom – the sheer scale of the task and the short-termism of so many governments make it all seem pretty overwhelming. I comforted myself with the thought that perhaps Flannery had done this deliberately, so that no-one would be approaching the Paris Conference feeling over-confident. Overall well worth reading – a good introduction for anyone new to the subject and a thorough update for those with a little more knowledge. Let's hope the politicians attending the Conference will pay attention to the science more than the politics for once... the world will be watching. Won't we?
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Grove Atlantic.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
fishface's review
hopeful
informative
sad
fast-paced
3.5
If you're looking for a book that gets across the gravity of the climate disaster around the corner, whilst still allowing for "hope" as the title suggests then this is worth a read. The presentation of potential ways to offset emissions and reduce warming whether via geoengineering or giant seaweed plantations was excellent. The only real downsides to this for me were that it had a focus on Australia (for reference I live in the UK) and that some of the climate science is likely out of date given it's publication was in 2015.
madetofly's review against another edition
5.0
Atmosphere of Hope provides an excellent look at climate change. It doesn't shy away from discussing just how dire the circumstances are, but the focus of the book is on finding ways to lessen the impact in whatever ways we can. While the book leaves you with the impression that there is no perfect fix and that we must prepare for difficult consequences no matter what we do, it is also clear that not acting at all will mean much worse.
I would recommend this book to everyone. It provides an important look at what is currently happening in our world in terms of climate change and its consequences and also explores many of the proposed ideas for combating climate change. This is an issue that will affect everyone in the world, and it is important that we learn everything we can about it. This book provides an excellent opportunity to do just that.
I received this book through Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
http://hmweasley-blog.blogspot.com/2016/12/book-review-atmosphere-of-hope-by-tim.html
I would recommend this book to everyone. It provides an important look at what is currently happening in our world in terms of climate change and its consequences and also explores many of the proposed ideas for combating climate change. This is an issue that will affect everyone in the world, and it is important that we learn everything we can about it. This book provides an excellent opportunity to do just that.
I received this book through Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
http://hmweasley-blog.blogspot.com/2016/12/book-review-atmosphere-of-hope-by-tim.html
nicsreading's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.0
larrys's review against another edition
Depressing as all hell. We're ducked.
But really. It's possible, I suppose, that the current few generations of informed humans will spend our entire lives fearing for a doomed future and then after we're dead some amazing tech will come along and it'll all be fine.
Despite his title, I do not get the impression Flannery has much hope for us. I've seen him speak about the environment with tears in his eyes.
A lot of Australians don't like Tim Flannery. I avoid using his name in certain company. But I personally think he's right. Certain people have the amazing capacity to just refuse to believe things they don't want to.
To the scientifically literate around the world, surely scratching your heads when looking in at Australia, I would just like to say #NotAllAustralians. (Lots of them, though.)
You might argue that a country deserves the pollies it gets, but our recent governments don't seem to be listening to their voters, either.
But really. It's possible, I suppose, that the current few generations of informed humans will spend our entire lives fearing for a doomed future and then after we're dead some amazing tech will come along and it'll all be fine.
Despite his title, I do not get the impression Flannery has much hope for us. I've seen him speak about the environment with tears in his eyes.
A lot of Australians don't like Tim Flannery. I avoid using his name in certain company. But I personally think he's right. Certain people have the amazing capacity to just refuse to believe things they don't want to.
To the scientifically literate around the world, surely scratching your heads when looking in at Australia, I would just like to say #NotAllAustralians. (Lots of them, though.)
You might argue that a country deserves the pollies it gets, but our recent governments don't seem to be listening to their voters, either.
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