climate – Climate Thoughts with Brian

Review of ‘Life on a Little- Known Planet’ by Elizabeth Kolbert

Kolbert, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, has gathered for her readers 17 celebratory articles from the last 20 years of her writing career, to highlight and inspire others working for a better climate today and tomorrow. With devastating climate events happening daily around the world, articles on issues from ten years or over, may seem…
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Review of ‘Clearing the Air’ by Hannah Ritchie

‘Climate change- and the energy, materials and food systems that drive it- is a massive but solvable problem.’ It is not often that we find a climate book that is openly honest, factual and optimistic about where we are in ‘one of the biggest challenges that humanity faces’. Ritchie structures this book into a question-…
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Review of ‘Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet’ by Kate Marvel

Dr Marvel’s ‘Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet’ is a wonderfully balanced book. It offers clear and detailed scientific information, which logically ties all the climate clues together, while at the same being unashamedly and unapologetically a personal account of the range of feelings that the climate crisis brings. Marvel’s writing…
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Review of ‘Positive Tipping Points: How to Fix the Climate Crisis’ by Tim Lenton

Tim Lenton’s ‘Positive Tipping Points’ does well to remind us all that we have agency to create meaningful change- that as cogs in the societal machine, we have the power to enhance and act transformatively, or to disrupt the current system. As he notes, “To get out of the incumbent, unsustainable state we need a…
Read more: Review of ‘Positive Tipping Points: How to Fix the Climate Crisis’ by Tim Lenton
Review of ‘Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World’ by Michael Mann and Peter Hotez

When two world-class science heavyweights take the time to warn us about scientific endeavour being under attack by bad actors, it is incumbent upon us to listen. Doctors Michael Mann and Peter Hotez have spent much of their professional life being targeted by the political and ideological opposition to science at enormous personal cost and…
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Review of ‘Love, Anger & Betrayal’ by Jonathon Porritt

Just Stop Oil. Now pause and consider the emotional response you just had to those words. Was it pride? Frustration? Anger? Apathy? From where did those emotions arise? How did you form that opinion, and has a dominant narrative shaped your response to this group of activists? Jonathon Porritt gathers together testimonies, contributions and profiles…
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Review of ‘A Climate of Truth: Why We Need It And How to Get It’ by Mike Berners- Lee

Mike Berners-Lee’s fresh new book challenges us all that we deserve more on climate communication, that we should expect more and finally, that we have the agency to demand more on climate communication. He calls for a new high standard of honesty and truth to reset the moral balance and reminds us that the standard…
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Review of ‘Scientists On Survival’

Scientists On Survival– a collection of essays, articles and thoughts from Scientists for XR- is the rare beast. A climate book written by experts which isn’t about science, but which is a story about humans. A story of journeys and a story of love. The writer and campaigner Matthew Todd describes the book this way: ‘This…
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Review of ‘Climate Injustice: Why We Need to Fight Global Inequality to Combat Climate Change’ by Dr Friederike Otto

‘Climate Injustice’ by Dr Otto is an uncomfortable read for an audience in the Global North and reminds us of the truth- that if your neighbour’s house is on fire, you don’t argue about the price of your garden hose. You put out the fire. This is not simply a book about more frequent extreme…
Read more: Review of ‘Climate Injustice: Why We Need to Fight Global Inequality to Combat Climate Change’ by Dr Friederike Otto
Review of ‘The Language of Climate Politics- Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It’ by Genevieve Guenther

Although Francis Bacon acknowledged that ‘Knowledge is Power’, Dr Genevieve Guenther contends in this new release that instead, ‘Language is power.’ Language is the vehicle for creating ideologies and belief systems and those who control the narrative, can usually control the level of action and response. A truism that fossil- fuel companies have followed in…
Read more: Review of ‘The Language of Climate Politics- Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It’ by Genevieve Guenther

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