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

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Jeremy Leggett's "The Carbon War" is the story of how the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 came about, and how companies in the business of thermal fuel (coal, oil, gas) - Leggett calls them the "Carbon Club" - tried to derail the process of setting enforceable goals for lowering greenhouse gas emissions. It is also the story of how self-interest, not surprisingly, overrides the general interest; how the United States, home to some of the largest oil and gas multinationals and the world's premier carbon dioxide emitting nation, sided with the Carbon Club; how Australia, the world's largest coal exporter, joined forces with the United States.

The Kyoto Protocol will come into force on 16 February 2005. It has been ratified by more than 55 of its signatory countries. The United States, led by George W. Bush, however, walked out on the agreement in March 2001.

The fact of global warming is hardly disputable. The five hottest years recorded since 1880 were 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2001, with 1998 having been the hottest. Whether the warming effect is man-made is still subject to discussion. But a full three quarters of scientists working in the field of climate change make the burning of fossil fuels responsible for the recorded increase in temperature.

The emission of carbon dioxide could be easily reduced if power could be economically generated by photovoltaic solar energy (PV). However, Adam Smith's invisible hand won't do the job in this particular case. It is a Catch-22 situation because PV will only be economically viable if the PV cells are mass-produced, but they are not mass-produced because people can't afford today's expensive PV products. This is a situation where government would have a proper role to fulfill - to jump-start a process that would help the common good where the mechanics of the market do not work. But unfortunately most governments do not care to do that.

Already in 1997, Leggett notes, "every country had its companies lost in skepticism about climate change. But in the USA the scale of the collective denial was unique." (264) Eight years later it is not much different. This denial comes at a cost, though. Not only the cost of becoming more and more isolated from global trends and losing the moral authority the USA enjoyed after Roosevelt and Truman established the country as a world power, but also an economic cost. State of the art ecological cars that really sell are not made by GM or Ford these days, but by Japan's Toyota. World-class oil companies with a comprehensive environmental policy are not ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco of the US, but BP and Shell of Europe.

Jeremy Leggett, by the way, founded his own company to promote and sell PV technology after he realized, with a certain bitterness, that his lobbying efforts to get emission limits agreed were not getting anywhere.

This is an excellent book which gives a very clear and readable outline of how global negotiations on climate change have been carried through over a decade and how they have been influenced behind the scenes by powerful lobby groups which had a vested interest in inaction. The author describes how a few of these groups later decided to shift away from their earlier position, a move which had a tremendous impact on the fate of the Kyoto Protocol, enabling it to move forward.
The book has something in it for everyone. Despite the very complex topic and the breadth of information it contains, which can cater as well for specialists as for the layman, it reads like a novel. Leggett has successfully managed in the unlikely task to cover in one book: the evolving scientific findings on climate change; international politics and historical events which had an impact on negotiations; the growing role of non-governmental organisations; weather events and other environmental impacts of climate change in the past decade, and, crucially, the business and industry perspective, with its changing moods. In the background, Leggett also provides the reader with some information on his personal life choices and beliefs, which emanate a certain degree of optimism. This crucially turns the book into a motivating, albeit realistic, read.
This book should be read not only by those who have an interest in climate change. Anyone currently working in the energy sector, for example, could benefit from knowing more about how the industry has influenced climate change negotiations. In addition, the decision by George W. Bush to walk out of the Kyoto Protocol after his election will seem hardly surprising after reading this book, which can also help to put into perspective the current debate in the US on energy and climate policy.

The author participated as an NGO spokesperson at many international meetings about CO2's contribution to climate change. His chronological treatment imposes order on the confusing, repeated climate prep meetings and negotiations of the 1990s. It was very helpful to read an unapologetic, informed account of these negotiations, replete with the hope & despair many felt about the participation of U.S. negotiators 1992-2000.

I bought it for my husband for his birthday, then proceeded to read it night after night until it was done. Leggett's first person accounts engaged and entertained me, and I admired his ability to switch between his memories of his own involvement and his descriptions of the state of science and policy at a given time. The sketches of the opposition always were worth reading, and I kept wondering whether he'd ever get really mean.

As a coda to reading the book, one could visit the website of OPEC to read their short policy statement on global climate change; see their FAQs number 20, an interesting read.

Jeremy Leggett has written an outstanding book. A one time petroleum geologist teaching at the London School of Mines, in the 1980s Dr Leggett became concerned about climate change from carbon dioxide build up in the atmosphere. He gave up a comfortable career to become a lobbyist for the environmental movement. In this role he has met all the main characters opposing and supporting greenhouse gas treaties. He describes not only the science, the politics, and the economics of the global warming issue, but also the personalities in "the Carbon War." between the fossil fuel industry on one hand and the environmental lobby on the other. The insights into both sides of this protracted war are fascinating - as are the various dirty tricks campaigns employed by the fossil fuel brigade. Dr Leggett writes not from the detachment of a scientist, but with the passion of someone with a vital message to sell and a vital cause to push. As premier science writer John Gribbin said on the book's front cover "the best book yet about the politics of global warming."

I heard an interview w/ Jeremy Leggett on the radio...and decided to buy "The Carbon War" because he was so poised, intelligent, and straight forward--the guy knew his stuff. When the book arrived, I didn't realize it was as long as it is (332 pages)...but once I got started I couldn't put it down. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the politics of global warming...you will be blown away! Leggett recounts the decade long international debate over global warming and climate change, and reveals the major players and their motives.

His discussion includes his own reflections as an ex-oil industry geologist, genuine humor, easy-to-grasp scientific descriptions of the global warming crisis, and a history of the international debate over climate change from its inception. This book is a MUST for anyone who lives on planet Earth.

A friend of mine who is a political scientist told me to read Jeremy Leggett's The Carbon War. He said it was the best book he'd ever seen on the politics of global climate change. After reading it, I have to agree.

Leggett taught oil geology at Britain's Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine before transferring his allegiance to Greenpeace, where he directed their Climate Campaign and later their Solar Initiative. In The Carbon War he provides an insider's view of the decade of battles leading up to the Kyoto treaty. Through his eyes we get to see the intense machinations of the great oil companies and their allies as they fight to block the international movement to develop a binding climate agreement. Leggett pulls no punches. He provides names, dates and details of the non-stop lobbying, shameless "scientific" distortions, and well-financed public relations campaigns by what he and other environmentalists dubbed "The Carbon Club." He describes in depth the behind-the-scenes collusion, pressure tactics and smears that stymied progress on the climate despite a decade of climate-related catastrophes and increasing scientific certainty about global warming and its ramifications. He also reports on the counter-punches Greenpeace and other environmental groups managed to land--for example alerting the hemorrhaging insurance industry that their catastrophic losses were not accidental and were bound to get worse unless greenhouse emissions are reduced.

The book ends in 2000, but all the forces Leggett reveals remain in play today. The World Summit in Johannesburg this September was torn by the same battles and struggled to reach the same kind of will-of-the-wisp agreements as Kyoto. For anyone who believes, as Leggett clearly does, that we must reduce our destabilizing assault on the atmosphere in order to maintain a stable and livable climate, this book is a must. It dives deep beneath the headlines to let you know how vital decisions concerning development, the deployment of resources, and our shared future, are actually being made. As Leggett says, "The race against time is on, and we should have started running by now; racing to crank up the solar revolution, racing to mobilizing the capital markets as engines for survival instead of suicide."

Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley, 2002).

I have just finished reading Leggett's book about the war for the protection of our atmosphere. It is a riveting account of the strident efforts experienced and well-intentioned scientists from all over the world have made to try to bring humanity to a reasonable acceptance of the extreme dangers that ignoring the risks of global warming will bring upon our planet. It is shocking that so far they have clearly lost the war; oil, coal, and automobile interests have successfully undermined international conventions and treaties which were designed to protect the Earth. If fossil fuel, energy and automobile interests continue to "win" (although as pointed out in the book, it really amounts to a huge loss), we will all be affected, rich or poor, South or North, nobody stands to gain. As Leggett's book makes obvious, humanity has never before had its hands on so much information about its own substantive elements, its past and its future; and yet,seemed to be willing to throw its own intelligence into the wind, scrapping its safety catches, all for the sake of some weird sense of 'material progress' spoon-fed to us by commercial-driven media. This books points directly to the moments in time when human progress could have advanced into a more sane, and probably more interesting variety of developmental possibilities. Read it and relish its not-at-all hidden wisdom--it will be one of the unforgetable learning moments of your reading life.

For a geologist Jeremy Leggett is a suprisingly good writer. As described in the previous reviews he details some of the history leading up to the Kyoto accords and provides insight from the participants perception. The meetings, the debates, the radio and TV interviews are all here. You will also read about all the tension and conflict that this global problem with its immense economic immplications brings to a head.

This book is mainly about the politics of the world climate change policies and does not have very much content regarding the science of climate change. I would have liked to see more of the science and perhaps a bit less of the details of meetings after more meetings. If you want to learn more about the science I would recommend Spencer Weart's The Discovery of Global Warming and John Houghton's Global Warming: The Complete Briefing. If you want to read about the war between Exxon,big Coal,corporate media, and environmentalists, scientists, and the countries that are first in line to suffer from the consequences of global warming this is your book.

This is a good place to start if you're interested in Climate Change and how politics works surrounding this issue. This looks at how Climate change was debated at the Kyoto summit and how oil companies and governments act in relation to this issue. It is fairly easy to read and although a little dry in places, it is well worth persevering with. I recommend other books by this author as he has a genuine interest in this issue and is able to put it across in an accessible way.

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I found Jeremy Leggett's The Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era quite
interesting and informative. Leggett, a renowned scientist at Oxford and a former
Greenpeace UK director, discusses the politics of global warming. He focuses on oil
dependence, while working in explanations of resulting climate change and the possible
impacts. It?s engaging because it goes behind the scenes in recounting important
conferences with scientific, intergovernmental, and business representatives, not all of
which would be covered by the media. He traveled all over the world for nearly a decade
while he directed Greenpeace's Climate Campaign, and wrote this account of it in a kind
of journal style with entries spanning from October 1989 to December 1997. I appreciated
his vivid writing style in illustrating scenes and people, which helped relieve the
density of scientific detail. While I had expected a dry, rather dull scientific text, it
proved appealing as well as instructive.
The first portion of the book concerns the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
which is a panel set up in 1988 by the UN General Assembly to advise governments on the
issue. The IPCC gathered worldwide input from scientists and experts over a year and a
half to formulate "consensus reports on the science of global warming, the probable
impacts, and the potential policy responses" (2), which is collectively called its
Scientific Assessment Report. At the time it was being prepared for the World Climate Conference where governments come together to decide what action to take. Leggett describes a series of
conferences with various governments, groups, scientists, and business leaders concerning
the final draft of this report. The first meeting mentioned deals with the summary of the
document. Strikingly, the draft states that 60-80% cuts in carbon dioxide emissions are
necessary to stabilize its atmospheric concentrations, a daunting goal. Leggett doesn?t
directly mention it but at least in the US such an extreme cut would be devastating to
the economy, with our dependence on oil leading to the colossal success of several major
oil companies. Thus throughout conferences in the book the US government, as well as oil
giants Saudi Arabia and Iran, refuses to set targets and timetables or make any kind of
commitment, arguing that the uncertainties over impacts make such action too drastic.
Legget emphasizes how scientists are certain that the current rates of greenhouse-gas
emissions will lead to climate change, but there is uncertainty over the degree of the
impacts because of the complexity of the climate system. Feedbacks in the climate system
are difficult to predict and almost impossible to calculate, making resulting climate
changes similar to a roll of dice. Toward the beginning of the semester we learned about
positive and negative feedback- positive leads to increase in a response while negative
contains the response, controlling it. In a warming world positive feedbacks would
amplify the warming by triggering extra carbon emissions from repositories in nature, and
negative feedbacks would suppress it (5). The concern is that the positive will end up
outweighing the negative. And the draft read that an overall increase rather than
decrease appears likely. All of this was more understandable because of learning about
climate change in class and about the carbon cycle.
Leggett has to deal with the frustrating responses of many people. Representatives of the
coal and oil industries, and countries dependent on them, deny the issue so their
livelihood won't be jeopardized. Others think that global warming is just a theory and
not a certainty, or aren't aware of just how urgent the situation is. At one point
Leggett gives a speech where he delivers his research of what the runaway greenhouse
effect or worst-case scenario would be. It describes how many island nations would be
submerged and coastline lost, unbreathable air, increase of famine, in areas of extremely
hot temperatures there would be many deaths leading to much conflict over water and food,
ect. He gives a survey on the worst case to around 100 different scientists- about 13%
say that they think it is a possibility. But the survey results are released to the media
who misrepresent the information, saying that only 13% of scientists thought that global
warming was happening. An oil company representative also gives a presentation and warps
the information because he is trying to recruit employers.
With this context you can really understand his vexation, and it draws the reader into
the cause. But yet his writing is hardly ever centered on himself despite the journal
style, but rather externally oriented. Other major points were the increase in coral
bleaching, which I hadn't known are the second major ecosystem in the world. He discusses
oil drilling at length, actually going to Siberia for an interview where a Texan company
is drilling. It should how drilling is happening in increasingly uninhabitable land, and
the Texans said that their motives are selfish, they don?t care about the earth and just
want to make money. Oil spills are another major issue. Each spill releases millions of
tones of oil onto the surface or in the ocean, which, in cold areas, doesn't evaporate
and breaks down very slowly.
The insurance industry is also in danger of crashing from paying the coverage of so many
major storms, which are increasing in frequency and intensity. Finance in general will
suffer great losses from cuts in emissions. After talking about insurance Legget mentions
a high tax on carbon use as a way to lessen emissions.
In trying to combat climate change I think the first step is raising awareness of the
urgency of the issue. Al Gore has admirably tried to do this, but the media has taken
hold of the topic and sensationalized it, which makes people less inclined to take it
seriously. Reliable information is key with this because of possible misrepresentation by
the media, as Leggett shows. This makes the public even less informed, and can be used to
downplay climate change to the public. Release of the runaway greenhouse effect
description could be very effective if delivered in a way that wouldn't cause a panic.
I think a carbon tax would help to an extent in decreasing emissions, but of course
carbon would still be burned. As the title of the work imparts, we are approaching the
end of the oil era. We cannot continue burning oil at our current rates for another
century without serious, even disastrous, consequences. This means we should focus on
research and development of alternative energy and fuel sources. Especially in such a
developed, industrialized, and technologically dependent country like the US, we are much
too used to moving around very quickly, making retrogression to earlier forms of
transportation out of the question. As alternative fuels are more accessible they will be
invested in, bringing back the economy. A huge issue is trying to convince the colossal
China, as well as India, to attempt to make cuts as well.