Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do (Hardcover)

by Joseph Romm (Author)
Key Phrases: next fifty generations, ice discharge, wildfire season, United States, White House, National Academy of Sciences (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Physicist Romm, a veteran of the Department of Energy and founder and director of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, presents a clear and effective primer on climate science. But the most salient aspects of this provocative expose involve Romm's documentation of what he calls the Bush administration's irresponsible and backward energy policies, the censorship of legitimate and urgent information pertaining to global warming, and the threats rising temperatures pose to "the health and well-being of this nation and the world." Romm explains that we already possess the technologies and know-how we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; what we lack is the will to act. As Romm analyzes the "miscoverage" of global-warming realities in the press, especially the facts pertaining to dire changes already affecting plants, animals, and humans, he laments the perversity and folly of politicizing a global crisis. We must recognize, Romm asserts, that "ideology trumps rationality" all too often in public discourse, preventing us from doing what needs to be done to avert still preventable catastrophes. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Urgent, reasoned, and informative ... America had better listen up--this may be our last chance to stop global warming." (James Hansen, Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006117212X
• ISBN-13: 978-0061172120
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,982 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His hair is on fire, January 3, 2007

By	Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

And ours should be too.

Joseph Romm, who is an expert on energy (author of The Hype about Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate (2004), which I highly recommend), holds a PhD in physics with an emphasis on the physics of weather. Consequently he writes from a position of knowledge about climate change that few others can match. He is also politically savvy, having worked in the Department of Energy in the Clinton administration. His hair is on fire because the danger to the planet from global warming is frighteningly real, and it appears that nobody is going to do anything about it until it is too late.

Part I is devoted to both making it absolutely clear that global warming is caused by human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels, while giving some considerable data on just what the consequences of global warming will be for the planet and in particular for the US. A number of meany-mouthed nay-sayers have suggested that a little warming won't be so bad, especially for the US. Romm lays this mythology into its grave by showing that the most recent scientific projections show that unchecked global warming will be a disaster for the US, inflicting enormous damage to our costal areas, burying much of Louisiana, Florida and other parts of the US under water, and creating dust bowl conditions in the Midwest far worse than experienced in the 1930s.

The real meat of this book however begins in Part II, "The Politics and the Solution," and in particular in Chapter 5, "How Climate Rhetoric Trumps Climate Reality."

Have you ever asked yourself why conservative politicians are in a state of denial about global warming? I have, and Romm is the first one to explain it to me. Simply put, "ideology trumps rationality." Romm spells it out: "Most conservatives cannot abide the SOLUTION to global warming--strong government regulations and a government-led effort to accelerate clean-energy technologies into the market." (p. 107) Therefore they become what Romm calls "Denyers and Delayers." They are indulging in political purity--but at what price?

In this connection I was intrigued and frankly amazed to find out that many conservatives are in the thrall of novelist Michael Crichton who wrote a novel entitled "State of Fear" in which the villain is a scientist who "falsifies scientific studies to justify draconian steps to curb global warming." Romm notes that President George W. Bush was a big fan of Crichton's book, and ignored "every major study by the world's leading climate scientists," and instead invited Crichton to the White House where they "talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement" (quoting Fred Barnes, p. 102). It appears that not only does Bush practice "faith-based" foreign policy, he gets his science not from scientists but from misinformed writers of science fiction!

In Chapter 10, "Missing the Story of the Century," Romm takes the media to task for not getting the global warming story straight. Fearful of criticism by right-wing think-tank pundits sponsored by the likes of Exxon-Mobil and others with a vested interest in fossil fuels, the media has given more than equal time to a few bought "scientists" who think that global warming is the result of natural causes. This is to the relative exclusion of the many thousands of scientists who have made it clear that global warming is being caused by human activities, most directly by the burning of fossil fuels. It's the Big Lie as practiced by the Bush administration whose attitude toward global warming is to wait and see, and meanwhile business as usual. Romm's point is that we can't afford to wait. Conservatives who are afraid of intervention by government are foolish since if we don't act now we will get Big Government (and worse) with a vengeance down the road when "hell and high water" are upon us.

Romm outlines an eight-point program (fully stated on pages 22-23) that will successfully counter and then reverse the trend toward catastrophic global warming. It includes performance-based efficiency programs; efficiency gains from industry and power generation through "cogeneration" of heat and power (instead of wasting the heat, which is what we do now); building wind turbines; capturing carbon dioxide from proposed coal plants; building nuclear plants to generate electricity without CO2 waste; greatly improving the fuel economy of our vehicles using "plug-in hybrid" drives; increasing production of high-yield energy crops; and stopping tropical deforestation while planting more trees.

The compelling thing about this program is that it can be implemented with existing technology and will lead to the end of dependence on foreign oil and will create energy-sector jobs here at home for millions of Americans.

Will our head-in-the-sand politicians listen? Not while Bush is president they won't; but if we, as Romm urges, become "one-issue" voters, we can in November 2008 usher in an enlightened administration that will immediately begin work on saving ourselves and the planet from a catastrophe worse than any we have ever faced.

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Practical Guide ..., January 22, 2007

By	Busy Mom (Ohio) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

As I sit here typing, I can see the snow and ice just outside our window. I also hear people grumbling around me "What global warming?" but they're forgetting something ~~ this has definitely been a very mild winter for us in northwest Ohio and it is very unusual that we're just now getting our first snow of the season. Normally, we start getting snow in mid-November and by this time in January, the romance of the snow is pretty much all gone. Not this year.

After reading this book, I am now more concerned about what our government is not doing (it'll be interesting to see the backlash to the State of the Union speech tomorrow night) to work with these legitimate and valid concerns. This is not your typical scaremonger book. In fact, this book is written by the former acting assistant secretary at the Department of Energy, heading the office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Romm writes about the reasons why you don't hear a lot of scientists flooding the media with dire warnings of our actions and the near future of global warming ~~ he writes vividly and rationally, pointing no fingers of blame at anyone. He writes a history of scientific studies and the Delayers and Denyers tactics in stalling appropriate responses to issues that should have been addressed yesterday if not today. He writes simply. He writes of the truth. He backs his reasons up with scientific studies and news reports.

He doesn't point fingers at anyone ~~ just states simply the facts and the solutions he thinks are viable in fixing this problem before it's too late. Already, we're seeing record hurricanes, droughts and mild winters and already, we're seeing signs of glaciers melting. Romm debunks what the current administration is doing in fixing global warming and offers other viable solutions (after going into details about what would happen if we built more coal or nuclear plants as well as just how exactly far the hybrid cars have come along).

This is a very straight-forward book and very well-written. Instead of worrying about catching the Avian flu, I think I am now more worried about global warming. And what I can do to help educating others about it. If you want to get some insights and a practical guide on what needs to be done, I would highly suggest getting this book.

1-23-07

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, Precise and Actionable, January 30, 2007

By	David A. Bassett (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

During a conversation in Washington, DC in 1988, I was stunned by how succinctly my former professor Carl Sagan was able to summarize the behavior of bureaucrats inside the U.S. Government. After listening quietly to my rant about inactions of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the subject of acid rain and global warming, Sagan simply offered the following one-liner: "Bureaucratic Ecocide."

Joe Romm's convincing, straight-forward and extremely well-written book reminds me of Sagan's ability to cut to the quick of a matter like a laser beam. Romm writes with precision and insight about a complex subject. This gift is made all the more precious to us because of the layers of obfuscation, half-truths and outright lies of the "Deniers and Delayers." Because of the complexity of the subject and the murky job done to date by the press, Romm's talent to clarify shines like a beacon to all thinkers on the planet. Read this book - for yourself and for the generations yet to come. Then take action.