Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era 1st Edition

by Jeremy Leggett (Author)

16 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0415931021

ISBN-10: 0415931029

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First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-As a young geologist and as a professor at the Royal School of Mines in England, the author found the hunt for petroleum deposits "a great romance." But, like many scientists in the 1980s, he became convinced by growing evidence that global warming posed a serious danger. Conscience-stricken at the part he had played in bringing about this situation, he moved "from one of the most conservative universities in the world to one of the most radical environmental groups," and began a new career as scientific advisor to Greenpeace. Participating in history-making conferences such as those in Rio and Tokyo, he witnessed the key events and international politics at the end of the 20th century. In vivid detail, his account reveals the people and politics of what he calls the "Carbon Club"-the coalition of industrial and regional interests that sought to confuse the issue and, through various manipulations, derailed an effective movement to address the problem. He argues that only a rapid conversion to solar power can change the dangerous course energy production is following now, but is encouraged by recent signs of a growing understanding of the problem, and by developing cracks in the cohesiveness of the Carbon Club itself. For most teens, this clearly written, fact-packed, and passionate book will be a demanding read, but it offers a wealth of information for those interested in understanding the workings of the real world, and its thorough index will make it an excellent resource for research on global warming and the history of the issue.

Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Review

"One of the fascinations of this book is that the politics, although global, are also very personal...There is much to learn here. How enriching it can be, for example, to be an anti-global-warming advocate.
Deborah Woodcock, Professional Geographer."
"Exciting.fiery.revealing. Leggett provides ample evidence, much of it drawn from first-hand experience." -- The Economist
"Leggett is an excellent storyteller.a must-read for anyone interested in how human activities affect our environment." -- London Sunday Times
"An extremely valuable piece of work.a wonderful and most important contribution." -- Ross Gelbspan, author of The Heat is On
"The best book yet about the politics of global warming." -- John Gribbin, Sunday Times
"Jeremy Leggett...is one of the half-dozen experts most responsible for putting the climate change issue on the international agenda." -- Mark Hertsgaard, Washington Post
"Exciting.fiery.revealing. Leggett provides ample evidence, much of it drawn from first-hand experience." -- The Economist
"As compelling as a good thriller, the book deftly describes the machinations of what Leggett calls 'the carbon club' or "the foot soldiers for the fossil-fuel industries." -- Publishers Weekly
"For most teens, this clearly written, fact-packed, and passionate book will be a demanding read, but it offers a wealth of information for those interested in understanding the workings of the real world, and its thorough index will make it an excellent resource for research on global warming and the history of the issue." -- School Library Journal
"An extremely valuable piece of work.a wonderful and most important contribution." -- Ross Gelbspan, author of The Heat is On
"The best book yet about the politics of global warming." -- John Gribbin, Sunday Times
"As compelling as a good thriller, the book deftly describes the machinations of what Leggett calls 'the carbon club' or 'the foot soldiers for the fossil-fuel industries'." -- Publishers Weekly
"Jeremy Leggett...is one of the half-dozen experts most responsible for putting the climate change issue on the international agenda." -- Mark Hertsgaard, Washington Post

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (March 13, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0415931029
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0415931021
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,390,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #376 in Environmental Engineering (Books)
- #1,007 in Environmental Studies
- #1,416 in International Relations (Books)

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Glenn Gallagher

The Dark Side of Global Warming Politics

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2008

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The Carbon War is aptly titled - it shows that the rough and tumble politics of global warming is actually a type of war, one fought with political weapons in the finest (or worst) Machiavellian approach using deception, lies, abuse of power, money, and any other means of gaining the desired goal. Although both sides in the debate (big business and governments beholden to big business versus environmental groups) resort to various machinations and deception to promote their agendas, as this book clearly demonstrates from a personal eye-witness (of one who was "in the trenches"), the big business consortium is much more guilty of lies, corruption, and blatant mis-use of power than the environmental side. One reason may simply be that the traditional energy industry (petrochemical and coal) fear they will lose significant amounts of money if they change the way they do business.

This book would be interesting to read in about 100 years. If things do not go well with mitigating climate change, the book could serve as an indictment of the guilty parties. If things do go well, people could say "I'm so glad governments didn't listen to those energy companies".

Easily five stars. Also, unfortunately in some ways, a very eye-opening look at the way international environmental politics is conducted. It probably goes without saying that many large energy companies really do not care about what is right for the average human, they only care about what is right for their shareholders. If you are still undecided on whether or not global warming is real, or is an issue you should be concerned about, and you receive conflicting information, keep in mind as you decide who is most likely to more truthful - the side trying to keep the planet livable, or the side with the most money to lose?

(Second Review one week later, same Reviewer): Title of Second Review: Casualties High in the Carbon War.

Jeremy Leggett has written a fascinating first-person account of an environmental organization representative's front row seat to the battle waged during the development of the Kyoto Protocol. As others have stated, politics is really a type of blood sport, with the winners left standing and everybody else dying or wounded. As Mr. Leggett points out, the real casualties are the truth and the average person. Huge amounts of money are at stake in any plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and most plans will create new winners in the changing market, and also will create new losers. No existing company wants to be one of the losers, and they will do everything in their power to maintain the status quo. If you aren't already suspicious of the petrochemical energy business, you probably will be after reading this book. (Note: Large energy companies do not necessarily have your best interests in mind.)

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Brian Allen

The Carbon Policy Wars

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2007

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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.

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Susan L. Engberg

An inside look at the politics of global warming

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2008

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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.

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Sarah Livingston

Okay

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2009

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The book was in fairly okay condition except that it had laminated library stickers all over it, also I payed almost ten dollars extra for expedited shipping and it took over a week to get here, very slow service.
But I got the book, and I got the right book. If I had known it would have taken that long to get here I would have ordered elsewhere. Make sure you read exactly when they mandate the shipping!

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Amazon Customer

Hugely thought provoking but will we change the way we live?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2015

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Well written, backed by documented evidence, clearly written by someone who is passionate about saving the world's environment for future generations and who sees the vast majority of those who oppose his beliefs as cynical and almost entirely motivated by short term gains. When the truth is finally recognised it will probably be far too late to prevent catastrophic change. Will it be too late to hold those who have opposed restraint to account?

Amazon Customer

... about oil production in Siberia and there was couple great info, but all in all authors says

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2016

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I ve read only about oil production in Siberia and there was couple great info, but all in all authors says, that they come there in winter so they did not see any spill or how the situation look like there. Plus there was a tone of useless information about how they use helicopter and so on, but what is it for if the outcome is -- we did not see anything (any spill), because it was under ice and snow.

Fab&Peg

Très intéressant

Reviewed in France on May 22, 2021

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A lire absolument pour ceux qui s'intéressent à comprendre les liens entre écologie (ou plutôt ses freins), les industries et la politique de certains états. Un petit peu daté mais avec le recul, la vision de ce livre pour quelqu'un qui l'a écrit au début des années 2000 est bluffante. Introuvable en français, dommage.

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Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era 1st Edition

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