WARNING: If you are a politician, tree hugger or a flack for energy polluters, ignore this book -- it is too clear, concise and logical to be of use in the current extremist global warming debates.
For people open to reason based on facts, it is superb. I grew up in an area that would still be under the ice sheets if not for global warming; I now live in a desert that was temperate forest some 10,000 years ago. Global warming and cooling has occurred for millions of years, as Ruddiman clearly shows; and so, we'd likely be cooling now if not for human intervention.
Actually, I hope he's wrong on his pessimism about the future. To quote: "To reduce current and future greenhouse-gas emissions to levels that would avoid most of the projected future warming, draconian economic sacrifices would have to be enacted that almost everyone would find intolerable: much more expensive fuel for travel and heating, much lower/higher thermostat settings in houses and workplaces, and extremely costly upgrades (or total replacements) of power plants."
He is "...optimistic that we will discover new technologies." Such is the ultimate American faith: the ability to technologicize our way out of any physical, social or religious problem. Personally, I'm pessimistic (age sometimes does that to a person). My expectation is succinctly outlined in 'The End of the Wild' by Stephen Meyer who concludes, "Today the guiding hand of natural selection is unmistakably human."
Meyer and Ruddiman agree a similar conclusion: we must act to save what's left. Ruddiman touches briefly on the fall of the Roman Empire, and the reality of requiring almost 1,500 years to restore the technological expertise of the Romans. In my view, a superior technology couldn't save the Romans; Rome fell because too many people stopped caring about Rome and instead became utterly absorbed in their own genius.
This book is too factual to serve much use in the current global warming shouting matches; my great hope is that it accurately expresses the knowledge of relevant decision makers guided by facts instead of fantasy. If so, there is still hope of avoiding disaster -- even if not avoiding a very different social and physical world within a few hundred years.
By all means, buy it. But, be prepared to be educated instead of insulted, berated or patronized.
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- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2020
essential to climate and carbon relationship understanding
