Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity

by James Hansen

Overview

In Storms of My Grandchildren, Dr. James Hansen-the nations leading scientist on climate issues-speaks out for the first time with the full truth about global warming: The planet is hurtling even more rapidly than previously acknowledged to a climatic point of no return.

Although the threat of human-caused climate change is now widely recognized, politicians have failed to connect policy with the science, responding instead with ineffectual remedies dictated by special interests. Hansen shows why President Obamas solution, cap-and-trade, which Al Gore has signed on to, wont work; why we must phase out all coal, and why 350 ppm of carbon dioxide is a goal we must achieve if our children and grandchildren are to avoid global meltdown and the storms of the books title. This urgent manifesto bucks conventional wisdom(including the Kyoto Protocol) and is sure to stir controversy, but Hansen-whose climate predictions have come to pass again and again, beginning in the 1980s when he first warned Congress about global warming-is the single most credible voice on the subject worldwide. Hansen paints a devastating but all-too-realistic picture of what will happen in the near future, mere years and decades from now, if we follow the course were on. But he is also an optimist, showing that there is still time to do what we need to save the planet.

Urgent, strong action is needed, and this book will be key in setting the agenda going forward to create a groundswell, a tipping point, to save humanity-and our grandchildren-from a dire fate more imminent than we had supposed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608192571
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	12/10/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	629,585
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Dr. James Hansen, perhaps best known for bringing global warming to the worlds attention in the 1980s when he first testified before Congress, is an adjunct professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and at Columbias Earth
Institute, and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, ABC News Tonight, Anderson Cooper, Charlie Rose; has been interviewed in the New York Times and profiled in the New Yorker; and has written for the Boston Globe, the Nation, the New York Review of Books, and Scientific American. This is his first book.
Perhaps best known for bringing global warming to the worlds attention in the 1980s when he first testified before Congress, Dr. James Hansen is considered the worlds leading climatologist. The head of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies, he served as Al Gores science advisor for An Inconvenient Truth. He teaches at the Department of Earth &Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, lectures at universities and other institutions throughout the world and has been interviewed in the New York Times and other publications. This is his first book.

Editorial Reviews

Starred Review.

Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, lays all the cards on the table in this thorough, detailed analysis of the history, science and politics of climate change, a Silent Spring-style warning cry that predicts "a rough ride" for our grandchildren. Using numerous charts and graphs alongside accessible explanations, Hansen presents copious climate data for a broad audience. After discussing the recent history of global warming science, from the Climate Task Force of 2000 to his up-to-the-minute carbon dioxide limit of 350ppm, Hansen provides recommendations for achieving greenhouse gas reduction, as well as strategies for reducing or eliminating fossil fuel use: "For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we cannot allow our government to continue to connive with the coal industry in subterfuges that allow dirty-coal use to continue." The most significant step, he says, would be creating a cost structure that escalates cost as carbon emissions increase. With of-the-moment discussion of topics such as climate vs. weather (addressing in particular the cool U.S. summer of 2009), cap-and-trade vs. fee-and-dividend, and climate change politics as well as activism, this is certain to be as controversial as it is informative. Hansen's message is stirring as well as urgent, and should be required reading for anyone involved in public policy.
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Publishers Weekly

In his debut, a leading climatologist lambasts world governments for their ineffectual response to the dangers of global warming. After sounding the climate alarm in papers and conferences for two decades, here Hansen takes off the gloves, faulting "the undue influence of special interests and government greenwash" for the failure to take the actions necessary to stabilize Earth's climate. Much of the book is a heady crash course in the science of global warming, and the author makes readily apparent the nuances of human-caused and other factors involved in climate change. Offered within the context of Hansen's work of the past eight years-including his widely reported clashes with the Bush administration-the science sections are followed by his own prescriptions for action. Unlike politicians, he writes, nature does not compromise. He dismisses key aspects of legislation now before Congress as well as the Kyoto approach to international climate treaty-making, arguing that setting goals for a gradual slowing down of emissions will not solve the problem. "Ladies and gentlemen, your governments are lying through their teeth," he writes. Coal use must be prohibited unless ways can be found to capture and dispose of carbon dioxide emissions. Relying on renewables and increasing energy efficiency will not do the trick either. Dismissing the cap-and-trade approaches now being considered by lawmakers, Hansen proposes a fee-and-dividend approach as the best way to phase out fossil fuels. He considers nuclear power a possible safe-energy alternative and calls for the United States to build a test fast-reactor nuclear power plant. Hansen blames the Obama Administration for listening to the adviceof Environmental Defense and other well-meaning environmental groups, which are satisfied with gradual legislative progress. As the author writes, we're simply out of time. With urgency and authority, Hansen urges readers to speak out-taking to the streets if necessary-to protect the Earth from calamity for the sake of their children and grandchildren.

Kirkus Reviews

"Hansen gives us the opportunity to watch a scientist who is sick of silence and compromise; a scientist at the breaking point." ---Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher

James Hansen is the most well-known and outspoken of the American scientists who are warning about the dangers of climate change. This book is his personal story of climate science and politics. Narrator John Nelson clearly conveys Hansen's vision and his frustration with Washington politics. Nelson does a workmanlike job presenting the necessary excursions into scientific analysis, only occasionally droning through Hansen’s discussions of black carbon or ice mass. Together, Hansen and Nelson do a good job articulating the urgency of the climate crisis without crushing the listener with doomsday prospects. The production refers to a PDF of charts and photos, which are included with the CD edition or available directly from the publisher's Web site. F.C. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2010 - AudioFile