Publishers Weekly
07/31/2023
In this sober warning, Mann (The New Climate War), director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, examines epochal climate events of the past to underscore the current threat posed by global warming. The Earth, Mann explains, can self-regulate its temperature (as the sun brightened over billions of years, the greater heat caused more evaporation and rainfall on Earth, washing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and keeping it cool), but doing so takes time; for example, 56 million years ago volcanoes released carbon into the atmosphere for 10,000 years at such high rates that the Earth’s temperature rose by 9˚F and remained elevated for 200,000 years afterward. Mann describes how 250 million years ago the Great Dying, which was caused by a spike in carbon dioxide levels from volcanic eruptions in Siberia, killed 96% of marine species despite playing out “about a hundred times more slowly than the current warming spike,” underscoring the urgency of the current crisis. The climate history edifies, though discussions of the physics involved in global warming can get a bit technical (“The Stefan–Boltzmann law of physics... tells us that all objects radiate energy in proportion to the fourth power of their temperature”). Still, this enlightens even as it unsettles. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
"Deeply-researched, sprawling in scope and with insights and surprises on every page. This is the sort of historical understanding that leads to wisdom."—Seth Godin, Founding Editor of The Carbon Almanac
"This detailed and yet marvelously readable look at our climatic past offers us the information we need to understand our climatic future—and more importantly, to act to shape that future in the here and now."—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
“Mann has a tremendous depth of knowledge about the history of our planet’s climate, which is why his words of warning and optimism are so important. This book provides important lessons from humanity’s past to empower readers to help protect our future.”—Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore
“Reading Our Fragile Moment is like taking a spectacular hike through billions of years of Earth’s climate history with one of the great scientists of our time. Oh look — there’s the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs! There’s the great ocean conveyor! There’s the Rossby waves! When you reach the summit of Mann’s wonderful book, you will understand just how rare and beautiful our moment is — and why we need to fight harder to protect it.”—Jeff Goodell, author of The Heat Will Kill You First
“Mann shows that over the last few hundreds of millions of years, Earth has been snow-ball cold, tropic hot, rainforest wet, and desert dry. Its atmosphere has been oxygen poor, oxygen rich, or choked with deadly gas. But Earth has never been through anything quite like humankind. Our current comfortable climate is disappearing— because of us. It’s cause for thundering alarm, but is not cause for despair or doomist gloom. It’s time for action. Don’t believe me? Read this book.”—Bill Nye, Science Educator, CEO, The Planetary Society
"Mann has masterfully woven the climate story from our past to the future. Drawing upon a wealth of data, research and expertise, he slays the persistent zombie theories that climate scientists ignore historical context."—Dr. Marshall Shepherd, international expert in weather and climate, and Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia
“Written with clarity, brevity and wit, Mann presents a riveting and instructive narrative of Earth’s climate changes to help us navigate this new epoch of human-altered climate. This honest, informed look at planetary history serves as both a defense against doomism and a call to action to forge a livable world that is still well within our grasp.”—David Grinspoon, Astrobiologist and author of Earth in Human Hands
“A renowned climatologist and science journalist casts a hard eye on the probability that climate change is irreversible… An evenhanded take on a crucial topic. While our goose may not be cooked, it’s still time to reduce the heat.”—Kirkus
“A gripping tale of Earth’s climate history, this book is a must-read for every global citizen. It dispels common climate myths with surgical clarity and provides an essential roadmap to understanding our past and choosing our future.”—Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist, distinguished professor at Texas Tech University, UN Champion of the Earth, author of Saving Us
“Our Fragile Moment offers illuminating insights into our current crisis.” —Science News
“Our Fragile Moment celebrates the beauty and resilience of our planet’s history by probing it in depth. To complement Mann’s glass-half-full perspective on our battle against climate change, the book celebrates the sheer joy of scientific knowledge our species is able to enjoy.”—Salon
"[A] sober warning… enlightens even as it unsettles.”—Publishers Weekly
“Really smart, clever and eye-opening look at the five most extreme shifts in Earth's climate over 4.5 billion years, and the lessons those episodes have for our dramatic climate shift today.”
—Scientific American, Best of 2023
“Mann’s book is a critically important lesson in both science and history, and offers hope for the future. But only if we take heed of our intelligence and our cumulative knowledge rather than ignoring it.” —Astronomy Magazine
Kirkus Reviews
2023-07-05
A renowned climatologist and science journalist casts a hard eye on the probability that climate change is irreversible.
There’s good news tucked away inside these data-packed pages: An Earth too hot to sustain life is not likely to come about “in any scenario but total inaction.” The warming trajectory of the planet’s climate is, even by current policies, likely to fall below the worst-case scenarios that have been proposed. Mann, the author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars and The Madhouse Effect, suggests that planetary homeostasis is such that the climate is likely to even out and return to its old “normal.” The bad news, of course, is that it’s entirely unlikely that the present economy, still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, is going to turn on a dime—not when there are so many dimes to be made in burning them. That economy is the biggest obstacle to battling climate change, and with it comes “a sustained, massive, billions-of-dollars disinformation campaign.” The campaign’s proponent and main villain is Rupert Murdoch, whose stranglehold on the U.S. is principally confined to Fox News but who has much stronger control over Australia’s media. Even so, notes the author, Murdoch was unable to undo the Australian government’s pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 43% by 2030, largely because mandatory voting led to greater popular representation. Granted, neither mandatory voting nor gerrymandering, banned in Australia, are likely to take root in the U.S. given right-wing opposition. For all its positive outlook, though, Mann’s argument hinges on probabilities and a historical record that shows plenty of evidence of past catastrophes resulting in massive die-offs, and the overarching answer, on the principle of scientific uncertainty, is that we don’t really know what will happen—unless, that is, we surrender to inertia.
An evenhanded take on a crucial topic. While our goose may not be cooked, it’s still time to reduce the heat.
