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Book Review - "Humanity's Moment - A climate scientist's case for
hope"
by Joëlle Gergis
October 10, 2024
This
is a disturbing and depressing book, because it is written by an
expert in climate science. It should be disturbing, though, to
anyone who cares about the future of the planet and isn't prepared
to reject science. Average air temperatures across the world are
rising, the levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere
are the highest they have been for a million years, melting glaciers
have forced
the border between Italy and Switzerland to be redrawn, as this
is being written parts of the USA are being damaged by the strongest
hurricanes ever seen there, parts of Europe and Asia have seen the
hottest days on record, with the accompanying high death tolls,
August 2024 had the highest temperatures ever recorded for that
month in Australia, ...
There's a crisis coming, but for some reason the science and the facts are rejected and ignored for political and economic reasons. The UK, where the Industrial Revolution was invented in the 19th century and where the first coal-fired electricity generation happened, has just closed its last remaining coal-fired power station, but we are told that we have to keep burning coal to keep the lights on and all forms of renewable energy are effectively useless.
Climate change is one of the few areas of science where there is a well-financed opposition. Yes, there are people who deny the value and effectiveness of vaccines, people who say that speed limits and seat belts are useless infringements on personal freedom, Holocaust deniers and 9/11 "troofers" who deny the evidence of history, and any number of other conspiracists who see secret cabals conspiring against them, but in most cases these fringe believers can be either ignored or even ridiculed.
Climate change denial is a classic case of a conspiracy theory - nothing is happening but a conspiracy of leftist politicians, wind tower manufacturers, electric car makers and "greenies" is deceiving the public with a scare campaign. Interestingly, when the conspiracy aspect of climate change denial is pointed out the deniers don't reply with science but with lawyers because someone hurt their feelings.
This is an important book. Yes, Dr Gergis can get a bit emotional at
times, but the future is something to get emotional about. The time
to do something is now. The "debate" about climate change is
actually a form of
Pascal's Wager, where a decision not to do
something
can have disastrous consequences if we are wrong but if we do
something and are wrong the costs and damages could be
inconsequential.
Highly recommended.
"Humanity's Moment" was shortlisted for a 2023 Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) and the 2023 Queensland Literary Non-Fiction Award, and won the 2023 Scholarly Book of the Year.
You can ask the librarian to get a copy of this book through an inter-library loan. Bathurst Library has a copy.
About the author
Dr Joëlle Gergis is an award-winning climate scientist and writer from the Australian National University, Australia. Her research focuses on reconstructing Southern Hemisphere climate variability over the past 200-1,000 years using annually-resolved tree rings, corals, ice cores and historical records.
Dr Gergis is a lead author on the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on the Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report - a global, state-of-the art review of climate change science.
You can read the rest of her biography here.
See also Book review - Sunburnt Country: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia
It
was intended to review two books here offering different views on
climate. The other was "Green Murder: A life sentence of net zero
with no parole" by Professor Ian Plimer.
Plimer was a speaker at a recent climate change denial symposium in
Oberon and his talk was notable for being a classic case of the
Gish Gallop as well as including graphs with deceptive axes that
would have made a statistics lecturer cry.
After the dedication to "the most remarkable woman Australia has
ever produced " (Gina Rinehart!) the book is essentially 600 pages of
constantly repeating the mantra "Climate change is a hoax.
Renewables will destroy society. Coal and carbon dioxide are good".
It is unreadable drivel, made even more disappointing by the
knowledge that Professor Plimer used to be an actual skeptic,
applying critical thinking to just the sort of non-arguments he
makes in this book.
Not only is the book not recommended, but it should be avoided as much as possible. The only thing to learn from it is that even smart people can be very, very wrong when ideology overcomes facts.
As burning the book would add carbon to the atmosphere, it was sent to the tip for recycling.
And a final thought ...
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