Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity
By Dr. James Hansen
Hardcover 270 pages
Bloomsbury $ 25.00
To be a top climate scientist today means being up to speed in graduate level physics, advanced mathematics, planetary astronomy, meteorology, paleontology, oceanography, bio and geo-chemistry, dealing with programmers and constantly shifting computer architectures, and now on top of everything else, you have to be a tireless political activist and media celebrity. No one book could fully substitute for those years of study or the crazy political twists and turns that makes up a modern climate scientist's life. But Storms of my Grandchildren comes about as close as you'll ever get. It is hands down the best, most informative, brilliantly written book on general climate science I've ever read.
The author is none other than Dr. James Hansen, the world's foremost expert on climate science. He is by his own account a shy, quiet man more comfortable among a close knit group of family, friends, and colleagues than standing before millions in a national spotlight. But he's a brilliant scientist who earned that distinction with the only currency of value in his profession: Hansen's predictions have been proven right again and again. The book seamlessly integrates that original analysis and the latest scientific findings with the author's growing realization that the news is bad, getting worse, and too many elected leaders are either green-washing the issue or denying it exists. You'll follow along as he is vaulted back and forth from a life of fascinating scientific discovery into the frenzied, decidedly unscientific world of politics, power, and unbridled greed where you are eyewitness to some extraordinary recent history. The latter by itself is a series of captivating stories, from inside Cheney's energy task force to being detained by police at a mountain top removal protest alongside actress Daryl Hannah.
Storms of my Grandchildren skillfully guided this reviewer effortlessly through all that drama, accompanied by a piercing analytical alacrity few science books even try to match. Readers from all across the political spectrum will quickly come to respect the fiercely independent, brutally honest Hansen as he heaps both encouragement and criticism equally on people and party. He offers stark options rendered in science and engineering regardless of a reader's ideology or motives. Democrats and Republicans, Asia and Europe, the left and the right, all are recognized for better and for worse.
As the title plainly states, Hansen is driven by empirical data and internal scruples to preserve the future of his grand-children, and yours. The data presented and conclusions drawn are well placed in the many readable narratives and build to a point that is, frankly, sobering. After walking us carefully but steadily through the fundamental concepts in his field, stopping to lucidly explain the earth's incredible climate sensitivity to tiny perturbations past and present, the author skillfully lays out the case that we are closing in on tipping points beyond which the climate will soon spin out of control. How bad? You'll have to read the book to get a feel for the range of possibilities, but under one set of hypothetical assumptions Hansen states point blank that he concludes the Venus Syndrome is a "dead certainty".
Storms of my Grandchildren will make an ideal Christmas gift for the science aficionado or climate change skeptic in your life, especially on the tight budgets plaguing so many Americans this year. Include Censoring Science by Mark Bowen and you'll be gifting an integrated, unbeatable one-two holiday punch that will provide hours of enjoyment, a lifetime of knowledge, and help forge a much brighter future for all the world's grandchildren.
Dr. James Hansen is a senior climatologist and head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA bio), an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University (University homepage), a prolific author of scientific papers and popular articles, and a frequent guest on various science and science policy news programs. Time permitting, he is available below to respond to a few comments. In the spirit of the season, we'll be giving away one signed copy of his book to the participant of his choosing! Rules here.