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leda's review
5.0
The surface of the Earth is warming with unpredictable consequences. Scientists, NGOs, and some of the biggest humanitarian organisations warn about the dire effects of climate change. IMF has warmed that human “fortunes will melt with the ice, evaporate like water under a relentless sun, and wither away like sand in a desert storm. And the planet’s poorest and most vulnerable people will be the first to feel the pain.”
Humans are faced with a choice between two options. We can continue pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, tinkering with the climate, and hoping that both humans and earth systems will adapt to a warming climate, or we can drastically cut carbon dioxide emissions and move towards a clean energy future by expanding renewable energy, investing in improvements to our electricity systems, and making smart policy decisions.
In his fascinating book ‘The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World’, Oliver Morton, science writer at The Economist, argues that a quick transition away from fossil fuels would be impossible. It is a fundamental mistake, he says, to think that we can replace the current global-energy infrastructure within a single generation. Over 80 percent of the world’s energy today comes from fossil fuels. This already enormous use of fossil fuels worldwide is not shrinking, but growing, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which projects that the amount of fossil fuels consumed will increase about 50% by 2035.
Read more: https://machinalectora.wordpress.com/2015/12/04/the-planet-remade-how-geoengineering-could-change-the-world/
Humans are faced with a choice between two options. We can continue pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, tinkering with the climate, and hoping that both humans and earth systems will adapt to a warming climate, or we can drastically cut carbon dioxide emissions and move towards a clean energy future by expanding renewable energy, investing in improvements to our electricity systems, and making smart policy decisions.
In his fascinating book ‘The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World’, Oliver Morton, science writer at The Economist, argues that a quick transition away from fossil fuels would be impossible. It is a fundamental mistake, he says, to think that we can replace the current global-energy infrastructure within a single generation. Over 80 percent of the world’s energy today comes from fossil fuels. This already enormous use of fossil fuels worldwide is not shrinking, but growing, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which projects that the amount of fossil fuels consumed will increase about 50% by 2035.
Read more: https://machinalectora.wordpress.com/2015/12/04/the-planet-remade-how-geoengineering-could-change-the-world/
halfmanhalfbook's review
2.0
Mankind has spent millennia altering and changing their local environment, but with the discovery of fossil fuels and our current addiction to them we have begun the process of changing the entire global climate. He explores the effect we have had on our world with carbon dioxide, nitrogen fertilisers and sulphate in the atmosphere and considers the perilous situation that the world could be in just a few years. Even though some choose to ignore it, climate change is the thing that isn’t going to go away.
A need to address the risks of global warming is urgent and pressing. A small group of scientists are looking at proposals such as cultivation of photosynthetic plankton or a stratospheric veil against the sun or having automated robotic ships cloud seeding for intervention against the effect of climate change. In this book Morton seeks to inform us about the benefits and hazards of these geoengineering strategies. Even trying to change things in a positive way is fraught with danger, but inaction holds equal dangers.
Morton has drawn together a broad overview on the coming threats of climate change and the possibilities that geoengineering offers in digging us out of the mire. It does make for interesting reading the discussion of the technologies available to reduce carbon emissions and reflect sunlight back into space. While he covers various new technologies and new ways that are being considered to combat this, he didn’t seem to be bold enough to commit to the one he would recommend. Overall this isn’t a bad book, but didn’t seem to have the focus that I was expecting, but then that might be because the solution might be as dangerous as the problem. 2.5 stars.
A need to address the risks of global warming is urgent and pressing. A small group of scientists are looking at proposals such as cultivation of photosynthetic plankton or a stratospheric veil against the sun or having automated robotic ships cloud seeding for intervention against the effect of climate change. In this book Morton seeks to inform us about the benefits and hazards of these geoengineering strategies. Even trying to change things in a positive way is fraught with danger, but inaction holds equal dangers.
Morton has drawn together a broad overview on the coming threats of climate change and the possibilities that geoengineering offers in digging us out of the mire. It does make for interesting reading the discussion of the technologies available to reduce carbon emissions and reflect sunlight back into space. While he covers various new technologies and new ways that are being considered to combat this, he didn’t seem to be bold enough to commit to the one he would recommend. Overall this isn’t a bad book, but didn’t seem to have the focus that I was expecting, but then that might be because the solution might be as dangerous as the problem. 2.5 stars.
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