Atmosphere of hope Searching for solutions to the climate crisis

When it comes to climate change, the writing on the wall is increasingly difficult to ignore. With extreme summers in Europe, the drought and wildfires in the American West, and seesawing weather patterns around the globe, sneak peeks at worst-case scenarios are already making headlines. Scientist and prolific writer Flannery (An Explorer's Notebook, 2014), who was head of the Australian Climate Change Commission until he was fired by the conservative government, then reinstated as the country's chief climate spokesperson by a crowd-funded, social-media-fueled coalition, suggests a "third way" set of solutions that capitalizes on the earth's own carbon-capture possibilities as a path out of the crisis. Seaweed farming as a carbon-sequestration technique is just one of many examples. Although the distinction between this "third way" approach and geoengineering is fuzzy at times, this is an informative tour of promising multipronged approaches to one of humanity's biggest challenges. Flannery's solution-focused quest is especially timely with the UN Paris summit being held later this year, in which the political will to do the right thing will be severely tested. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Ten years ago, Flannery helped jump-start the conversation on climate change with The Weather Makers, a No. 1 international best seller that was named an ALA Notable Book and has over 150,000 copies in print. Now we've moved from change to crisis, but Flannery refuses to despair, offering proposals that include geoengineering and committing to the emerging clean technologies. With an eight-city tour; note that Flannery's book is expected to figure largely in debates at the Climate Change Conference, being held in Paris in December 2015. [Page 51]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Flannery, author of the best-selling Weather Makers, which addresses what global warming may bring, revisits in this book the most important of these issues, and in addition, deals with ways that their deleterious effects can be ameliorated or even improved upon. He reviews the coal, gas, oil, wind, electric vehicle, and solar energy industries, ruminates on their futures, and offers a wealth of specific facts. Thus, he is an articulate generalist yet also provides particulars. Much of his description of methods to combat the buildup of CO2 and other chemicals is technical. Terms such as gigawat, albedo, cell grazing, biochar, anthropocene, the third way, and many others are explained when they first appear, but there are enough so that a glossary seems necessary. Also, some of the solutions Flannery proposes, such as seeding the entire stratosphere using an array of approaches, are so vast, complex, uncertain, and expensive that the reader may see them as fantasies, though granted, there may be no easy answers to the problems the author investigates. VERDICT Highly recommended for all concerned with environmental problems, climate change, geology, pollution, business and corporations, weather, chemistry, and related fields.—Henry T. Armistead, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia [Page 103]. (c) Copyright 2015 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The #1 internationally best-selling author of The Weather Makers outlines a fast-approaching climate crisis while drawing on the latest scientific findings to outline promising clean technologies involving soft geo-engineering.

Outlines a fast-approaching climate crisis while drawing on the latest scientific findings to outline promising clean technologies involving soft geo-engineering.