The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg. Allen Lane (London 2022). 464 pages. £20.
This is an admirable tour de force for its creator and compiler Greta Thunberg … more of a manual than a straightforward textbook. Well over 400 pages long it is not an easy, fun read – this is not a fun topic. Rather, it is a relentless journey through the causes, evidence and projected consequences of Climate Change. There are no fewer than 100 free-standing mini articles, each by a different expert author, held together within five main sections each introduced by Thunberg: How Climate Works; How our Climate is Changing; How it affects us; What We’ve Done About It and What We Must Do Now.
All the articles are tightly written, full of facts or predictions and clear, as you might expect since each author has only between two and four pages to get their message across. As a result, though it’s a lot to take in, the book is never dull, and throws up facts or food for thought on nearly every page. There is some degree of duplication here and there, due in part to the many writers each individually addressing the same overall issue, but also because the causes and consequences of climate change are closely inter-related.
In explaining how climate works authors examine the crucial role of CO2 in our creation and preservation but also our potential destruction. They look at how the human race has, by its development, affected much of our environment – how, for example, as we have evolved farming and industrial techniques over the past ten thousand years, we have unwittingly altered balances on Earth and in the atmosphere.
Reviewing the changes born of the above aspects of climate change and its consequences, we study air pollution, clouds, arctic warming, droughts and flood … and the list goes on. We are shown the increasing possible consequences of warming at each of 1.5, 2.0 and 4.0 degrees. Many kinds of extreme weather will increase even with a 1.5 degree change, both drought and heatwave. With 4.0 degree warming, increased temperatures which we currently regard as extreme will become commonplace.
The effects of the above? Heat causes illness. Contributing to this there will be increased air pollution, airborne diseases, antibiotic resistance and consequences for food and nutrition. Change will not be evenly spread however, and authors foresee varying outcomes for different parts of the world, leading in turn to environmental racism; prejudice against those creating the most harm, climate refugees; mass migration from those countries most affected by changes to those surviving these better, and climate conflicts; warming temperatures and extreme variations in rainfall have been shown to exacerbate the amount of group-level conflict, ranging from violence and riots to civil war. And imagine fighting over the availability of fresh water!
Ask what we have done about all this? It would seem that the quick answer is ‘not enough’. In her overview of each of 27 sub-sections here Thunberg paints a depressing picture, suggesting we deny our failures, saying one thing whilst doing another. We must draw a line and seek whole new approaches.
What we must do now; the solution, such as there may ever be one, seems born of changing attitudes, doing as much as we can in every sphere rather than choosing compromises, avoiding ‘climate apathy’, educating others. We should push for binding commitments from those in power, those with power. Apart from the international Grand Plan, there are six steps we can ALL take as individuals to play our part; End Clutter, Holiday Local, Eat Green, Dress Retro, Travel Fresh, and Push for Change in the wider system.
I strongly recommend this book – for environmentalists seeking substantial evidence to back up their campaigns. Climate-change deniers, should they happen to read it, could not fail, surely, to wonder if they’ve been missing something. The book certainly deserves to grace the shelves of every school, university and public library.