Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters
-
-
4.3 • 6 Ratings
-
-
- $27.99
-
- $27.99
Publisher Description
"Surging sea levels are inundating the coasts."
"Hurricanes and tornadoes are becoming fiercer and more frequent."
"Climate change will be an economic disaster."
You've heard all this presented as fact. But according to science, all of these statements are profoundly misleading.
When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that "the science is settled." In reality, the long game of telephone from research to reports to the popular media is corrupted by misunderstanding and misinformation. Core questions—about the way the climate is responding to our influence, and what the impacts will be—remain largely unanswered. The climate is changing, but the why and how aren't as clear as you've probably been led to believe.
Now, one of America's most distinguished scientists is clearing away the fog to explain what science really says (and doesn't say) about our changing climate. In Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters, Steven Koonin draws upon his decades of experience—including as a top science advisor to the Obama administration—to provide up-to-date insights and expert perspective free from political agendas.
Fascinating, clear-headed, and full of surprises, this book gives readers the tools to both understand the climate issue and be savvier consumers of science media in general. Koonin takes readers behind the headlines to the more nuanced science itself, showing us where it comes from and guiding us through the implications of the evidence. He dispels popular myths and unveils little-known truths: despite a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures actually decreased from 1940 to 1970. What's more, the models we use to predict the future aren't able to accurately describe the climate of the past, suggesting they are deeply flawed.
Koonin also tackles society's response to a changing climate, using data-driven analysis to explain why many proposed "solutions" would be ineffective, and discussing how alternatives like adaptation and, if necessary, geoengineering will ensure humanity continues to prosper. Unsettled is a reality check buoyed by hope, offering the truth about climate science that you aren't getting elsewhere—what we know, what we don't, and what it all means for our future.
Customer Reviews
The Science vs the science
Author
American theoretical physicist, director of the Center for Urban Science at NYU, and professor in the school of Engineering. Brooklyn born and recognised as a gifted student early on at school, he graduated Caltech where he studied under Richard Feynman, then completed his doctorate at MIT at age 23. He served on the faculty at Caltech for 30 years, the last nine of those as provost. “A smart cookie, that one,” my late mother would have said. In 2004, Koonin was headhunted by BP as chief scientist to guide the company's long-range technology strategy in alternative and renewable energy sources. In 2009, he was recruited to the Obama White House as Under Secretary for Science, a position requiring Senate confirmation. Two years later, he moved to the Institute for Defense Analyses doing similar work, and to his current position at NYU a year after that. He has served on numerous advisory bodies for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy and its various national laboratories, including the JASON defense advisory group, of which he was chair. His research interests include theoretical nuclear, many-body, and computational physics, nuclear astrophysics, and global environmental science, about which he’s published 50 papers in peer reviewed journals by my rough count.
Summary
While remaining a firm believer that the planet is warming due to human activity, Dr Koonin has become increasingly dismayed by the cavalier, and at times frankly deceitful, ways in which “The Science” is presented to the public, both in the media and by various of his peers, as a done deal, which portends an imminent crisis of civilisation unless radical intervention is undertaken very soon. Here he sifts through much of the actual science with a small “s” as published, highlighting the often sketchy foundations of “The Science” promoted to lay people as proven fact to goad them and their political masters into actions whose logic and wisdom are far from clear. There is much about real science that is “unsettled,” and always will be. That’s why scientists do science, and why we all need those scientists to keep doing that science objectively on our behalf.
Dr K writes that when he worked in industry, they referred to the goal of eliminating carbon emissions entirely as “challenging.” When he worked for the government, they called it “an opportunity.” Now back in academia, he believes zero carbon emissions are “realistically impossible,” for a host of reasons. We should reduce them if we can, but we need a plan B as well. His involves geoengineering and adaptation, but he is eager to hear about novel ideas and technologies.
Writing
Clear, readily understandable for an intelligent, interested adult without specific qualification in the science discussed.
Bottom line
I have little doubt there are climate evangelists out there who will dismiss this book and its author as “denialist.” They probably already have, in most if not all cases without actually reading it, which kind of the point Dr Koonin seeks to make. The dude is baller, totally. Dismiss him at your peril.