Mark Maslin

The book amounts to a series of bullet points, backed up by further references, these further references took up over 40% of the book according to the information on my kindle. Bullet points perhaps for an audience with a short attention span, some of the points are recycled as one page only images, so as to further grab the attention of the reader. In his preface Mark Maslin says he wanted to write a book that makes people feel smarter, more knowledgable and empowered to act: this is a book show more you can quote in the pub or at a dinner party or even in parliament.

There is nothing radically wrong with a book like this although it does feel more like a pamphlet. It was just not the right book for me. There was nothing here that I did not already know and I found the one sentence bullet point annoying me fairly quickly. If you are the sort of person who like to quote newspaper headlines in an argument then this is the book for you. It provides links in its reference section for those people who wish to explore further: I was intrigued to follow the link to the company website for BP which has an aim of attaining net zero carbon emissions by 2050. All quite laudable but probably too little far too late. I could not help noticing the language and the bullet point feel of their website to be very similar to Mark Maslin's book.

As a quick reference guide I think the book works well enough. Don't expect any radical solutions here, or much of a call to arms, but as a middle of the road compendium of where we are and what needs to be done it serves its purpose and so 3.5 stars. show less

A brief and helpful introduction to climate change.

It is weak on suggested solutions. In part this is because the author fails to recognize the complexity of finding equitable and agreed upon solutions. Those who debate the solutions presented by the author are labeled climate change deniers. It’s seems to me very few people deny climate change today, but rather they differ on the way to combat it. If we are to make progress, we must avoid demonizing other viewpoints, listen to each other show more and work towards a consensus solution. So many strategies to combat climate change have failed because political parties have failed to listen to each other’s concerns work together to address the issue. show less

Finally finished this mother fucker. Really excellent but I just kept reading it in one-chapter-chunks and getting distracted by other stuff. Influential on my thinking, my understanding of the world.

Some months ago, after a particularly outrageous (but slickly produced) "documentary" on the TV about climate change and why it "wasn't" a problem, I realised that I could no longer remember as many details about climate change as I wished. I decided a short refresher was in order and turned to a number of websites, plus this book and also the "Rough Guide to Climate Change".
As a short introduction this one's not bad, but actually I feel it falls uncomfortably between a number of stools - show more it comes across as too scientific for a newcomer to the area, but insufficiently detailed to someone like myself looking to refresh their memory. I think the same can be said of the extent to which it deals with the social, political and economic implications of climate change too.
Contrary to expectations I found the Rough Guide to be the better book (though not perfect; I may review it later), with more exploration of the issues and implications and clearer and more relevant presentation of the science. Others may disagree. (I may change my mind too after I have completed a science course this year). show less