Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

Dorman (emer., Evergreen State College) introduces this exceptional, outstandingly useful guide to climate change policies by embracing the goal of bridging the "chasm between [climate] science and policy." Long years of gestation have resulted in the most in-depth and candid layman's review of strategies to counter climate change this reviewer has seen. The book's title reveals Dorman's characteristic humor and strategic approach: of course readers don't want to return to conditions of 56 million years ago when warming brought alligators to what is now the Arctic. The text begins by providing summaries of the risks associated with climate change, including facts and some related myths: civilization depends on energy and fossil fuels now supply most of it; a slow, steady reduction in emissions won't work; acceleration is essential but will be difficult and costly; ideologically motivated talk about a hypothetical green economy is unhelpful. Finally, five models for stabilizing global climate are shown to be nearly unfeasible without calling on negative emissions, i.e., combining bioenergy sources with carbon burial or geoengineering to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The first part of the book is brilliant and witty. Later discussion evolves into careful analysis, including complexities that make greater demands on the reader, drawing substantively on Dorman's native economic expertise.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.