How to Change Minds About Our Changing Climate

by Seth Darling, Doug Sisterson

The essential climate-debate handbook—everything you need to know about climate science to change minds.

Have you ever heard someone say that climate change is simply the result of natural cycles? Or that there can’t be global warming because it still gets so cold out? While the claims climate-change deniers make can seem, on their surface, quite plausible, they simply don’t hold up against the evidence: Beyond a shadow of a doubt, science proves that climate change is real and primarily human-driven. But the next time a skeptic puts you on the spot, will you know what to say to end the argument?

How to Change Minds About Our Changing Climate dismantles all the most pernicious misunderstandings using the strongest explanations science has to offer. Armed with airtight arguments, you’ll never be at a loss for words again—no matter how convincing or unexpected the misconception you’re faced with. And with our planet’s future in our hands, the time to change minds is now: The sooner we can agree, once and for all, that climate change is a significant threat to our well-being, the sooner we can start to do something about it.

Genres: Science, Environment, Nonfiction, Climate Change

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2014

Reviews

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is your response the next time a syndicated columnist in your local newspaper, or a cable news hack, or your Uncle Bob posits that climate change is just a conspiracy (against whom, I've never been able to figure out)?

The trouble with this book is that it is just a little too smart for its own good. Each response to a climate change denial goes on for several dense pages of scientific explanations and stats. Nuanced arguments with supporting facts have no place, unfortunately, on cable and radio news debate shows, which have all the intelligence and subtlety of fighting with your drunk uncle at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Most people just shout bumper-sticker slogans at each other and then we're on to commercials.

The deep disappointment in this book is that, despite statements like "methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide," the author refuses to acknowledge the major contributor of these nasty greenhouse gases. Here's a hint: It's what's for dinner.

Environmentalists' refusal to discuss the livestock industry's considerable impact upon our Earth and climate has been mentioned before; in fact, an entire documentary film has been made about it. Yet the author never mentions dietary choices and instead makes statements like:

The only true solution to climate disruption is to reduce our use of fossil fuels significantly.

Ok, fair enough, and few but coal and oil industry execs would disagree. Yet why is it fine and dandy for environmentalists to call for the entire restructuring of society, yet asking people to put down the cheeseburger is still just too scary?

[Justin Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easily accessible book for those who often spar with climate denialists. Or as this book calls them, skeptics. One thing they never use are political labels. Often times the denialists are of the conservative side. Nuclear energy is refused by the liberal side. This is probably a good thing as to make the book neutral.

They cover a lot of myths in here. Many of which I had never heard. But all of them are tackled in an easy to understand way. This is not a scholarly publication by any means. Strictly an addition to the conversation for those looking to handle skeptics or denialism. I was generous and gave it five stars because I think simplicity in approach worked in this case!

[Ig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Je vais devoir relire ce livre pour assimiler tout ce que j'y ai appris. Très bonne vulgarisation scientifique qui défait tout les arguments des climatonégationnistes! Par contre, les auteurs croient que la solution réside seulement dans les énergies renouvelables.

[Mary Van Opstal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book because it focuses on arguments and the evidence that is there and the claims one can make without backing up their claim or by cherry picking data. It brings up a lot of myths and claims. It feels like a book I could refer to if needed!

[Micke Goteman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A super clear and well articulated breakdown of the details of climate change, the problems with skepticism, and the patients walk through the whole complete picture. I'm going to try to share this book with some friends and see if they're willing to engage with it. But even just for me this was so helpful in giving me a better understanding of things, and putting arguments in context.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Skeptics standing in the way of solutions are asking us to stick our heads in the sand."p211

I am not a skeptic and I am not the target audience for this book precisely since this book held nothing new for me as I have written on this topic many many times before. However, anything on the topic interests me. Unfortunately I found this particular book tedious and lacking seriousness. Honestly it felt more like propaganda for non-skeptics and that just left a poor taste in my mouth. Science does not take sides, it just presents the facts.

All of the attempts at making it layman and I don't know, readable?, made it difficult to read. The level of red ink I would have taken to this was ridiculous.I know scientists are not known for their writing abilities but they should have been able to do better than this. There were far too many poor attempts at humor, seemingly hand-drawn diagrams and exclamation points everywhere. Exclamations do not belong in serious scientific writings, every time I saw one I cringed. There was also a lack of high-brow writing, with the authors choosing to use words such as "stuff" to refer to natural gas etc.

"For example, for the most recent complete assessment report (2007), there were more than eight hundred contributing authors. (Makes you wonder if the IPCC's Nobel Peace Prize was for peacefully figuring our in what order to put all their names!)" p30

"So what sort of thing might make the polyps kick the algae out? It's not cheating with their best friend, if that's what you were thinking." p62

Painful.

I also found the number of parentheses distracting, such as (we'll discuss that in chapter 13), and it made the arguments feel disjointed. I particularly found the following tendency annoying:

seventy billion (that's with a "b")

Nearly every time a billion or trillion was mentioned the authors made a point to include a parentheses reinforcing which letter came before -illion.

In terms of the actual science rather than the writing, I did not feel as though the arguments were very concise. The distracting writing style certainly added but the authors chose to use more layman explanations that were little better than skeptic claims. Where was their evidence? Yes, they stated information found over the years but why not include specific studies and their findings? Simply telling the audience findings that support climate change will not convince a skeptic, they truly have their heads in the sand. I wish there had been more specific science, studies included and just something to bolster their arguments. They did not need to convince me, they need to be able to convince skeptics. I know many of the studies they took the information from, I've read the actual studies. Why not include them??

Overall not a well-written book by any means, a frustrating read for me in general. I think they needed someone with writing skills and knowledge of climate change to look this over, it appears this step was skipped.

Notable statements:

"Nearly all skeptics arguments are based on a common error: cherry-picking pieces of data without seeing the big picture." p11

"There is an important role for skepticism in science, but skeptics' arguments regarding climate change are usually governed more by money and politics than by the rules of scientific reasoning and consensus." p11

"Of the forty-eight contiguous states, thirty have warmed by more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970, and seventeen have warmed by 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit or more." p87

"Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, a former Saudi Arabian oil minister, famously said in 1973, "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones." p210

Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley & publisher in exchange for an honest review. (They may regret this.) Any and all quotes were taken from an advanced edition subject to change in the final edition.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this book was written in a foreign language. The authors did their best to make it accessible, but I didn’t understand much of it. It has been nearly 50 years since I was in a science classroom, so I couldn’t follow it. “Aerobic, isotope, surface-mass variations, radiant energy, irradiance” are terms I’d struggle to define. When such words are the basis for scientific and mathematical explanations, I’m pretty lost. I’d like to think that if I were in a classroom with a prof who went really, really slowly, I’d be able to follow them. But when reading in my arm chair, I don’t. That is a negative. Another negative is that the objections raised by their model skeptic, Brad, are likewise difficult to follow. Skeptics whom I know would never make such objections.

So why did I rate the book as highly as I did? One, for the little that I learned. I love the phrase “anthropogenic causes” and hope to use someday. A couple big take aways were that skeptics tend to cherry pick their data and skeptics confuse weather and climate. Those broad issues made sense to me. Two, I loved the cartoons. I’ve copied them. They are good visual summaries for a non-scientist like me. Three, these authors are funny! I loved their asides and footnotes. Finally, they give me a glimpse of the complexity of the issue. That would give me something to talk about with climate change skeptics. I’ve seen again and again recently that humans, including me, can’t seems to grasp complex issues. People can’t grasp climate issues, political issues, COVID-19 issues. Since they can’t get their minds around them, the issues become reduced to simple black and white comparisons. So most of us look foolish. I’d tell skeptics to read this book and then we could discuss the topic. Skeptics never will, so that would end the argument. Whew!

[Gavin Esdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent content, although the title is a bit of a misnomer.

This is a very concise and surprisingly accessible little book that outlines and debunks nearly every argument that skeptics like to trot out against climate change, providing the background and science necessary to understand why the climate is changing, how, and how we know what the causes and effects are. The authors have done a good job of condensing a huge amount of information into this little book, and for someone curious about some of the skeptics' arguments, it's certainly worth a read.

I do have a minor issue with the pretense of the book, as experience has shown that unfortunately, throwing all of the science at a climate-change denier is provably NOT going to change their mind, much to my (and presumably the authors') chagrin. I can probably make the safe assumption that those in most need of reading this book are those most likely those who will not do so. However, that's hardly the fault of the authors themselves, who still deserve the credit for exercising the patience necessary to tackle many of the (often exasperating) claims that purport to deny the realities of climate change.

It's a good read, especially if you accept climate change but are curious about some of the skeptical arguments. It probably won't change your mind (read Anna Rose's book Madlands for a good story about how this kind of process plays out in reality) but it is informative and fun all the same!

[Gemini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book is truly insightful there is so much to wrap your head around. It is a bit funny on how he doesn't just write about stuff but does it in a manner like you're actually speaking to a person who's mind you need to change. I had no idea there was a difference in what global warming & climate change are, but that is explained here which is great. The amount of things that you learn in this book are profound so it really makes sense to check it out. Every now & again I found some parts of the chapters hard to figure out so I would reread the sentence/paragraph. You don't need to have a PhD in science or anything but there were just a few things that were perplexing to me. At the same time there were things mentioned that I already knew, like how methane is actually worse than carbon dioxide for the environment. The important thing is also how this book makes you think- that's what really makes a difference-which will be helpful when you're having conversations with people.

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read, and clearly explained, the arguments of climate skeptics are debunked one by one in this important book. Each explanation is backed by well researched scientific reasoning.
Excellent resource.

[Lori Hodges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent comprehensive look at climate change, myths and the science that debunks those myths.

[Jonathan Gamboa]

can you tell me the topic of this book pleasse

[Loukidelis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear discussion of the science. The economic stuff is weaker.

[STEPHEN PLETKO!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

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A CLIMATE CHANGE DENIER’S NIGHTMARE

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“[In this book], we aim to provide a response to the plethora of skeptic misconceptions that inundate the media and blogosphere.

Using clear and accessible explanations of what we do and don’t know about the science, we hope to equip readers with the tools to distinguish fact from fiction, to see through the smoke and mirrors, and to understand what needs to be done to address climate change and why.

You don’t need a degree in science to understand the basic principles of climate change, but you do need to have some facts straight—facts that we’re confident you’ll have at hand after reading this book.”

The above quote (in italics) comes from the introduction of this book by Seth Darling and Douglas Sisterson. Darling is a scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in Illinois. Sisterson is a senior manager at the ANL for the US Department of Energy’s Climate Research Facility. Both authors have received the University of Chicago’s Pinnacle of Education Award.

What this easy-to-read book does is to scientifically examine fourteen claims common among climate change skeptics.

Here are just five of the fourteen skeptic claims that are examined:

(1) There is no consensus.

(2) Who says climate change is such a bad thing? (Climate change is any significant change in the measures of climate [such as temperature, precipitation and humidity] lasting for an extended period of time [such as several decades or centuries]. Many people confuse this with “global warming” which is the phenomenon of rising average temperatures around the planet.)

(3) Climate is too complex to model or predict. (Climate is not the same as weather. Weather is what you get day to day. Measures of weather include temperature, humidity, and precipitation. Climate is the average of weather measured over many decades, usually a thirty-year period.)

(4) There’s no link between carbon dioxide and global temperature. (Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.)

(5) Renewable energy is too expensive or too variable. (Renewables include solar and wind.)

I said above that fourteen skeptic claims are examined in this book. Actually, what I meant to say is that there are fourteen major skeptic claims that require an in-depth scientific analysis.

A chapter in this book examines eleven minor skeptic claims that can be easily explained and thus can be lumped into one chapter. An example of a minor skeptic claim found in this book is as follows:

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), rather than carbon dioxide, are the primary cause of climate change.

Thus, in effect, this book examines a total of twenty-five skeptic claims.

Finally, excellent illustrations permeate this book. My favourite is entitled, “Greenhouse Effect.” It has the following caption:

“The sun’s rays heat up the Earth’s surface, which then emits longwave radiation back toward space. Some of that radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases, and some of that radiation is then reemitted back down to the surface.”

In conclusion, besides the science, this book has taught me that skeptics and deniers come up with quite an assortment of arguments in an attempt to draw attention away from the fact that climate change is occurring, that it’s serious, and that human activity may be a major cause of it.

The sooner we can agree that climate change is a significant threat to our well-being, the sooner we can do something about it!

(2014; introduction; prologue; 5 parts or 15 chapters; epilogue; main narrative 185 pages; acknowledgements; index; about the authors)

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[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely worth a read - sets the facts straight and provides solutions. At times the science is a bit complex for the layperson and a summary should have been included at the end of each chapter but there are some helpful “image summaries” throughout. Certainly makes one feel more confident to address common misunderstandings.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for weather and climate understanding. Time for an update, considering disasters in 2021; wildfires globally, floods, persistent storm tracks ruining businesses and homeowners. Learn the difference between persistent weather, and the 30-year periods that have measured climate since the 14th century.

I avoid partisanship if I can. What about global pandemics? Take a bus trip through central Norway, and see the names of villages that translate to the number of survivors (3, 11), where at least four deliberate acts of war in Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries went out of control. Is that what we are up against in the U.S. Congress, Florida, and Texas, where free speech is against the law?

[Derek Postlewaite · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because I've sparred with a few people on this subject, I had to pick this up when I spotted it at my local library. It's a good book that starts swinging from the beginning, tackling the most common myths about climate change that are perpetuated by skeptics, who quite frankly, usually label themselves "conservative". The authors never even mention that word in the book, which I appreciated, because I think its absence prevented the alienation of right-wingers. They kept it simple: there is the majority that trusts in the scientists and the science, and there are the skeptics.

There were a bunch of myths that I had not even heard of before, so it appears the authors covered them all. No stone was left unturned, and I feel much more educated on the subject and prepared for the next climate change debate, which after all, was the objective of the authors! A good read, though a bit scientific and technical at times, which is hard to fault the authors for, considering skeptics claim that the science isn't settled, but as a history teacher, I found some of the stuff to go right over my head. At the very least, pick it up and read the first 50 pages and then enlighten your head in the sand father-in-law with your wisdom!

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of good information and successfully debunked many popular myths about climate change. However, this book isn't really good in the way it was advertised. The explanations they give are usually complex and have a lot of scientific jargon. Even if one could manage to remember or memorize these arguments, I doubt any climate change skeptic you were talking to would listen as they would probably lose interest and stop paying attention as you spoke. The book would have been way better if at the end of each chapter they summarized it in a way that would be easier to explain.

[John Kaufmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information. It covers a lot of ground about climate change. However, it is not comprehensive - there are holes. And it is not necessarily linear, starting with the basic and working toward the more detailed and complex. That's not what the book is meant to be. It is meant to help prepare one to see through the deceptive and cherry-picked arguments of the climate skeptics and deniers - and that it does reasonably well.

[Rob Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

The right amount of wit and humour mixed in with some easy to understand science. Other comments seem unhappy that there's science in it - but to paraphrase the authors (who are paraphrasing themselves) Ignoring it doesn't make it less true - or relevant. Without a basic understanding of how we know - *Know* - we're really only shouting "bumpersticker slogans" at each other, which changes nothing. People need to inform themselves, and this book is a great entry point.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read to help debunk all the climate change myths that are so prevalent. The authors take us through each myth, show what the real deal is, scientifically, in a easy to read, engaging and often humorous manner. Definitely recommend this book for everyone, supporter or denier... should be on everyone's must read list.