Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About the Current Threat--and How to Counter It

by Wallace S. Broecker, Robert Kunzig

The product of a unique collaboration between a pioneering earth scientist and an award-winning science writer, Fixing Climate takes an unconventional approach to the problem of global warming―and offers a possible solution. Hailed by his colleagues as "one of the our greatest living geoscientists," Wallace S. Broecker, a longtime researcher at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, warned about the possible consequences of global warming decades before it became a compelling public issue. Hooked on climate studies since his student days, he has learned, largely through his own findings, that climate does change―naturally, dramatically, and rarely benignly. He also knows from experience that when mankind pushes nature as we are currently doing by dumping some sixty to seventy million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day, climate will change even more dramatically and less benignly. As Broecker points out, if a well-meaning fairy godmother were to turn us all into energy-saving paragons at the stroke of midnight tonight, the resulting reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide might lessen but could not turn aside the great warming tide now headed our way. There is, nonetheless, a glimmer of hope in the development of new technologies that are directed not only at the reduction of carbon dioxide output but also at its harmless disposal.

Genres: Science, Environment, Climate Change, Nonfiction, Sustainability

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2008

About the author

Wallace Smith Broecker (born November 29, 1931 in Chicago is the Newberry Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, a scientist at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a sustainability fellow at Arizona State University. He developed the idea of a global "conveyor belt" linking the circulation of the global ocean and made major contributions to the science of the carbon cycle and the use of chemical tracers and isotope dating in oceanography. Broecker has received the Crafoord Prize and the Vetlesen Prize.

Reviews

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe a little too much of the technical side of the climate change crisis, but not for me. It is nice to have all the facts and they are offered in a way that respects the reader's ability to think things through. This is not a polemic. It is not a "global warming solutions made easy" book. If I had to read one book on the subject it would be this one because the writing is gifted, charming and (at times) humorous...which is also helpful.

[Joseph]

This book is a good primer on the complex field of past and present climate history. While it is a tad technical it manages to convey the uncertainties and risks of “business as usual” impacts on climate change. While unadaptable dire consequences are not likely for a century or more one uncertainty is the risk of sudden catastrophic climate events. Broecker warns against poking the climate beast based on sudden catastrophes in the geologic past.

Final chapters present plausible remedies worth pursuing providing the questionable will and costs become acceptable in time. A cost comparison was made between fossil fuel infrastructure and the cost of infrastructure for carbon sequestration. The flaw, I believe, is that fossil fuel development was driven by desire and greed. That for carbon sequestration would have to be driven by environmental responsibility … a far weaker force. I would summarize the message by quoting Kermit the Frog, “It’s not easy being green.”

[John Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nature is not one plant in a pot, watered and sprayed and fertilized... Nature is a mess, it is competition and poor soil and fungus and drought.

Six of ten stars. I started reading this book back in tenth grade for a research project and found out this literature came in handy. Albeit it proves as a useful weapon in my bibliographical arsenal, after the study, I may have thrown the book somewhere and forgot to finish reading. A year later, it found my way to me, all dusty and full of information.

Fixing Climate by the climatologist W. Broecker and the science writer Robert Kunzig is one feat of endurance. Reading the books requires an intensive background in glacial studies or geology and other areas of studies which gave me a hard time taking in the hard facts. Still, the problem was on me, not on the book. I eventually learned the language and the schemata through pursuing to delve into the book. The key to reading this is sheer interest, it has been my fuel in burning my way through the pages.

Overall, it was very informative. The data that supports the watershed of knowledge in here was not just merely stated but also exhibited. The progress in climate research was told in the eye of the author, adding a biographical feel for the book. I felt like a scientist studying the exponential growth of carbon dioxide in Mauna Loa or a researcher studying ice cores in Greenland because of the in-depth narratives of the life of these climatologists that leads to Climate Change conclusion. And more importantly, the book speaks about something. An important cause that should not be shrugged upon by the skeptic world. Lastly, since the book was published in 2008, I am interested to know what has happened after that. What would be our next countermeasure against this giant climate beast? Not a stick to poke it with, I hope.

...we can no longer expect Mother Earth to take care of us―the planet is ours to run, and we can't retreat from our responsibility to run it wisely. It would be good if our descendants looked back on this challenge we face now as the one that allowed us, as a species, to grow up.

[Nile · Rating 3 out of 5]

So full disclosure off the top (and this is becoming a disturbing pattern): I didn't finish this book. I consider myself a pretty intelligent and educated (bachelor's degree) person who does have some trouble with the hard sciences but this book started out over my head and stayed there (I assume, I tapped out midway through the second or third chapter). I think the mistake (MY mistake) was in reading a review someone had posted where they said this book was a good primer on climate change and I'm sure it is... for Spock. Or a Spock/Lex Luthor hybrid.
I kid but what I'm saying is that this book is not for someone who kind of knows about science and climate change. I would say it would be more appropriate for someone who is already somewhat well versed on the topic or someone who has a background in the hard sciences. Or maybe you're all just smarter than I am which I am will to accept as a possibility since a LOT of the reviews talk about how easy to understand this book is. So I guess I'll go start a tire fire now?

[Paul Lentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A responsible and measured look at indicators of past and present climate change, ranging from early measurements of the thermohaline circuit during the International Geophysical Year to recession of glaciers in New Zealand, today. The scope of the book and the indicators is a powerful confirmation that climate change is real and that it is (and has been) global in scope. This review is of the Kindle edition.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir and climate science primer that’s not very technical. No equations, few diagrams, friendly to the math-phobic.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange climate change book in that it was part biography, part science. I could have done without the biography. However for the layman the science was pretty easy to understand compared to other tomes on the subject. But the book spent a lot of time (half the book) on the ice ages and abrupt climate change, which was the scientists main field of study. (He in fact is the guy whose ideas inspired the film The Day After Tomorrow) I did feel that that was a bit of overkill, they didn't need to reiterate over and over that the climate can change abruptly. In fact not a lot of time was spent on current climate. The saving grace of the book was the addition of the carbon scrubber idea. It sounds great on paper but I have read from other sources (James Hansen the father of global warming so to speak) that this technology will not work or will not be enough. So what is the solution, I have no idea. The book also paints mostly a doom and gloom side of global warming like most of them do, it glossed over the Medieval warming, which I have read elsewhere was a boom time in Europe. In fact it stated out right that today's temperatures are probably higher than then, when in fact other climate scientists have said the opposite. I realize global warming is still a contentious issue which means I can't find a single source that's a balanced look at the issue.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent, in depth review of the current situation with the issue of global warming. In fact the author, who is one of the world’s leading climate scientists, first coined the term “global warming” some three decades ago. ( I took a course from him at Columbia University in geochemistry five decades ago.)
This book is a must read for all those individuals with a concern about the environment of our planet who can handle the scientific and technical topics covered. I think some chemistry and physics study at a college level is sufficient to understand the material.
The book is very clear about what is known and what is not yet known. What is definitely known is that sea level is going to rise and droughts increase around many areas of the globe. What is not known is how rapidly these effects are going to happen. The big risk is it may happen very rapidly. We do know that sea level has risen more than ten feet in less than 100 years in the recent past as earth emerged from the last ice age.
The book then goes into the technical issues and economics of what can be done, and the big problems we face in eliminating carbon dioxide emissions of the developed and undeveloped world.

[Glen Demers · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is light in the area of how to counter climate change, it is an excellent discourse on the history of climate science.
Wally Broecker started out in the then new science of radioactive carbon dating and, using radioactive tracers put in the atmosphere by H-bomb tests, developed the thermalhaline conveyor theory. The book is both by and about him as he develops the carbon and climate theories alongside other prominent scientists.
Robert Kunzig is a science writer and gives the story a great narrative, making the science accessible to the lay reader and keeping the story moving.
Although it been out five years it's still a great book on how scientists around the world discovered how volatile our climate has been in the past and what our dependence on fossil fuels is doing to climate now.

[David Kroodsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The science writing in this book was a joy to read--I found myself impressed with the structures of paragraphs and sentences, and I felt like it was a quality I would not be able to copy. It is part about the life of Wally Broecker, and partially about the development of climate science.

The authors have a very clear idea of how they think we will solve the climate crisis--through sucking carbon out of the air by using ultra-mafic rocks. They might be right--they make a strong case that we won't be able to solve the problem with a silver-bullet like solution like the one they suggest.

[Brian Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A convincing scientific look at why climate chage is real at a time when that question has already been resolved and the debate has shifted on to what to do about it. The author is a climate historian and lays out nicely the evidence for past climate change, how it happened, and what it will look like next go-around if we don't curve co2 concentrations.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, startling, terrifying and reassuring. This is a book on our changing climate that is highly readable and that everyone can understand After reading this book, only oil and coal company executives and people who refuse to look at scientific facts can deny the problems that come with burning fossil fuels.

[J. D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend this as a realistic antidote to despair. A fine thought-provoking study of both the current state of knowledge about anthropogenic climate-change and the possibility of ameliorating the unfortunate outcomes of same.

[Julie]

great intro

[Paulap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting.

[Karel Baloun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summarizes abrupt climate change science, and advocates a global program carbonate sequestration.

[Kevin_ssn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the incredible complexity & history behind climate change.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0429/p1...