We all need hope, and one of the ways of finding it is to realise that many apparently hopeless environmental problems have been sorted out by human ingenuity and determination. That’s what this book does with five detailed examples: smog, ozone depletion, pesticides, lead and those greenhouse gases called HFCs. And the last chapter makes the case that we can do the same or similar for climate change.
It’s a very fine book written by an eminent American scientist and environmentalist with masses of experience of making a difference herself and of seeing how others have done it. Reading this book is reading the considered thoughts of someone who understands how things have happened and how they can happen again, and she really understands those things because in many cases she was ‘in the room’ when they happened.
Can we crack climate change? We need to, and giving up the struggle won’t solve the problem. If you feel your resolve needs a bit of stiffening then read this book.
As the author is American, and she works at MIT, and the publisher is American, and the three glowing quotes on the back of the book come from Americans of whom most Brits won’t have heard, then don’t be surprised that this is an American-leaning view of international efforts. I found that an advantage rather than the opposite because I learned much about the American system and the way the games are played there.
This is a valuable and uplifting book.
The cover? That appears to be the Earth, but i prefer my planet undiced. I’d give it 7/10.
Solvable: how we healed the Earth, and how we can do it again by Susan Solomon is published by Chicago.
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