Ask HN: What is the best book on the climate problem and solutions? Hey HN! Asking here as I trust your judgement. What's the best and objective book for understanding climate change, the main sources of carbon and feasibility of potential solutions? Thanks! |
Proposed solutions are pretty much nonexistent/irrelevant because it's not a scientific question anymore but a matter of political will, and the pendulum keeps going back and forth between the reds and the blues with essentially nothing getting done over the years. Various authors range from optimistic to doom and gloom but in the end they are just speculating on things that will not get implemented.
[1] https://www.ipcc.ch/working-group/wg3/
[2] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-g...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Avoid-Climate-Disaster-Breakthr...
Description: "The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world "
After it was released in 2017 it got enough buzz that a non-profit called Project Drawdown was created to continue the effort. https://drawdown.org/
In terms of feasibility for potential solutions, there are different facets: is it supported by scientific evidence? is it feasible from an engineering perspective? then the trickier one: is it feasible politically (at a national level or internationally)? if not currently politically feasible, what is a pathway for the solution to become politically feasible in future? I'm not well read enough to suggest a good book that digs into this.
An anecdote:
in last month's economist/yougov poll of 1500 US adult citizens who respond to lengthy surveys [2], people were asked "How important are the following issues to you?" -- there's data for 14 issues, ranging from "health care" to "foreign policy", including "climate change & the environment". If issues are ranked by the percentage of respondents who say the issue is "very important", "climate change and the environment" is ranked 12th out of 14, with 44% of respondents saying it is very important -- placing ahead of abortion (43%) and trailing immigration (46%). The three issues deemed "very important" by the most respondents were healthcare (68%), jobs and the economy (67%) and national security (62%).
When people are asked to rank what their single most important issue is out of the 14 considered, climate change & the environment ranks 3rd (12%) behind jobs & the economy (17%) and healthcare (16%).
It'd be much more feasible for politicians to do something about climate change if there was broad, bipartisan public support for prioritising solutions ahead of other competing priorities, but at the moment that doesn't seem to be the case, at least in the US.
[1] arbitrary pdf link https://www.lakeheadu.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/53/outl...
[2] Refer to data summarised in 112 and 113 of https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/vtm70v61hq/econToplines.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Collective_Action
> ... published in 1965. It develops a theory of political science and economics of concentrated benefits versus diffuse costs. Its central argument is that concentrated minor interests will be overrepresented and diffuse majority interests trumped, due to a free-rider problem that is stronger when a group becomes larger.
It's not the most cheerful book I've read though.
Not directly on topic but interesting thoughts from someone with a controversially optimistic view of climate change.