Recently, Time has been selling a heavily illustrated
paperback “Global Warming: The Causes, The Perils, The Solutions”, by Bryan
Walsh and other Time correspondents, in retail outlets like supermarkets. The
book has 112 pages, heavily illustrated with gloss photographs.
It does reiterate, with even more arguments, the substance
of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”.
Bryan starts out with a piece, “How hot does it have to get?” It analyzes the idea that we might be able to
tolerate a carbon level of 450 ppm, but warns that recent information says that
we can tip over at a much lower number. And there are some grave risks that can
materialize suddenly, such as the release of methane from permafrost. Climate change tends to affect people
unpredictably by causing extreme events, such as superstorms with floods or
extreme droughts. It tends to affect
poor people much more.
Some of the focal points include extinction of species (such
as in Madagascar) and detailed analysis of deeper fossil fuels, including oil
shale and tar sands.
The last part of the book starts with technological
solutions, which sound like piecemeal, local measures like fuel cells, electric
cars, green buildings., and solar powers.
The last page of the book is “20 things you can do”, and top among these
are carpooling, telecommuting, and living in large cities, particularly if you
have a small family. Universal use of
wind and solar panels by homeowners or buildings could not only reduce
greenhouse gasses but decentralize the grid and make it more robust. A smart grid could detect inefficiencies,
even though it would be a lot more vulnerable to hackers or terrorists. Near the
end of the book there is a sensitive essay by Bill McKibben, “Children of a Hot
Planet”.
The book casts questions of global climate re-engineering
with ideas like the (Intellectual Ventures) Mhyrvold StratoShield, which would
pump sulfur aerosol particles into the stratosphere. These could “blowback” with suddenly catastrophic
results.
Sociology would seem to have some effect on the
sustainability of our way of life (and not doing it on the backs of the Third
World, which is more vulnerable to many perils, especially drought and seal
level rise). The book is critical of population of expansion, and does not take
up right wing (“demographic winter”) arguments that richer people often are not
replacing their populations and allowing poorer populations do the job or
providing the next generations. The book does present the idea that people
need to drive much less and maybe give up car ownership, and idea that so far
has been workable only in cities with very dense public transit (like
NYC). Car sharing (like ZipCar) can
help. It presents the community of Vauban,
Germany where private carports would cost $30000 a year. There is a suggestion that people could have
to start learning the values of “intentional communities”. (ABC's story about Vauban in 2009, by Jim Sciutto, is here.)
The book also takes the position that consumers need to
know, on a “pay as you go” basis, the carbom footprint cost of every little
thing they do. Perhaps I would not be
able to rent sole-occupant cars on my own (at least non-hybrids).
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