The new climate war : the fight to take back our planet /
Michael E. Mann.
Summary:
Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the tactics that we've been told can slow climate change.
But most of these recommendations are a result of a multi-pronged marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals.
Fossil fuel companies have followed the example of other industries deflecting blame (think "guns don't kill people, people kill people") or greenwashing (think of the beverage industry's "Crying Indian" commercials of the 1980s).
Meanwhile, they've blocked efforts to regulate or price carbon emissions, run PR campaigns aimed at discrediting viable alternatives, and have abdicated their responsibility in fixing the problem they've created. The result has been disastrous for our planet.
In The New Climate War, Mann argues that all is not lost.
He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters -- fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petrostates.
And he outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change, including:
- a common-sense, attainable approach to carbon tax -- an overhaul of the flawed Green New Deal;
- allowing renewable energy to compete fairly against fossil fuels
- debunking the false narratives and arguments that have worked their way into the climate debate and driven a wedge between even those who support climate change solutions how to combat climate doomism
With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won't happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward.
This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet.
Author: Mann, Michael E., 1965-, author.
Contents:
- The architects of misinformation and misdirection --
- The climate wars --
- The "crying Indian" and the birth of the deflection campaign --
- It's YOUR fault --
- Put a price on it. Or not --
- Sinking the competition --
- The non-solution solution --
- The truth is bad enough --
- Meeting the challenge.
The New Climate War
_cover.jpg) | |
| Author | Michael E. Mann |
|---|---|
| Subject | Climate change |
| Publisher | PublicAffairs |
Publication date | 12 January 2021 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 368 pp (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 978-1-541-75822-3 |
The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet is a 2021 book on climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann. In the book, Mann discusses the actions of the fossil fuel industry to delay action on climate change, the responses to climate change that he considers inadequate, and the responses he considers the best. The book received positive reviews. Mann argued in an interview with Rolling Stone's Jeff Goodell that a "clean energy revolution and climate stabilization are achievable with current technology. All we require are policies to incentivize the needed shift."
Background[edit]
Mann's famous "hockey stick" graph led to death threats and online attacks. He later became an expert in disinformation campaigns of the fossil fuel industry. He explained that the book's title comes from his view that
1] there was an old climate war of "assault on the basic science of climate change by fossil fuel interests" and
2] there is now a new war (due to the impacts of climate change no longer being subtle), with opponents of climate action having different tactics like
- "getting climate advocates fighting with each other so that we don’t present a unified voice,
- demanding change [...] deflecting attention away from the needed systemic solutions or policy solutions to [focus instead on] individual behavior."[1]
While Goodell said that much of the left had come to view carbon pricing as "basically a kind of neoliberal scheme that will enrich Wall Street and inevitably be corrupted by politics":
Mann wrote that "really all of the solutions that we’re talking about are market economics", and also listed the Montreal Protocol in the past as a reason for optimism about carbon pricing.
---
탄소가격제(carbon pricing)는 탄소 배출에 가격을 부여하는 것으로 각국 정부가 기업과 같은 배출주체에 온실가스 배출로 인한 외부성 비용을 부담시키는 규제 수단으로 활용되고 있다.
===
However, the climatologist also stated that humanity may need to rethink the basic conceptual model for modern economies because "[there] is a larger conversation to be had about whether we can continue on this path of increasing resource extraction and consumption in a sustainable manner." He also said the Green New Deal won't occur in 2021 or 2022: "We’ll get past the pandemic. A year or two down the road, it’ll be in our rearview mirror, but we will still be fully immersed in an even greater crisis, which is the climate crisis. And hopefully, having gone through this pandemic, this crisis will provide us an opportunity to think about how we solve this even larger crisis."
Mann criticized the Trump administration but said enough was "happening at the state level, states that support action, companies, cities, municipalities, that we did make some progress [...] we need to make up that lost ground over the next several years. And the Biden administration seems to be doing everything they can to help make that happen."[1]
Summary[edit]
The New Climate War consists of nine sections, along with acknowledgements, notes, and an index.
1-2] "The Architects of Misinformation and Misdirection" and "The Climate Wars" outline the history of climate change denial.[2]
3] The third chapter, "The 'Crying Indian’ and the Birth of the Deflection Campaign", details how forces of denial and delay (such as fossil fuel companies, right-wing partisans, media and talking heads, and oil-funded governments) use deflection to defeat disliked policies.
4] "It's YOUR Fault" is about the strategy to "keep the conversation around individual responsibility, not systemic change or corporate culpability", noting such things as Russian trolls' and bots' attacks on Hillary Clinton, and bot-produced tweets to increase the level of denialism in online discourse about climate crisis.
5] The fifth chapter ("Put a Price on It. Or Not.") criticizes the subsidies granted to the fuel industry. Mann advocates a price on carbon emissions as well as supply-side measures like a fracking ban and blocks on pipeline construction.
6] In "Sinking the Competition", he supports incentives for renewable energy and elimination of incentives for fossil fuels.
7] In chapter seven ("The Non-Solution Solution"), the author dismisses responses like natural gas, carbon capture, and geo-engineering as inadequate, and describes a number of notions of opponents of climate action (such as bridge fuels, clean coal, adaptation, and resilience) as "empty promises".[2]
8] In "The Truth Is Bad Enough", Mann criticizes some environmentalists as exaggerating the climate threat.
9] The final chapter, "Meeting the Challenge", contains a four-point plan of:
- "Disregard the Doomsayers",
- "A Child Shall Lead Them",
- "Educate, Educate, Educate", and
- "Changing the System Requires Systemic Change".[2]
Mann argues that individual actions like less meat-eating, less travel, and more recycling are beneficial but insufficient, and that the economy must be decarbonized. The climate scientist also describes himself as cautiously optimistic given youth activism and the rapid development of green technologies.[3]
Reception[edit]
Jeff Masters wrote in Yale Climate Connections that The New Climate War "could benefit from more graphics and cartoons as complements to its 267 pages of text. Overall, though, the book still is a must-read for every climate-savvy and climate-dependent. (Only air breathers need apply!)"[2]
New Scientist's Richard Schiffman stated, "With the major COP26 UN climate summit due to be held later this year in Glasgow, UK, Mann’s call to get serious about climate change couldn’t be more timely. Let’s hope he is right that the tide is finally about to turn."[3]
Adrienne Hollis wrote that "the book ties together every action and every inaction that has affected the fight to protect Earth from the adverse consequences of climate change. Mann is transparent about times when those who fight for climate action have fallen short". She described the book as "a must read not just for people currently working to address climate change but also for those who are new to the climate fight, the latter of whom will learn much about past challenges, struggles, and attacks".[4]
Carolyn Gramling argued in Science News, "The New Climate War’s main focus is to combat psychological warfare, and on this front, the book is fascinating and often entertaining. It’s an engrossing mix of footnoted history, acerbic political commentary and personal anecdotes."[5]
A reviewer in Kirkus Reviews dubbed it a "blunt, lucid work of climate politics [...] Consistently displaying his comprehensive command of climate science and the attendant politics, he clearly walks readers through the disingenuous arguments about" a number of policies and trends related to climate crisis.[6]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Goodell, Jeff (2021-01-08). "RS Interview: Climate Scientist Michael Mann". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
- ^ a b c d Masters, Jeff (2021-01-25). "Scientist Mike Mann's must-read book, 'The New Climate War' » Yale Climate Connections". Yale Climate Connections. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
- ^ a b Schiffman, Richard (2021-01-19). "The New Climate War review: Reasons to be optimistic about the future". New Scientist. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
- ^ Hollis, Adrienne (2021-01-12). "Fossil fuel advocates may have added strategic inaction to their arsenal, but there is reason for climate optimism". Science. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
- ^ Gramling, Carolyn (2021-01-15). "'The New Climate War' exposes tactics of climate change 'inactivists'". Science News. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
- ^ "THE NEW CLIMATE WAR | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus Reviews.
The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet
by
4.14 · Rating details · 64 ratings · 23 reviews
A renowned climate scientist shows how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change, and offers a battle plan for how we can save the planet.
Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we've been told can slow climate change. But the inordinate emphasis on individual behavior is the result of a marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals.
Fossil fuel companies have followed the example of other industries deflecting blame (think "guns don't kill people, people kill people") or greenwashing (think of the beverage industry's "Crying Indian" commercials of the 1970s). Meanwhile, they've blocked efforts to regulate or price carbon emissions, run PR campaigns aimed at discrediting viable alternatives, and have abdicated their responsibility in fixing the problem they've created. The result has been disastrous for our planet.
In The New Climate War, Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters-fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petrostates. And he outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change, including:
A common-sense, attainable approach to carbon pricing- and a revision of the well-intentioned but flawed currently proposed version of the Green New Deal;
Allowing renewable energy to compete fairly against fossil fuels
Debunking the false narratives and arguments that have worked their way into the climate debate and driven a wedge between even those who support climate change solutions
Combatting climate doomism and despair-mongering
With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won't happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward. This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet. (less)
Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we've been told can slow climate change. But the inordinate emphasis on individual behavior is the result of a marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals.
Fossil fuel companies have followed the example of other industries deflecting blame (think "guns don't kill people, people kill people") or greenwashing (think of the beverage industry's "Crying Indian" commercials of the 1970s). Meanwhile, they've blocked efforts to regulate or price carbon emissions, run PR campaigns aimed at discrediting viable alternatives, and have abdicated their responsibility in fixing the problem they've created. The result has been disastrous for our planet.
In The New Climate War, Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters-fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petrostates. And he outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change, including:
A common-sense, attainable approach to carbon pricing- and a revision of the well-intentioned but flawed currently proposed version of the Green New Deal;
Allowing renewable energy to compete fairly against fossil fuels
Debunking the false narratives and arguments that have worked their way into the climate debate and driven a wedge between even those who support climate change solutions
Combatting climate doomism and despair-mongering
With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won't happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward. This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet. (less)
Showing 1-59
4.13 ·
· 63 ratings · 23 reviews
Jan 16, 2021Leif rated it liked it
I was disappointed. Michael Mann is an important figure and his research has been foundational to understanding global warming. However, his long experiences at the brunt of climate change denialism and his personal friendship with centrist politicians have imparted onto him a warped sense of politics. In Mann's take on the "new climate war", the battle rages between "activists" (such as him, one might conclude) and "inactivists" who seem to be a constellation of fossil fuel representatives, left-leaning politicians, and populists. In fact, one gets the sense that Mann is more distraught at politicians like Bernie Sanders and platforms such as Twitter than at the historical sources of ire such as your more traditional climate change deniers - thus, the "new" climate war.
This is naive. At worst, the rough and ready willingness to attribute "inactivism" to the behaviour of those Mann dislikes merely confuses the issues. It is most strongly misguided when - as is often the case - Mann attributes "inactivism" to Russian interference in politics of all sorts. Mann attributes Bernie Sanders' popularity to Russian trolls; he attributes Canadian opposition to Justin Trudeau and Catharine McKenna to Russian trolls; he speculates whether Michael Moore's misguided and flawed film Planet of the Humans is backed by Russian trolls. He accuses the left-wing opposition to some climate policies, such as was the case in the gillet jaune protests or the Green New Deal opposition to carbon pricing, as trolling or as untenable inactivism. This is paranoia at worst, lazy blame-shifting at best. It seems beyond Mann's comprehension to understand the deep-rooted social and political causes that create real divisions between people, and, as a consequence, he sides with the elite technocracy of neoliberalism.
There are times when Mann's critical expertise is truly interesting and serves a purpose, such as his irate problem-raising of the more hyperbolic voices such as Nathaniel Rich, David Wallace-Wells, and Jem Bendell, all of whose interventions he casts as successes of doom-mongering salesmanship that have distorted scientific findings. And, in fairness, Mann is conscious of the probable interest in writers such as Naomi Klein, but when the chips are down he's not willing to extend beyond market-based policies. In fact, he points at the scientists who are growing discontented with capitalist exploitation as a possible source of inactivism, where he finds that capitalism's skeptics are "divisive" and themselves "exploitable" by fossil fuel interests or other evolved politics of delay and denial.
Ultimately, this is not a book I would recommend. There are certainly interesting sections and I will always make time to read Mann's work, but the speculative quality of his dismissiveness of those who disagree with his implicit politics is a deep, violent flaw in his attempt to describe a "new climate war". (less)
This is naive. At worst, the rough and ready willingness to attribute "inactivism" to the behaviour of those Mann dislikes merely confuses the issues. It is most strongly misguided when - as is often the case - Mann attributes "inactivism" to Russian interference in politics of all sorts. Mann attributes Bernie Sanders' popularity to Russian trolls; he attributes Canadian opposition to Justin Trudeau and Catharine McKenna to Russian trolls; he speculates whether Michael Moore's misguided and flawed film Planet of the Humans is backed by Russian trolls. He accuses the left-wing opposition to some climate policies, such as was the case in the gillet jaune protests or the Green New Deal opposition to carbon pricing, as trolling or as untenable inactivism. This is paranoia at worst, lazy blame-shifting at best. It seems beyond Mann's comprehension to understand the deep-rooted social and political causes that create real divisions between people, and, as a consequence, he sides with the elite technocracy of neoliberalism.
There are times when Mann's critical expertise is truly interesting and serves a purpose, such as his irate problem-raising of the more hyperbolic voices such as Nathaniel Rich, David Wallace-Wells, and Jem Bendell, all of whose interventions he casts as successes of doom-mongering salesmanship that have distorted scientific findings. And, in fairness, Mann is conscious of the probable interest in writers such as Naomi Klein, but when the chips are down he's not willing to extend beyond market-based policies. In fact, he points at the scientists who are growing discontented with capitalist exploitation as a possible source of inactivism, where he finds that capitalism's skeptics are "divisive" and themselves "exploitable" by fossil fuel interests or other evolved politics of delay and denial.
Ultimately, this is not a book I would recommend. There are certainly interesting sections and I will always make time to read Mann's work, but the speculative quality of his dismissiveness of those who disagree with his implicit politics is a deep, violent flaw in his attempt to describe a "new climate war". (less)
Oct 14, 2020David Wineberg rated it it was amazing
Climate change has evolved its own universe, complete with leading characters, heroes, villains, critics, trolls, bots, character assassins, misinformation, misdirection and backroom plots. It is a world largely unknown to most readers, who probably think of it as an argument among scientists. Michael Mann, arguably at the center of the vortex, tries to explain it in The New Climate War.
Mann and his co-authors published the paper showing carbon pollution as a hockey stick, rising sharply after centuries of trivial growth. The name stuck and made their finding famous, and infamous. Attacks began soon after, and have continued – for nearly 25 years now. Mann has a thick skin and deals with it all in its turn. He is fighting the good fight – the one with the data, the sciences and the resolve.
He tackles the naysayers head on. When hears the Green New Deal will cost too much, the answer is inaction will cost far more. He wants everyone to know real progress is being made, doom can be avoided, and sitting on the sidelines is tantamount to criminal negligence.
He is constantly correcting misinformation, as trolls, bots, and conservative politicians are forever pulling a figure out of context and using it to damn the entire issue. Or worse, an incorrect or fraudulent figure. From temperature rise to sea levels, from carbon in the atmosphere to carbon in the oceans, the constant flow of false claims makes scientists in general look bad. It takes total vigilance to get back to a level playing field. Mann says the models have proven reliable, the predictions are coming true, and action is required, right now.
Unfortunately, the Russians make their living selling oil and gas. Between them and American Big Oil, the war with climate science will continue, and it’s a dirty war.
As a child, Mann was inspired by the telegenic Carl Sagan and his Cosmos TV series. He has taken that passion and media-savvy onto his own back, and is constantly on the front lines, battling the climate change deniers, doomsayers and inactivists. He knows all the players, their strengths and weaknesses, their pluses and minuses. A lot of the book is his own reviews of their performances on the global stage. This alone is worth the price of admission, as most of the names, while possibly familiar, are largely unknowns to most readers. Their value or lack thereof is instructive. Readers can now know who to trust and why, at long last. If readers want to know more about Bjorn Lomborg and David Wallace-Wells, and how they present their “findings”, this is the place to look.
The evil villain in this play is the fossil fuel industry, taking its tactics from the tobacco story. “It includes an array of powerful Ds: disinformation, deceit, divisiveness, deflection, delay, despair-mongering, and doomism” he says. And like tobacco, oil’s war chest is bottomless.
It is consciously delaying the inevitable, even as its own scientists and executives acknowledge Big Oil’s responsibility for the climate mess. It influences lawmakers to stave off the alternatives: electric Teslas have been banned in several states at the behest of the fossil fuel industry. It has also promulgated the rumors that wind turbines cause cancer, lower property values and even UFO crashes. Anything to slow the inevitable shrinking of the problem – Big Oil itself.
My own favorite Big Oil tactic is deflection. In deflection campaigns, spokespeople – and bots – claim the industry is not to blame. It is customers who are to blame. It is redolent of the 1920s tactic of guns don’t kill people; people kill people. With the climate, it’s a choice, a lifestyle, a negligence, a luxury. Pick your reason, it is not the fault of the industry. Until and unless everyone in the world changes their way of life, the oil industry doesn’t want to hear about it. This of course has the marvelous effect of generating conflict and promoting finger-pointing, behavior-shaming, virtue-signaling, and purity tests.
One of the results is a new class of players, the inactivists. These are people so upset with what they read from the industry, they withdraw to the sidelines, taking them out of the battle. This is different from the doomists, who claim it is too late so we might as well burn all the carbon we want. The inactivists have sidelined themselves because of the deflection (it is their own fault), and the misinformation (is there any truth to any of it?). Mann seeks to reactivate them with a dose of truth and a positive outcome to cling to.
He explores the arguments around carbon taxes and the fake argument about the Gilets Jaunes in France protesting against theirs. He is also concerned that the left in the USA is coming out against carbon taxes, sometimes adding that America needs a complete banning of fossil fuels, period. Carbon taxes play no role in that scenario.
Mann cites Alex Steffen coining the phrase “predatory delay” by the oil industry, as they seek to extend their revenue stream as long as possible and without further taxes. That the left has bought into this argument is quite stunning. Personally, I still like the quote from Jeff Mulgan (2013): “Communism collapsed because it didn't let prices tell the economic truth, and capitalism will collapse because it didn't let prices tell the ecological truth.” As Mann says, the Paris Accord sees a carbon tax at about $2 per ton, but it would take $75 a ton to achieve the Paris commitments. That’s the extent of the free ride Big Oil has had on the back of the global economy.
Big Oil has the right wing media in its hip pocket. Mann asks: “What’s the real reason that Germany’s solar industry is doing so much better than the solar industry in the United States? Simple: It doesn’t have Fox News, the rest of the Murdoch media, the Koch brothers, and fossil fuel interests all joining forces to destroy it.”
He debunks, for the nth time, geoengineering, in which entrepreneurs want to deploy planet-scale engineering experiments to deflect sunlight and otherwise cool the Earth. Not only will they not work, they are also impossibly expensive and no one has any idea what the unintended consequences will be. Further screwing around with the ecological balance is not the answer. Stopping the use of fossil fuels is the real answer. Worse still, geoengineering can be weaponized, making it into a whole new problem.
Blissfully, Mann’s Conclusion is different from all the other bland and pointless concluding climate change chapters I have reviewed in the past 20 years. Typically, they devote a paragraph to various pilot projects that are climate-friendly, and then express hope that more of these experiments will take place and eventually be rolled out as real options. But that’s all to come – later.
This Conclusion is far more positive. And real. Mann shows how the fossil fuel complex is suffering at the hands of students and finally, of Wall Street. Students have been pressuring their universities to disinvest from fossil fuel firm shares, and the movement is not merely successful, but spreading. Mann says it is over a thousand schools now.
Greta Thunberg and the whole generation of teens who follow her are an existential threat to the biggest industry in the world – fossil fuels. It has said so publicly. They will do anything to discredit her, down to criticizing the boat she took to New York to avoid a flight – because the plastic hull wasn’t recyclable. Clearly, she’s got Big Oil is on the run.
Meanwhile, Wall Street is withholding funding of fossil fuel projects because it is keenly aware of the “transition risk” as more and more energy projects are of the renewable kind. Exxon Mobil was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average because its future prospects won’t help the Dow advance any more.
He also sees staunch Republican deniers coming around. They see the inevitability of action, and are at long last willing to buck the party stalwarts and vote in favor. This has a lot to do with public acceptance, which Mann sees as potentially jumping into a solid majority as more and more catastrophic weather events pile up. Even some of the right wing climate change denying “think tanks” are suffering from withdrawal of support, right down to pathetic attendance at their conferences.
Wind and solar power now account for 250 gigawatts of energy, some 20% of US output, as coal is clearly on its way out in the USA. Even without the levels of subsidies seen elsewhere in the world, renewables have a more than firm footing in the economy.
He also thinks there are lessons being drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic. The deniers have proven to be totally incorrect, while the models and scientists have proven to be reliable. Maybe Americans will actually listen to their climate scientists, too. Mann likens it to the massive increase in support for gay marriage, which happened in a truly remarkable short period. He hopes it can happen again.
I don’t mind saying I have never felt so good about a climate change book before reading The New Climate War.
But let me end with a quote from Mann’s inspiration, Carl Sagan (1996): “I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
This guy got it. And so does Michael Mann.
David Wineberg (less)
Feb 09, 2021Ivana rated it it was amazing
Probably one of the most important climate change books to read in this moment.
Unlike others of Mann's books, this one doesn't focus on the physics/science of climate change. We've already beat that dead horse, and there are plenty of books out there that explain the scientific mechanisms of climate change and how humans accelerate this natural phenomenon.
This books draws the parallels to the "Merchants of Doubt", which is another must-read book if we're to understand how the very few (albeit, very powerful) fossil-fuel companies have swindled humanity and waged one of the most lethal disinformation/deflection campaign in the history of our humanity.
I too have fallen victim to their disinformation campaign, and there were times when I just about gave up on the hope that we can do anything to reverse course, or at least mitigate what is to be a certain catastrophic climate future. Mann talks a lot about doomism, and I am glad I read this book; I learned something new and it made me reconsider and correct how I talk about climate change to friends, family, or the social media community.
All is not lost. Not even close. We still can prevent this catastrophic future I believed was a given (by reading books like 'The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells.
Solutions to climate change predicament are multi-faceted, but one thing that must happen is decarbonization of our energy system. The change has to be systematic, coupled with personal choices each of us makes.
There is hope to be had, and I am glad I read this book. I highly recommend it. (less)
Unlike others of Mann's books, this one doesn't focus on the physics/science of climate change. We've already beat that dead horse, and there are plenty of books out there that explain the scientific mechanisms of climate change and how humans accelerate this natural phenomenon.
This books draws the parallels to the "Merchants of Doubt", which is another must-read book if we're to understand how the very few (albeit, very powerful) fossil-fuel companies have swindled humanity and waged one of the most lethal disinformation/deflection campaign in the history of our humanity.
I too have fallen victim to their disinformation campaign, and there were times when I just about gave up on the hope that we can do anything to reverse course, or at least mitigate what is to be a certain catastrophic climate future. Mann talks a lot about doomism, and I am glad I read this book; I learned something new and it made me reconsider and correct how I talk about climate change to friends, family, or the social media community.
All is not lost. Not even close. We still can prevent this catastrophic future I believed was a given (by reading books like 'The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells.
Solutions to climate change predicament are multi-faceted, but one thing that must happen is decarbonization of our energy system. The change has to be systematic, coupled with personal choices each of us makes.
There is hope to be had, and I am glad I read this book. I highly recommend it. (less)
In a surprisingly optimistic take on progress and potential for slowing the climate crisis, Michael Mann highlights a four point plan to generate political and social momentum in this comprehensive and sharp critique of climate propaganda and uninformed discourse.
1. Disregard the Doomsayers: I never would have predicted that The New Climate War would lessen my climate change-related anxiety, but it did. While emphasizing that the climate crisis is urgent, Dr. Mann also drives home the point that it is still entirely actionable. He highlights environmental policies that have already worked, citing the Montreal Protocol's shrinking effect on the hole in the ozone layer and the Clean Air Act, among others.
2. A Child Shall Lead Them: I felt like this case was not made as strongly as the rest. While he did talk extensively about the attention Greta Thunberg has so effectively brought to the issue, his point here seems to mostly rely on how much of the impact of business-as-usual warming will not be felt for at least another generation, if not two. It seemed to me to kind of let older generations off-the-hook, which seems problematic if you're espousing systemic policy change as the solution when overwhelmingly policy makers are two to three generations ahead of Ms. Thunberg.
3. Educate, Educate, Educate: While climate change deniers absolutely still exist, they are not as plentiful as some media outlets would have you believe. If you try to engage your friends and neighbors on this issue, you may be surprised to find more common ground than you may have anticipated. And for those who decry the cost of climate action, Dr. Mann supplies a slew of talking points to the contrary, including that "Climate change now threatens our economy to the tune of more than a trillion dollars a year," "the greatest opportunity for job growth in the energy industry comes with renewables, not fossil fuels," and that "renewable energy costs are now competitive with fossil fuels--even with the incentives that are currently skewed against them."
4. Changing the System Requires Systemic Change: While supporting several positive impacts of individual action such as veganism and electric vehicles (including health benefits and cost savings) and even referencing entire industries that blame their dramatic losses on the individual action of millennials (like fast-food chains), he really drives home the point that the climate crisis cannot and will not be solved by individual action alone. In his words, "consumer choice doesn't build high-speed railways, fund research and development in renewable energy, or place a price on carbon emissions. Any real solution must involve both individual action and systemic change."
A couple minor critiques:
1. Dr. Mann's rhetoric in this volume is exceedingly populist. The takeaway is that corporations (and specifically fossil fuel interests) are self-serving and evil and not to be trusted and ordinary people must stand up and assert their rights and needs. While his argument is cogent and he provides ample evidence, it does come off as the same type of deflection he points the finger at corporations for engaging in. He talks a good talk about enhancing demand-side pressures for renewable energy and reducing demand for animal agriculture, etc. But it really seems like his heart isn't in it. He gets so focused on rebutting the arguments of industry that his own arguments don't always seem consistent. For example, when cows belch methane, it's apparently not a big deal because it has a much shorter half-life than CO2, but when it comes to fugitive methane from fracking, that's a hugely potent concern that absolutely must be addressed by policy. All in service of the argument that it's ok to eat meat but it's not ok for the government to support natural gas as a bridge fuel. You just have to be an attentive and discerning reader in this book.
2. Dr. Mann really, really does not support nuclear energy. But his argument against it is not based in science. He has fallen prey to the same uninformed discourse he loathes when it intersects with his own field. My grandfather was a nuclear reactor safety engineer who played a significant role in the cleanup of Three Mile Island and in the Yucca Mountain Project and predicted the Fukushima meltdown decades before it happened. So call me biased, but there is tremendous potential in nuclear energy and it absolutely can be done safely. Human error and susceptibility to natural disasters (like the tsunami that contributed to the Fukushima meltdown) are absolutely not intrinsic to harnessing nuclear power. That said, there is a strong argument to be made from a social justice perspective that uranium mining and processing is hazardous and exploitative, and that the risks associated with nuclear reactors and waste operations have a significant disproportionate impact on underresourced communities and communities of color. It is also currently much less cost-effective. But it should not be discounted on scientific and engineering merit.
Overall, an exceptionally accessible and insightful read that successfully grounds discussion of the climate crisis as one that remains urgent but fully actionable and solvable within the current resources and technological advances available. Highly recommend.
Much thanks to NetGalley and PublicAffairs for the eARC in exchange for the review. (less)
1. Disregard the Doomsayers: I never would have predicted that The New Climate War would lessen my climate change-related anxiety, but it did. While emphasizing that the climate crisis is urgent, Dr. Mann also drives home the point that it is still entirely actionable. He highlights environmental policies that have already worked, citing the Montreal Protocol's shrinking effect on the hole in the ozone layer and the Clean Air Act, among others.
2. A Child Shall Lead Them: I felt like this case was not made as strongly as the rest. While he did talk extensively about the attention Greta Thunberg has so effectively brought to the issue, his point here seems to mostly rely on how much of the impact of business-as-usual warming will not be felt for at least another generation, if not two. It seemed to me to kind of let older generations off-the-hook, which seems problematic if you're espousing systemic policy change as the solution when overwhelmingly policy makers are two to three generations ahead of Ms. Thunberg.
3. Educate, Educate, Educate: While climate change deniers absolutely still exist, they are not as plentiful as some media outlets would have you believe. If you try to engage your friends and neighbors on this issue, you may be surprised to find more common ground than you may have anticipated. And for those who decry the cost of climate action, Dr. Mann supplies a slew of talking points to the contrary, including that "Climate change now threatens our economy to the tune of more than a trillion dollars a year," "the greatest opportunity for job growth in the energy industry comes with renewables, not fossil fuels," and that "renewable energy costs are now competitive with fossil fuels--even with the incentives that are currently skewed against them."
4. Changing the System Requires Systemic Change: While supporting several positive impacts of individual action such as veganism and electric vehicles (including health benefits and cost savings) and even referencing entire industries that blame their dramatic losses on the individual action of millennials (like fast-food chains), he really drives home the point that the climate crisis cannot and will not be solved by individual action alone. In his words, "consumer choice doesn't build high-speed railways, fund research and development in renewable energy, or place a price on carbon emissions. Any real solution must involve both individual action and systemic change."
A couple minor critiques:
1. Dr. Mann's rhetoric in this volume is exceedingly populist. The takeaway is that corporations (and specifically fossil fuel interests) are self-serving and evil and not to be trusted and ordinary people must stand up and assert their rights and needs. While his argument is cogent and he provides ample evidence, it does come off as the same type of deflection he points the finger at corporations for engaging in. He talks a good talk about enhancing demand-side pressures for renewable energy and reducing demand for animal agriculture, etc. But it really seems like his heart isn't in it. He gets so focused on rebutting the arguments of industry that his own arguments don't always seem consistent. For example, when cows belch methane, it's apparently not a big deal because it has a much shorter half-life than CO2, but when it comes to fugitive methane from fracking, that's a hugely potent concern that absolutely must be addressed by policy. All in service of the argument that it's ok to eat meat but it's not ok for the government to support natural gas as a bridge fuel. You just have to be an attentive and discerning reader in this book.
2. Dr. Mann really, really does not support nuclear energy. But his argument against it is not based in science. He has fallen prey to the same uninformed discourse he loathes when it intersects with his own field. My grandfather was a nuclear reactor safety engineer who played a significant role in the cleanup of Three Mile Island and in the Yucca Mountain Project and predicted the Fukushima meltdown decades before it happened. So call me biased, but there is tremendous potential in nuclear energy and it absolutely can be done safely. Human error and susceptibility to natural disasters (like the tsunami that contributed to the Fukushima meltdown) are absolutely not intrinsic to harnessing nuclear power. That said, there is a strong argument to be made from a social justice perspective that uranium mining and processing is hazardous and exploitative, and that the risks associated with nuclear reactors and waste operations have a significant disproportionate impact on underresourced communities and communities of color. It is also currently much less cost-effective. But it should not be discounted on scientific and engineering merit.
Overall, an exceptionally accessible and insightful read that successfully grounds discussion of the climate crisis as one that remains urgent but fully actionable and solvable within the current resources and technological advances available. Highly recommend.
Much thanks to NetGalley and PublicAffairs for the eARC in exchange for the review. (less)
Jan 15, 2021Bevan rated it it was amazing
Review of The New Climate War, by Michael Mann
Dr. Michael Mann is not an alarmist. At least he tries not to be one.
Dr. Mann is an eminent scientist and writer; the arguments in his new book present, as we have come to expect, reasoned and thoughtful examinations of current climate science. As well, Dr. Mann, as the title implies, looks at the different warring factions attempting to divide the public, and strives to address the crises of climate change and global warming.
To begin at the beginning: When Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, her book received enormous positive attention. Nevertheless, she was attacked by those in the chemical industry and others for daring to suggest that DDT might be injurious to our health and the health of the environment. Later, when scientists began suggesting that smoking and second-hand smoke cause cancers and other diseases, some of the same individuals began criticizing the science behind the research undergirding these findings pointing to the dangers of smoking. Moving forward, a number of the very same critics began finding fault with research behind climate change. There were other issues: acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, and pollution; these, too, came under scrutiny for criticism. Interested industries began to question the science, rightfully or wrongly.
The stakes have gotten higher. As the dangers from climate change have become widely recognized by scientists and the public, industry groups and lobbyists have begun using tactics which range from psychological warfare to downright lies. And, they are clever. Dr. Mann details the strategies used by Madison Avenue firms, for instance, hired to sow doubt and dissension amongst the public and individual scientists. And, there are huge amounts of money involved in the manipulation of opinion about climate change. Two countries alone have done a great deal to sabotage progress on climate: Saudi Arabia and Russia.
This is a climate war that threatens the entire planet; every economy on Earth must address the problems of climate and global warming.
Making matters more complex, entities on the Right delight in splitting the Left into factions. As Dr. Mann points out just in one instance, carbon pricing schemes have stirred up divisions where none should exist. These disagreements cause disruptions and and make progress more difficult, exactly what climate denialists want.
One of the very unfortunate results of all the propaganda and spreading of false ideas is that groups which should be allied, or at least working with each other towards common goals, are at loggerheads. This is apparent in the conflicts between the environmental left and union activists on the left.
Possible solutions for solving the warming climate range from geoengineering (salting the atmosphere with various chemicals), additional nuclear power plant construction, massive reforestation, to various adaptation and resilience strategies. As Dr. Mann points out in his book, there are significant difficulties with all of these: practical, economic, and political. Basically, the problem with all of these “solutions” is that they permit the fossil fuel industry to keep pumping enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, with all the attendant problems with that.
Another problem that is merely political is the idea that we are doomed and we can do nothing: Doomism. This kind of defeatist thinking is very unhelpful, and plays into the hands of the fossil fuel industry.
Dr. Mann has written a thoughtful book which attempts a rational look at all of the issues. As he states: we could meet all of our energy needs by 2050 with a mix of all the available technologies at our disposal and others coming online. “The solution is already here. We just need to deploy it rapidly and at a massive scale. It all comes down to political will and economic incentives.”
(less)
Dr. Michael Mann is not an alarmist. At least he tries not to be one.
Dr. Mann is an eminent scientist and writer; the arguments in his new book present, as we have come to expect, reasoned and thoughtful examinations of current climate science. As well, Dr. Mann, as the title implies, looks at the different warring factions attempting to divide the public, and strives to address the crises of climate change and global warming.
To begin at the beginning: When Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, her book received enormous positive attention. Nevertheless, she was attacked by those in the chemical industry and others for daring to suggest that DDT might be injurious to our health and the health of the environment. Later, when scientists began suggesting that smoking and second-hand smoke cause cancers and other diseases, some of the same individuals began criticizing the science behind the research undergirding these findings pointing to the dangers of smoking. Moving forward, a number of the very same critics began finding fault with research behind climate change. There were other issues: acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, and pollution; these, too, came under scrutiny for criticism. Interested industries began to question the science, rightfully or wrongly.
The stakes have gotten higher. As the dangers from climate change have become widely recognized by scientists and the public, industry groups and lobbyists have begun using tactics which range from psychological warfare to downright lies. And, they are clever. Dr. Mann details the strategies used by Madison Avenue firms, for instance, hired to sow doubt and dissension amongst the public and individual scientists. And, there are huge amounts of money involved in the manipulation of opinion about climate change. Two countries alone have done a great deal to sabotage progress on climate: Saudi Arabia and Russia.
This is a climate war that threatens the entire planet; every economy on Earth must address the problems of climate and global warming.
Making matters more complex, entities on the Right delight in splitting the Left into factions. As Dr. Mann points out just in one instance, carbon pricing schemes have stirred up divisions where none should exist. These disagreements cause disruptions and and make progress more difficult, exactly what climate denialists want.
One of the very unfortunate results of all the propaganda and spreading of false ideas is that groups which should be allied, or at least working with each other towards common goals, are at loggerheads. This is apparent in the conflicts between the environmental left and union activists on the left.
Possible solutions for solving the warming climate range from geoengineering (salting the atmosphere with various chemicals), additional nuclear power plant construction, massive reforestation, to various adaptation and resilience strategies. As Dr. Mann points out in his book, there are significant difficulties with all of these: practical, economic, and political. Basically, the problem with all of these “solutions” is that they permit the fossil fuel industry to keep pumping enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, with all the attendant problems with that.
Another problem that is merely political is the idea that we are doomed and we can do nothing: Doomism. This kind of defeatist thinking is very unhelpful, and plays into the hands of the fossil fuel industry.
Dr. Mann has written a thoughtful book which attempts a rational look at all of the issues. As he states: we could meet all of our energy needs by 2050 with a mix of all the available technologies at our disposal and others coming online. “The solution is already here. We just need to deploy it rapidly and at a massive scale. It all comes down to political will and economic incentives.”
(less)
The New Climate War is a climate change book by a climate scientist but it is not a science book. This book is about the war around climate change between climate activists and climate deniers/doomsdayers. Michael Mann spends this book talking through the strategies that deniers and doomsdayers are using and how they come straight out of big tobacco's playbook. Mann also talks about not getting pulled into the newest methods that are being used. What I found very interesting is hearing about the geoengineering arguments that are being made and how climate activists like Bill Gates are spending large amounts of money to come up with solutions to engineer our way out of this problem instead of focusing on making alternative energies more accessible and affordable. Mann also discusses the use of bad science that places more emphasis on personal responsibility instead of industry. One of his big examples is a movie that Michael Moore produced as a climate activist that was riddled with bad science and came to bad conclusions as a result.
This book is coming at a time when there are several books coming out about how to notice authoritarianism and tyranny so this fits right in there as it discusses the methods that are being used and how to notice them. So much of this issue is about perception and getting people to not believe the lies and bad science. While I liked the book I will say it took longer to read (even though it is not super long due to end notes) because the writing is very dense. It not full of science so don't think that but the concepts and examples can take up a lot of time and space. I think this is definitely something that people should read so they can be more aware of what is happening in the battle and not just the science behind the war. (less)
This book is coming at a time when there are several books coming out about how to notice authoritarianism and tyranny so this fits right in there as it discusses the methods that are being used and how to notice them. So much of this issue is about perception and getting people to not believe the lies and bad science. While I liked the book I will say it took longer to read (even though it is not super long due to end notes) because the writing is very dense. It not full of science so don't think that but the concepts and examples can take up a lot of time and space. I think this is definitely something that people should read so they can be more aware of what is happening in the battle and not just the science behind the war. (less)
Feb 04, 2021Eric Grote rated it really liked it
This is an excellent read and a specific part of the environmental movement/climate genre I haven’t fully delved into. Mann points out multiple ways the fossil fuel industry fights progress and tries to maintain status quo of destroying the planet. A lot of these ways I’ve recognized but hadn’t fully organized in my head in a timely fashion as to respond to misinformation with education.
The history of inaction and attack on scientists was very well researched but if there was a shortcoming of the book I would have liked Mann to state what the science has told us instead of simply stating “this is what the science says”. Mann has a good enough rep for me to believe him, and I’ve studied this subject enough to know he’s correct but it was have been slightly better with a few hard facts.
It’s an easy read and an important one. And that doesn’t happen with too many books. (less)
The history of inaction and attack on scientists was very well researched but if there was a shortcoming of the book I would have liked Mann to state what the science has told us instead of simply stating “this is what the science says”. Mann has a good enough rep for me to believe him, and I’ve studied this subject enough to know he’s correct but it was have been slightly better with a few hard facts.
It’s an easy read and an important one. And that doesn’t happen with too many books. (less)
Jan 19, 2021Steven rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Recommended with some caveats. Michael Mann's perspective is unique as he is a well regarded climate scientist who has long fought against the misinformation campaign seeking to stop any systemic action to address climate change. For this reason, his insights are valuable and in many cases authoritative.
However, while his arguments against what he calls "doom porn" in contemporary climate writing are well taken, he frequently steps out of his depth when discussing policy disagreements between anti-capitalists and capitalists within the progressive left and the book would be better if those segments were removed altogether. While ultimately he concedes that writers such as Naomi Klein may be right in their critiques of neoliberal economics, he only does so after spending an inordinate amount of the book deriding twitter users that he frequently acknowledges might be bots.
But in the end it is not a book about climate science, nor economic policy. Mann's main focus is the history of the discourse around climate change, and this book is his attempt to course correct the present state of it. He is refreshingly optimistic about the path to a carbon-free world, without abandoning a sobering analysis of the risks at hand. (less)
However, while his arguments against what he calls "doom porn" in contemporary climate writing are well taken, he frequently steps out of his depth when discussing policy disagreements between anti-capitalists and capitalists within the progressive left and the book would be better if those segments were removed altogether. While ultimately he concedes that writers such as Naomi Klein may be right in their critiques of neoliberal economics, he only does so after spending an inordinate amount of the book deriding twitter users that he frequently acknowledges might be bots.
But in the end it is not a book about climate science, nor economic policy. Mann's main focus is the history of the discourse around climate change, and this book is his attempt to course correct the present state of it. He is refreshingly optimistic about the path to a carbon-free world, without abandoning a sobering analysis of the risks at hand. (less)
Jan 31, 2021Rachael rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: anyone 8th grade and up concerned about climate change.
The New Climate War – And How to Win It!
Review by D. Rachael Bishop, science journalist
The Space Race. Rosie the Riveter. The Red Scare. In seconds, these phrases conjure up larger narratives and remind us of watersheds in history: the drive for science that put a man on the moon in 1969, the call for women workers to help win WWII, and the fear of domination that spurred decades of Cold War arms escalation and hostilities.
Stories are one of the most effective ways to convince people to take ...more
Review by D. Rachael Bishop, science journalist
The Space Race. Rosie the Riveter. The Red Scare. In seconds, these phrases conjure up larger narratives and remind us of watersheds in history: the drive for science that put a man on the moon in 1969, the call for women workers to help win WWII, and the fear of domination that spurred decades of Cold War arms escalation and hostilities.
Stories are one of the most effective ways to convince people to take ...more
Feb 05, 2021Olivia rated it really liked it
Finally, a book on climate change that highlights the crisis without sounding defeatist! This book emphasizes both urgency and agency — the fact that we *do* have the power and time to save our planet. That’s not to say this is some future problem, however; the time to act is now. As the author points out, it’s not a matter of if we are screwed, but how screwed are we willing to be.
I learned so much reading this book. I was shocked by specific stories of corruption within the fossil fuel industry, and I yelled out loud while sifting through pages of lies we’ve been told. The misinformation and disinformation revolving this topic is astounding, and none better than climate scientist Michael Mann to point us to the truth.
Because straight facts are so hard to land nowadays, climate activists are oftentimes pitted against other climate activists on how to move forward. As the author says, this is exactly what the fossil fuel leaders want. For those of us who seek to fight climate change, we must realize we are all pushing toward and hoping for the same goal, rather than focusing on the little dissimilarities of our approach. Unity will be a key player in our success.
The author proposes a four-part plan of action: disregarding doomsayers; listening to and supporting young activists and fighting for their future; educating those in the middle (it’s not worth trying to convert outright climate change deniers); and acknowledging that individualized actions to lower our carbon footprint are great, but not enough — we must demand systemic change. With this last point, Mann points out that we already have the solution: renewable energy!
I’m giving this book five stars because I think *everyone* should read it. After all, this is arguably *the* most important crisis humanity faces. I will admit that the writing itself is very repetitive, and some anecdotes, while relevant and important to note, feel a bit rambled and distracting. (There’s a lot of finger pointing, which sometimes just comes across as trying to get last word in.) Writing-wise I would give a lower score (like a 2.5-3), but for content, it’s five-star must-read. Gonna give it a 4 overall. (less)
I learned so much reading this book. I was shocked by specific stories of corruption within the fossil fuel industry, and I yelled out loud while sifting through pages of lies we’ve been told. The misinformation and disinformation revolving this topic is astounding, and none better than climate scientist Michael Mann to point us to the truth.
Because straight facts are so hard to land nowadays, climate activists are oftentimes pitted against other climate activists on how to move forward. As the author says, this is exactly what the fossil fuel leaders want. For those of us who seek to fight climate change, we must realize we are all pushing toward and hoping for the same goal, rather than focusing on the little dissimilarities of our approach. Unity will be a key player in our success.
The author proposes a four-part plan of action: disregarding doomsayers; listening to and supporting young activists and fighting for their future; educating those in the middle (it’s not worth trying to convert outright climate change deniers); and acknowledging that individualized actions to lower our carbon footprint are great, but not enough — we must demand systemic change. With this last point, Mann points out that we already have the solution: renewable energy!
I’m giving this book five stars because I think *everyone* should read it. After all, this is arguably *the* most important crisis humanity faces. I will admit that the writing itself is very repetitive, and some anecdotes, while relevant and important to note, feel a bit rambled and distracting. (There’s a lot of finger pointing, which sometimes just comes across as trying to get last word in.) Writing-wise I would give a lower score (like a 2.5-3), but for content, it’s five-star must-read. Gonna give it a 4 overall. (less)
The author asserts that outright climate change denial is waning, as we are confronted with more extreme weather and scientific consensus. The societal and political obstacles to reducing our carbon emissions, however, are still strong.
Those obstacles (really, *people* promoting inaction on climate issues) now take the shape of disinformation, deflection, doomism, and delay. Dr. Mann explores the tactics and gives real-life (often Twitter conversations) examples of each type of obstruction.
On a personal note, I had been leaning towards a wee bit of doomism lately and it was great comfort to know that despair was unwarranted. We do have technologies and tools to reduce our carbon emissions. We just need to encourage each other and support the will to take action. (less)
Those obstacles (really, *people* promoting inaction on climate issues) now take the shape of disinformation, deflection, doomism, and delay. Dr. Mann explores the tactics and gives real-life (often Twitter conversations) examples of each type of obstruction.
On a personal note, I had been leaning towards a wee bit of doomism lately and it was great comfort to know that despair was unwarranted. We do have technologies and tools to reduce our carbon emissions. We just need to encourage each other and support the will to take action. (less)
Feb 04, 2021Arun Murali rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
With all that is going on in the country today, I found this book incredibly helpful in understanding the dynamics that are shaping the climate issue. The author does a great job telling the history of the issue - the origins of the issue, the people involved, and how the "war" ensued. That context is helpful in understanding where things stand today. When you parallel that, as the author does, with the political situation that has evolved in the past few decades, you get a terrific base for how to view the climate war concerns. I would add that I believe this is a good book for anyone, regardless of political view.
I am a novice on the issue but understand its importance in the gamut of world concerns, and this book helped me get a lot more interested. I found it an important read as the political spectrum evolves further to include the "poles" of each side of the political debate. Michael Mann even provides some great advice on how to continue following the developments of the "war". (less)
I am a novice on the issue but understand its importance in the gamut of world concerns, and this book helped me get a lot more interested. I found it an important read as the political spectrum evolves further to include the "poles" of each side of the political debate. Michael Mann even provides some great advice on how to continue following the developments of the "war". (less)
Feb 12, 2021Rachelle rated it it was ok
The New Climate War... based in facts and opinions, the author uses deflection to take away the importance of recognizing climate change and instead focuses on policies and alternative energy sources. The text went on tangents frequently and it was challenging for me to hone in on the specific information he attempted to share. Book could have been edited to half its size.
Feb 05, 2021Joanne Manaster rated it really liked it
I guess I was expecting more science but I did find Michael Mann's perspective on what the New Climate War very helpful. It was also interesting to hear him discuss the views of other writers of climate science, some who engage in too much doomsaying.
I found the end of the book more compelling and helpful than the first part. (less)
I found the end of the book more compelling and helpful than the first part. (less)
Feb 05, 2021Darrell rated it it was amazing
This is an excellent, well written book that exposes the strategies and tactics that have been used to undermine efforts to decarbonize our economy. You’ll be shocked to hear how oil funded front groups co-opt social justice to tear down proven tactics to head off the climate crisis. But you’ll also hear a positive message that yes, we can solve this problem.
Jan 24, 2021Justin rated it it was amazing
What’s incredible to me is how the same bad actors from the era of big tobacco are still influencing our future. Highly recommend as a historical perspective on lobbying and distraction campaigns. There’s still hope, but we must act. Inspiring and pragmatic.
Jan 20, 2021Hilliard Macbeth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Excellent explanations of the various issues in the climate change battleground. As the various groups continue to harden their stands on key issues this book provides the definitive guide to understand and explain the issues.
Feb 06, 2021Alan Eyre rated it really liked it
Good coverage of political battle over climate.
Feb 02, 2021George Grosselfinger rated it really liked it
Excellent nonfiction but reader must be patient
So many deflections from industry
A must read for anyone wanting to be aware
In today’s world
So many deflections from industry
A must read for anyone wanting to be aware
In today’s world
Jan 31, 2021Zach rated it liked it
I highly respect Michael Mann. He is a personal hero.
His life, his work, and the subject of this book (the current contours of the climate change "battle," and how to win it), all deserve five stars.
He has one major goodreads.com flaw, though - he is not an entertaining writer. He is egotistical both in his writings and his social media presence - he deserves to be, we need him out there, but still.
For those despairing about climate change in 2021 - read this immediately. It ain't long.
(less)
His life, his work, and the subject of this book (the current contours of the climate change "battle," and how to win it), all deserve five stars.
He has one major goodreads.com flaw, though - he is not an entertaining writer. He is egotistical both in his writings and his social media presence - he deserves to be, we need him out there, but still.
For those despairing about climate change in 2021 - read this immediately. It ain't long.
(less)
Oct 06, 2020Scribe Publications is currently reading it · review of another edition
Shelves: climate, conservation, environmental, global-warming, non-fiction, popular-science, new-releases
Mann shows that corporations and lobbyists have been successful in convincing us that climate change will be fine, if we just recycle our bottles and turn out the lights. Instead, he says, global warming is a problem way too hot for any one person to handle. He’s optimistic though, because he sees what we really can and will do. Read his book, and let's get to work.
Bill Nye, Science Educator, CEO of The Planetary Society
Fossil fuel companies have, for decades longer than I have been alive, been the largest contributors to the climate crisis that affects my generation today — all in pursuit of profits and growth. In The New Climate War, Michael Mann holds them to account, and shows us how we can take the bold steps we must all take together to win the battle to save this planet.
Greta Thunberg, climate activist
This book takes the reader behind the front lines into the decades long information war waged by the fossil fuel industry and those that share their interests. From his perspective as a leader in the battle for scientific reason, Michael Mann provides hope and a roadmap for all of us to address the systemic issues fuelling climate change, and shows how we can come together to wage a new war in the fight for our future.
Leonardo DiCaprio, actor and environmental activist
With this book, Michael Mann details the challenges we face from enemies (‘inactivists’) both without and within while dropping critically important breadcrumbs for us to follow to lead us out of the forest of despair and set us on the path of victory in a battle we must win. We need an army of Michaels, stat!
Don Cheadle, actor, activist, and UN global goodwill ambassador
Pulling no punches, Michael Mann lays out our predicament and tells the shocking story of persistent climate denial and corporate deception. We are in a war for the planet, but one we are now on the verge of winning. And he deftly cuts through the propaganda and shows us the path forward.
Jerry Brown, California governor, 1975-1983, 2011-2019
For over two decades, Michael Mann has been our Janus at the gates, defending climate science from corporate-funded insinuations of confusion and suspicion. We would not have progressed this far had it not been for his unflinching and brilliant rejoinders to the traffickers of doubt. This chronicle of ongoing climate injustice may make you mad, but hopefully it will make us act. This is the only civilisation we have. Mann is its resolute champion once again.
Paul Hawken, founder of Project Drawdown
The New Climate War is an insightful treatise on how the polluting fossil fuel industry and their right-wing allies have deflected the blame for the climate crisis. The book charts a common sense course for collective actions to force government and corporations to make real solutions to the climate crisis — an existential threat to humanity and the planet.
Robert D. Bullard, professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University
One of the world’s leading climate scientists embarks on a journey into the minds of climate change deniers to try to understand their motivations and strategies … Blunt, lucid … Consistently displaying his comprehensive command of climate science and the attendant politics … An expert effectively debunks the false narrative of denialism and advocates communal resistance to fossil fuels.
Kirkus Reviews
This book is a must read not just for people currently working to address climate change but also for those who are new to the climate fight, the latter of whom will learn much about past challenges, struggles, and attacks that have been aimed at climate champions.
Science Magazine
An engrossing mix of footnoted history, acerbic political commentary and personal anecdotes.
Science News
Punchy and illuminating … a bracing read—both eye-opening and even fun.
BookPage
The New Climate War is an informed, opinionated guide to an ever-changing conflict.
Shelf Awareness
Mann’s call to get serious about climate change couldn’t be more timely.
Richard Schiffman, New Scientist (less)
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5.0 out of 5 stars The New Climate War helps to untangle the Climate Change information warsReviewed in Australia on 14 February 2021
Michael Mann is an atmospheric scientist who has been doing research in climate change for thirty years. But this book is NOT about climate change science. Rather it is about the ongoing public debate about climate change science and attempts to influence public opinion and policy. This book identifies who are the main climate change opinion manipulators, their history, tactics and motives. It helps make sense of why there always seem to be critics arguing with scientists about claims on climate change. The book leaves you in no doubt that the critics are wrong - they are fighting to preserve the profits of certain big businesses. This book helps you to see through their methods. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to better understand the news.
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Top reviews from other countries
B. Van Gerven
5.0 out of 5 stars If you read just one climate book this year, read "The New Climate War"Reviewed in Germany on 27 January 2021
Verified Purchase
"The surest way to lose a war is to refuse to recognize you’re in one in the first place."
Whether it is about tobacco, acid rain or the hole in the ozone layer, every time the same pattern emerges: when science comes up with disturbing findings that necessitate regulation of an industry, the industry strikes back with an army of highly paid deniers who sow doubt, lobby against regulation and do not even hesitate to threaten scientists and smear their reputations.
Michael Mann knows what he is talking about. As a young climate scientist, he became a direct target of the denier industry created to discredit climate science. His world-famous hockey stick graph is one of the clearest early indications that something was seriously wrong with the climate, and has therefore been attacked by climate deniers for decades.
Fortunately, climate change denial is becoming increasingly rare. The many record-breaking forest fires, heat waves, floods and super storms of recent years make it hard to maintain the lie. But the fossil fuel industry has not given up yet. Denial has been replaced by deflection, division, delay and doomism. Their objective is still the same: to stop climate action.
Deflectors distract us from the heart of the matter - holding the big polluters accountable - and pretend that solving the climate crisis is solely a matter of personal behavioural change.
Dividers attempt to sow discord in the climate movement itself, by magnifying minor disagreements into major rifts.
Delayers try to stop the introduction of the carbon tax ("one of the most powerful tools" according to Mann) and make the whole concept toxic. They even convinced part of the environmental movement to side with the fossil fuel industry on this subject.
Delayers also sabotage renewable energy developments, and propose false solutions such as CCS and geoengineering that give us a licence to continue polluting the earth.
Finally, doomists try to convince people that the earth is lost, and that it is too late to do anything about it. Doomism is all the more harmful because mainly progressive, committed people fall prey to it. "If you take the most environmentally aware progressives, lead them to despair, and convince them to dissociate from civilization, they’re not out there on the front lines participating in the political process, demonstrating and fighting for the needed systemic changes."
These are orchestrated attacks, organised by the fossil industry, the media they control (e.g. Fox News), and a group of countries known as "the coalition of the unwilling", such as Saudi Arabia, the US under Trump, Brazil, Australia, and especially Russia. To this end, whole armies of trolls and bots are deployed on social media.
Michael Mann is cautiously optimistic about the future. A number of developments give new hope: the signs of climate change are so obvious that they can no longer be denied, people want change, young people are leading the way, and even Corona has taught us useful lessons for the future. We are close to a tipping point - in society itself. When change comes, it can happen fast.
The book is therefore primarily a call to battle. Learn to recognise the tactics of the enemy and be especially wary of doomism. Support the youth climate movement, correct the lies spread by the inactivists and inform people - talk about the climate crisis. Finally, get politically engaged to demand a systemic change from our politicians.
Speaking from experience, I wholeheartedly agree with this advice. The best cure for climate depression is to join the fight for a liveable planet.
Brigitte Van Gerven - volunteer at Citizens' Climate Lobby EU
Read less
Report abuse
Randy D
5.0 out of 5 stars How to understand the methods delaying active reduction in fossil fuels.Reviewed in Canada on 4 February 2021
Verified Purchase
Wonder why after 40 years of saying we need to protect the earth we are still debating? This book makes it simple, we have been played by the business for profit entities.
Report abuse
Clive Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars Sobering, factual, and should be required reading.Reviewed in Canada on 8 February 2021
Verified Purchase
Timely and critically important, this well researched, and well written book is a sobering and at times, infuriating account of the battle for our planet. Should be mandatory reading in our schools. Mann has the credentials and experience to present this message in a masterful fashion.
Report abuse
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Renewable Energy is the answer but not the only answer right nowReviewed in Canada on 14 February 2021
Verified Purchase
The topic of climate change is very real but the author was too set on only one way to fix it, he wasn’t flexible on creating a more realistic view that economy needs a bridge to get to net zero carbon
Report abuse
Dr. Richard Schilling
5.0 out of 5 stars Climate-Change Denialism dissected.....Reviewed in Germany on 23 January 2021
Verified Purchase
Michael E. Mann presents the most detailed, comprehensive analysis I have seen so far of Climate-Change Deniers,, their Strategies, their strange Coalitions and their Weapons of Mass Disinformation.
Report abuse
The New Climate War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
The New Climate War
The Fight to Take Back Our Planet
Author Michael E. Mann
Subject Climate change
Publisher PublicAffairs
Publication date 12 January 2021
Media type Print
Pages 368 pp (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-541-75822-3
The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet is a 2021 book on climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann. In the book, Mann discusses the actions of the fossil fuel industry to delay action on climate change, as well as the responses to climate change that Mann considers inadequate and the ones he considers best. The book received positive reviews. Mann argued in an interview with Rolling Stone's Jeff Goodell that a "clean energy revolution and climate stabilization are achievable with current technology. All we require are policies to incentivize the needed shift."
Contents
1Background
2Summary
3Reception
4References
Background[edit]
Mann's famous "hockey stick" graph led to death threats and online attacks. He later became an expert in disinformation campaigns of the fossil fuel industry. He explained that the book's title comes from his view that there was an old climate war of "assault on the basic science of climate change by fossil fuel interests" and there is now a new war (due to the impacts of climate change no longer being subtle), with opponents of climate action having different tactics like "getting climate advocates fighting with each other so that we don’t present a unified voice, demanding change [...] deflecting attention away from the needed systemic solutions or policy solutions to [focus instead on] individual behavior."[1]
While Goodell said that much of the left had come to view carbon pricing as "basically a kind of neoliberal scheme that will enrich Wall Street and inevitably be corrupted by politics": Mann wrote that "really all of the solutions that we’re talking about are market economics", and also listed the Montreal Protocol in the past as a reason for optimism about carbon pricing.
However, the climatologist also stated that humanity may need to rethink the basic conceptual model for modern economies because "[there] is a larger conversation to be had about whether we can continue on this path of increasing resource extraction and consumption in a sustainable manner." He also said the Green New Deal won't occur in 2021 or 2022: "We’ll get past the pandemic. A year or two down the road, it’ll be in our rearview mirror, but we will still be fully immersed in an even greater crisis, which is the climate crisis. And hopefully, having gone through this pandemic, this crisis will provide us an opportunity to think about how we solve this even larger crisis."
Mann criticized the Trump administration but said enough was "happening at the state level, states that support action, companies, cities, municipalities, that we did make some progress [...] we need to make up that lost ground over the next several years. And the Biden administration seems to be doing everything they can to help make that happen."[1]
Summary[edit]
The New Climate War consists of nine sections, along with acknowledgements, notes, and an index.
"The Architects of Misinformation and Misdirection" and "The Climate Wars" outline the history of climate change denial.[2] The third chapter, "The 'Crying Indian’ and the Birth of the Deflection Campaign", details how forces of denial and delay (such as fossil fuel companies, right-wing partisans, media and talking heads, and oil-funded governments) use deflection to defeat disliked policies. "It's YOUR Fault" is about the strategy to "keep the conversation around individual responsibility, not systemic change or corporate culpability", noting such things as Russian trolls' and bots' attacks on Hillary Clinton, and bot-produced tweets to increase the level of denialism in online discourse about climate crisis.
The fifth chapter ("Put a Price on It. Or Not.") criticizes the subsidies granted to the fuel industry. Mann advocates a price on carbon emissions as well as supply-side measures like a fracking ban and blocks on pipeline construction. In "Sinking the Competition", he supports incentives for renewable energy and elimination of incentives for fossil fuels. In chapter seven ("The Non-Solution Solution"), the author dismisses responses like natural gas, carbon capture, and geo-engineering as inadequate, and describes a number of notions of opponents of climate action (such as bridge fuels, clean coal, adaptation, and resilience) as "empty promises".[2]
In "The Truth Is Bad Enough", Mann criticizes some environmentalists as exaggerating the climate threat. The final chapter, "Meeting the Challenge", contains a four-point plan of: "Disregard the Doomsayers", "A Child Shall Lead Them", "Educate, Educate, Educate", and "Changing the System Requires Systemic Change".[2]
Mann argues that individual actions like less meat-eating, less travel, and more recycling are beneficial but insufficient, and that the economy must be decarbonized. The climate scientist also describes himself as cautiously optimistic given youth activism and the rapid development of green technologies.[3]
Reception[edit]
Jeff Masters wrote in Yale Climate Connections that The New Climate War "could benefit from more graphics and cartoons as complements to its 267 pages of text. Overall, though, the book still is a must-read for every climate-savvy and climate-dependent. (Only air breathers need apply!)"[2] New Scientist's Richard Schiffman stated, "With the major COP26 UN climate summit due to be held later this year in Glasgow, UK, Mann’s call to get serious about climate change couldn’t be more timely. Let’s hope he is right that the tide is finally about to turn."[3]
Adrienne Hollis wrote that "the book ties together every action and every inaction that has affected the fight to protect Earth from the adverse consequences of climate change. Mann is transparent about times when those who fight for climate action have fallen short". She described the book as "a must read not just for people currently working to address climate change but also for those who are new to the climate fight, the latter of whom will learn much about past challenges, struggles, and attacks".[4]
Carolyn Gramling argued in Science News, "The New Climate War’s main focus is to combat psychological warfare, and on this front, the book is fascinating and often entertaining. It’s an engrossing mix of footnoted history, acerbic political commentary and personal anecdotes."[5] A reviewer in Kirkus Reviews dubbed it a "blunt, lucid work of climate politics [...] Consistently displaying his comprehensive command of climate science and the attendant politics, he clearly walks readers through the disingenuous arguments about" a number of policies and trends related to climate crisis.[6]
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:a b Goodell, Jeff (2021-01-08). "RS Interview: Climate Scientist Michael Mann". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
^ Jump up to:a b c d Masters, Jeff (2021-01-25). "Scientist Mike Mann's must-read book, 'The New Climate War' » Yale Climate Connections". Yale Climate Connections. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
^ Jump up to:a b Schiffman, Richard (2021-01-19). "The New Climate War review: Reasons to be optimistic about the future". New Scientist. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
^ Hollis, Adrienne (2021-01-12). "Fossil fuel advocates may have added strategic inaction to their arsenal, but there is reason for climate optimism". Science. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
^ Gramling, Carolyn (2021-01-15). "'The New Climate War' exposes tactics of climate change 'inactivists'". Science News. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
^ "THE NEW CLIMATE WAR | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus Reviews.
Categories:
2021 in the environment
2021 non-fiction books
Climate change books
Climate change mitigation
---------------------------
The New Climate War review: Reasons to be optimistic about the future
The forces fighting climate science have not been defeated, just changed tactics. But Michael Mann, a key figure in the fightback, argues for hope in his new book
HUMANS 19 January 2021
By Richard Schiffman
A wind, solar and fishing base in Dongtai, Jiangsu province in China
Alex Plavevski/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The New Climate War: The fight to take back our planet
Michael E. Mann
Scribe UK (Buy from Amazon)
MOST people accept that climate change is happening, but that doesn’t mean the war against climate science is over. The denialists have just changed their tactics, argues Michael Mann in his book The New Climate War.
Mann should know. A climatologist at Penn State University, he has been a target since his “hockey stick” graph was published in 1999. The graph shows the rapid rise in temperature globally since industrialisation caused heat-trapping carbon dioxide to spew into the atmosphere.
This dramatic visual, featured in Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth, earned Mann decades of harassment and death threats. This was part of a war against climate research that has been waged since the 1970s, first to cover up and then to contest the growing evidence that shows our planet is warming.
However, as data about rising sea levels, higher temperatures and megafires mounted, the climate sceptics shifted to “a kinder, gentler form of denialism”, says Mann. They now mostly concede that, yes, there is some warming and human activity plays some role, but it’s not nearly as bad as those “alarmist” scientists say.
This new effort (bankrolled by the same polluting interests that funded the old one) no longer disputes climate change, but tries to block the action needed to move towards a low-carbon future. It is being fought by the successors to climate change denialists, who Mann calls the “inactivists”. They lobby against effective carbon pricing programmes and subsidies for renewable energy that would imperil big energy’s bottom lines.
According to Mann, central to this strategy is a campaign to shift culpability for climate change from the corporations selling fossil fuels to those who use them. Fossil fuel companies aren’t to blame, “it’s the way people are living their lives”, Chevron argued in court in 2018.
“Doomism and the loss of hope can lead people down the very same path of inaction as outright denial”
Some environmentalists have bought into this argument. While Mann agrees it is good to eat less meat, travel less and recycle more, such actions alone aren’t enough. We need to decarbonise the economy, he says. Focusing on personal responsibility takes our eyes off that prize.
Another thing inactivists do, Mann says, is to support divisive films like Michael Moore’s recent documentary Planet of the Humans that purported to show that renewable energy is ineffective and polluting.
The film was condemned by environmental activists and climate scientists. But the pro-fossil fuel American Energy Alliance spent thousands to promote a film it hoped would take the wind out of the sails of the push for clean energy.
“Doomism and the loss of hope,” writes Mann “can lead people down the very same path of inaction as outright denial. And Michael Moore plays right into it.” Despair is counterproductive.
Fossil fuel interests also cynically push “non-solution solutions” like natural gas, carbon capture and geoengineering, whose inadequacies Mann details. Again, the effort is to distract from the real task of weaning the world off fossil fuels.
But in the end, Mann says he is optimistic, heartened by the upswell of youth activism and the rapid development of green technologies. Even investors are beginning to flee from fossil fuels. Moreover, botched responses to covid-19 underline the peril of ignoring science and failing to act.
With the major COP26 UN climate summit due to be held later this year in Glasgow, UK, Mann’s call to get serious about climate change couldn’t be more timely. Let’s hope he is right that the tide is finally about to turn.
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933160-300-the-new-climate-war-review-reasons-to-be-optimistic-about-the-future/#ixzz6matLEM9F
Bill Nye, Science Educator, CEO of The Planetary Society
Fossil fuel companies have, for decades longer than I have been alive, been the largest contributors to the climate crisis that affects my generation today — all in pursuit of profits and growth. In The New Climate War, Michael Mann holds them to account, and shows us how we can take the bold steps we must all take together to win the battle to save this planet.
Greta Thunberg, climate activist
This book takes the reader behind the front lines into the decades long information war waged by the fossil fuel industry and those that share their interests. From his perspective as a leader in the battle for scientific reason, Michael Mann provides hope and a roadmap for all of us to address the systemic issues fuelling climate change, and shows how we can come together to wage a new war in the fight for our future.
Leonardo DiCaprio, actor and environmental activist
With this book, Michael Mann details the challenges we face from enemies (‘inactivists’) both without and within while dropping critically important breadcrumbs for us to follow to lead us out of the forest of despair and set us on the path of victory in a battle we must win. We need an army of Michaels, stat!
Don Cheadle, actor, activist, and UN global goodwill ambassador
Pulling no punches, Michael Mann lays out our predicament and tells the shocking story of persistent climate denial and corporate deception. We are in a war for the planet, but one we are now on the verge of winning. And he deftly cuts through the propaganda and shows us the path forward.
Jerry Brown, California governor, 1975-1983, 2011-2019
For over two decades, Michael Mann has been our Janus at the gates, defending climate science from corporate-funded insinuations of confusion and suspicion. We would not have progressed this far had it not been for his unflinching and brilliant rejoinders to the traffickers of doubt. This chronicle of ongoing climate injustice may make you mad, but hopefully it will make us act. This is the only civilisation we have. Mann is its resolute champion once again.
Paul Hawken, founder of Project Drawdown
The New Climate War is an insightful treatise on how the polluting fossil fuel industry and their right-wing allies have deflected the blame for the climate crisis. The book charts a common sense course for collective actions to force government and corporations to make real solutions to the climate crisis — an existential threat to humanity and the planet.
Robert D. Bullard, professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University
One of the world’s leading climate scientists embarks on a journey into the minds of climate change deniers to try to understand their motivations and strategies … Blunt, lucid … Consistently displaying his comprehensive command of climate science and the attendant politics … An expert effectively debunks the false narrative of denialism and advocates communal resistance to fossil fuels.
Kirkus Reviews
This book is a must read not just for people currently working to address climate change but also for those who are new to the climate fight, the latter of whom will learn much about past challenges, struggles, and attacks that have been aimed at climate champions.
Science Magazine
An engrossing mix of footnoted history, acerbic political commentary and personal anecdotes.
Science News
Punchy and illuminating … a bracing read—both eye-opening and even fun.
BookPage
The New Climate War is an informed, opinionated guide to an ever-changing conflict.
Shelf Awareness
Mann’s call to get serious about climate change couldn’t be more timely.
Richard Schiffman, New Scientist (less)
====
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Top review from Australia
Scott Elaurant (Adelaide)
5.0 out of 5 stars The New Climate War helps to untangle the Climate Change information warsReviewed in Australia on 14 February 2021
Michael Mann is an atmospheric scientist who has been doing research in climate change for thirty years. But this book is NOT about climate change science. Rather it is about the ongoing public debate about climate change science and attempts to influence public opinion and policy. This book identifies who are the main climate change opinion manipulators, their history, tactics and motives. It helps make sense of why there always seem to be critics arguing with scientists about claims on climate change. The book leaves you in no doubt that the critics are wrong - they are fighting to preserve the profits of certain big businesses. This book helps you to see through their methods. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to better understand the news.
HelpfulReport abuse
See all reviews
Top reviews from other countries
B. Van Gerven
5.0 out of 5 stars If you read just one climate book this year, read "The New Climate War"Reviewed in Germany on 27 January 2021
Verified Purchase
"The surest way to lose a war is to refuse to recognize you’re in one in the first place."
Whether it is about tobacco, acid rain or the hole in the ozone layer, every time the same pattern emerges: when science comes up with disturbing findings that necessitate regulation of an industry, the industry strikes back with an army of highly paid deniers who sow doubt, lobby against regulation and do not even hesitate to threaten scientists and smear their reputations.
Michael Mann knows what he is talking about. As a young climate scientist, he became a direct target of the denier industry created to discredit climate science. His world-famous hockey stick graph is one of the clearest early indications that something was seriously wrong with the climate, and has therefore been attacked by climate deniers for decades.
Fortunately, climate change denial is becoming increasingly rare. The many record-breaking forest fires, heat waves, floods and super storms of recent years make it hard to maintain the lie. But the fossil fuel industry has not given up yet. Denial has been replaced by deflection, division, delay and doomism. Their objective is still the same: to stop climate action.
Deflectors distract us from the heart of the matter - holding the big polluters accountable - and pretend that solving the climate crisis is solely a matter of personal behavioural change.
Dividers attempt to sow discord in the climate movement itself, by magnifying minor disagreements into major rifts.
Delayers try to stop the introduction of the carbon tax ("one of the most powerful tools" according to Mann) and make the whole concept toxic. They even convinced part of the environmental movement to side with the fossil fuel industry on this subject.
Delayers also sabotage renewable energy developments, and propose false solutions such as CCS and geoengineering that give us a licence to continue polluting the earth.
Finally, doomists try to convince people that the earth is lost, and that it is too late to do anything about it. Doomism is all the more harmful because mainly progressive, committed people fall prey to it. "If you take the most environmentally aware progressives, lead them to despair, and convince them to dissociate from civilization, they’re not out there on the front lines participating in the political process, demonstrating and fighting for the needed systemic changes."
These are orchestrated attacks, organised by the fossil industry, the media they control (e.g. Fox News), and a group of countries known as "the coalition of the unwilling", such as Saudi Arabia, the US under Trump, Brazil, Australia, and especially Russia. To this end, whole armies of trolls and bots are deployed on social media.
Michael Mann is cautiously optimistic about the future. A number of developments give new hope: the signs of climate change are so obvious that they can no longer be denied, people want change, young people are leading the way, and even Corona has taught us useful lessons for the future. We are close to a tipping point - in society itself. When change comes, it can happen fast.
The book is therefore primarily a call to battle. Learn to recognise the tactics of the enemy and be especially wary of doomism. Support the youth climate movement, correct the lies spread by the inactivists and inform people - talk about the climate crisis. Finally, get politically engaged to demand a systemic change from our politicians.
Speaking from experience, I wholeheartedly agree with this advice. The best cure for climate depression is to join the fight for a liveable planet.
Brigitte Van Gerven - volunteer at Citizens' Climate Lobby EU
Read less
Report abuse
Randy D
5.0 out of 5 stars How to understand the methods delaying active reduction in fossil fuels.Reviewed in Canada on 4 February 2021
Verified Purchase
Wonder why after 40 years of saying we need to protect the earth we are still debating? This book makes it simple, we have been played by the business for profit entities.
Report abuse
Clive Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars Sobering, factual, and should be required reading.Reviewed in Canada on 8 February 2021
Verified Purchase
Timely and critically important, this well researched, and well written book is a sobering and at times, infuriating account of the battle for our planet. Should be mandatory reading in our schools. Mann has the credentials and experience to present this message in a masterful fashion.
Report abuse
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Renewable Energy is the answer but not the only answer right nowReviewed in Canada on 14 February 2021
Verified Purchase
The topic of climate change is very real but the author was too set on only one way to fix it, he wasn’t flexible on creating a more realistic view that economy needs a bridge to get to net zero carbon
Report abuse
Dr. Richard Schilling
5.0 out of 5 stars Climate-Change Denialism dissected.....Reviewed in Germany on 23 January 2021
Verified Purchase
Michael E. Mann presents the most detailed, comprehensive analysis I have seen so far of Climate-Change Deniers,, their Strategies, their strange Coalitions and their Weapons of Mass Disinformation.
Report abuse
The New Climate War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
The New Climate War
The Fight to Take Back Our Planet
Author Michael E. Mann
Subject Climate change
Publisher PublicAffairs
Publication date 12 January 2021
Media type Print
Pages 368 pp (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-541-75822-3
The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet is a 2021 book on climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann. In the book, Mann discusses the actions of the fossil fuel industry to delay action on climate change, as well as the responses to climate change that Mann considers inadequate and the ones he considers best. The book received positive reviews. Mann argued in an interview with Rolling Stone's Jeff Goodell that a "clean energy revolution and climate stabilization are achievable with current technology. All we require are policies to incentivize the needed shift."
Contents
1Background
2Summary
3Reception
4References
Background[edit]
Mann's famous "hockey stick" graph led to death threats and online attacks. He later became an expert in disinformation campaigns of the fossil fuel industry. He explained that the book's title comes from his view that there was an old climate war of "assault on the basic science of climate change by fossil fuel interests" and there is now a new war (due to the impacts of climate change no longer being subtle), with opponents of climate action having different tactics like "getting climate advocates fighting with each other so that we don’t present a unified voice, demanding change [...] deflecting attention away from the needed systemic solutions or policy solutions to [focus instead on] individual behavior."[1]
While Goodell said that much of the left had come to view carbon pricing as "basically a kind of neoliberal scheme that will enrich Wall Street and inevitably be corrupted by politics": Mann wrote that "really all of the solutions that we’re talking about are market economics", and also listed the Montreal Protocol in the past as a reason for optimism about carbon pricing.
However, the climatologist also stated that humanity may need to rethink the basic conceptual model for modern economies because "[there] is a larger conversation to be had about whether we can continue on this path of increasing resource extraction and consumption in a sustainable manner." He also said the Green New Deal won't occur in 2021 or 2022: "We’ll get past the pandemic. A year or two down the road, it’ll be in our rearview mirror, but we will still be fully immersed in an even greater crisis, which is the climate crisis. And hopefully, having gone through this pandemic, this crisis will provide us an opportunity to think about how we solve this even larger crisis."
Mann criticized the Trump administration but said enough was "happening at the state level, states that support action, companies, cities, municipalities, that we did make some progress [...] we need to make up that lost ground over the next several years. And the Biden administration seems to be doing everything they can to help make that happen."[1]
Summary[edit]
The New Climate War consists of nine sections, along with acknowledgements, notes, and an index.
"The Architects of Misinformation and Misdirection" and "The Climate Wars" outline the history of climate change denial.[2] The third chapter, "The 'Crying Indian’ and the Birth of the Deflection Campaign", details how forces of denial and delay (such as fossil fuel companies, right-wing partisans, media and talking heads, and oil-funded governments) use deflection to defeat disliked policies. "It's YOUR Fault" is about the strategy to "keep the conversation around individual responsibility, not systemic change or corporate culpability", noting such things as Russian trolls' and bots' attacks on Hillary Clinton, and bot-produced tweets to increase the level of denialism in online discourse about climate crisis.
The fifth chapter ("Put a Price on It. Or Not.") criticizes the subsidies granted to the fuel industry. Mann advocates a price on carbon emissions as well as supply-side measures like a fracking ban and blocks on pipeline construction. In "Sinking the Competition", he supports incentives for renewable energy and elimination of incentives for fossil fuels. In chapter seven ("The Non-Solution Solution"), the author dismisses responses like natural gas, carbon capture, and geo-engineering as inadequate, and describes a number of notions of opponents of climate action (such as bridge fuels, clean coal, adaptation, and resilience) as "empty promises".[2]
In "The Truth Is Bad Enough", Mann criticizes some environmentalists as exaggerating the climate threat. The final chapter, "Meeting the Challenge", contains a four-point plan of: "Disregard the Doomsayers", "A Child Shall Lead Them", "Educate, Educate, Educate", and "Changing the System Requires Systemic Change".[2]
Mann argues that individual actions like less meat-eating, less travel, and more recycling are beneficial but insufficient, and that the economy must be decarbonized. The climate scientist also describes himself as cautiously optimistic given youth activism and the rapid development of green technologies.[3]
Reception[edit]
Jeff Masters wrote in Yale Climate Connections that The New Climate War "could benefit from more graphics and cartoons as complements to its 267 pages of text. Overall, though, the book still is a must-read for every climate-savvy and climate-dependent. (Only air breathers need apply!)"[2] New Scientist's Richard Schiffman stated, "With the major COP26 UN climate summit due to be held later this year in Glasgow, UK, Mann’s call to get serious about climate change couldn’t be more timely. Let’s hope he is right that the tide is finally about to turn."[3]
Adrienne Hollis wrote that "the book ties together every action and every inaction that has affected the fight to protect Earth from the adverse consequences of climate change. Mann is transparent about times when those who fight for climate action have fallen short". She described the book as "a must read not just for people currently working to address climate change but also for those who are new to the climate fight, the latter of whom will learn much about past challenges, struggles, and attacks".[4]
Carolyn Gramling argued in Science News, "The New Climate War’s main focus is to combat psychological warfare, and on this front, the book is fascinating and often entertaining. It’s an engrossing mix of footnoted history, acerbic political commentary and personal anecdotes."[5] A reviewer in Kirkus Reviews dubbed it a "blunt, lucid work of climate politics [...] Consistently displaying his comprehensive command of climate science and the attendant politics, he clearly walks readers through the disingenuous arguments about" a number of policies and trends related to climate crisis.[6]
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:a b Goodell, Jeff (2021-01-08). "RS Interview: Climate Scientist Michael Mann". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
^ Jump up to:a b c d Masters, Jeff (2021-01-25). "Scientist Mike Mann's must-read book, 'The New Climate War' » Yale Climate Connections". Yale Climate Connections. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
^ Jump up to:a b Schiffman, Richard (2021-01-19). "The New Climate War review: Reasons to be optimistic about the future". New Scientist. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
^ Hollis, Adrienne (2021-01-12). "Fossil fuel advocates may have added strategic inaction to their arsenal, but there is reason for climate optimism". Science. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
^ Gramling, Carolyn (2021-01-15). "'The New Climate War' exposes tactics of climate change 'inactivists'". Science News. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
^ "THE NEW CLIMATE WAR | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus Reviews.
Categories:
2021 in the environment
2021 non-fiction books
Climate change books
Climate change mitigation
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The New Climate War review: Reasons to be optimistic about the future
The forces fighting climate science have not been defeated, just changed tactics. But Michael Mann, a key figure in the fightback, argues for hope in his new book
HUMANS 19 January 2021
By Richard Schiffman
A wind, solar and fishing base in Dongtai, Jiangsu province in China
Alex Plavevski/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The New Climate War: The fight to take back our planet
Michael E. Mann
Scribe UK (Buy from Amazon)
MOST people accept that climate change is happening, but that doesn’t mean the war against climate science is over. The denialists have just changed their tactics, argues Michael Mann in his book The New Climate War.
Mann should know. A climatologist at Penn State University, he has been a target since his “hockey stick” graph was published in 1999. The graph shows the rapid rise in temperature globally since industrialisation caused heat-trapping carbon dioxide to spew into the atmosphere.
This dramatic visual, featured in Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth, earned Mann decades of harassment and death threats. This was part of a war against climate research that has been waged since the 1970s, first to cover up and then to contest the growing evidence that shows our planet is warming.
However, as data about rising sea levels, higher temperatures and megafires mounted, the climate sceptics shifted to “a kinder, gentler form of denialism”, says Mann. They now mostly concede that, yes, there is some warming and human activity plays some role, but it’s not nearly as bad as those “alarmist” scientists say.
This new effort (bankrolled by the same polluting interests that funded the old one) no longer disputes climate change, but tries to block the action needed to move towards a low-carbon future. It is being fought by the successors to climate change denialists, who Mann calls the “inactivists”. They lobby against effective carbon pricing programmes and subsidies for renewable energy that would imperil big energy’s bottom lines.
According to Mann, central to this strategy is a campaign to shift culpability for climate change from the corporations selling fossil fuels to those who use them. Fossil fuel companies aren’t to blame, “it’s the way people are living their lives”, Chevron argued in court in 2018.
“Doomism and the loss of hope can lead people down the very same path of inaction as outright denial”
Some environmentalists have bought into this argument. While Mann agrees it is good to eat less meat, travel less and recycle more, such actions alone aren’t enough. We need to decarbonise the economy, he says. Focusing on personal responsibility takes our eyes off that prize.
Another thing inactivists do, Mann says, is to support divisive films like Michael Moore’s recent documentary Planet of the Humans that purported to show that renewable energy is ineffective and polluting.
The film was condemned by environmental activists and climate scientists. But the pro-fossil fuel American Energy Alliance spent thousands to promote a film it hoped would take the wind out of the sails of the push for clean energy.
“Doomism and the loss of hope,” writes Mann “can lead people down the very same path of inaction as outright denial. And Michael Moore plays right into it.” Despair is counterproductive.
Fossil fuel interests also cynically push “non-solution solutions” like natural gas, carbon capture and geoengineering, whose inadequacies Mann details. Again, the effort is to distract from the real task of weaning the world off fossil fuels.
But in the end, Mann says he is optimistic, heartened by the upswell of youth activism and the rapid development of green technologies. Even investors are beginning to flee from fossil fuels. Moreover, botched responses to covid-19 underline the peril of ignoring science and failing to act.
With the major COP26 UN climate summit due to be held later this year in Glasgow, UK, Mann’s call to get serious about climate change couldn’t be more timely. Let’s hope he is right that the tide is finally about to turn.
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933160-300-the-new-climate-war-review-reasons-to-be-optimistic-about-the-future/#ixzz6matLEM9F
