Incendiary yet inspirational: Book review of Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen

Of course one should read books by one’s heroes, both as homage and for inspiration. James Hansen is that rare scientist, brilliantly geeky yet driven by conscience to enter the fields of politics and persuasion. In spite of his own preference to stay in the lab, he was one of the first scientists to leap from the ivory tower to warn us about climate change, and he’s escalated his public activity to the point of a recent arrest amongst an anti-coal-plant protest. Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity  is an unusual memoir, one restricted to exactly that period, the times of his public attempt to persuade policymakers to do something. The book begins in the late 1990s and ends with his recent letters to state leaders. While the world is clutching at greenwashing plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 550 or 450 parts per million, Hansen believes anything beyond 350 signals global calamity; he is mighty persuasive.

Unusually for a scientist, Hansen is a smooth, engaging writer, and the book seamlessly meshes a fascinating glimpse into backroom climate change politics and a gentle yet deep story about global warming. If you want one broad brush introduction to climate science and how it has rapidly evolved into near certainty and quasi despair, this is the book for you. I was held spellbound. Ranging over physics, paleontology and glaciology, rigorous yet emphatically personal, Storms of My Grandchildren should be required reading for all secondary students (it seems to me adults either know or reject the truth by now, and the youth of today will wrestle with the issue far better than we seem to be able to).

There can be no excuse for not reading this. Incendiary yet inspirational. 4 stars.