“The Climate Book” sounds a bit like “The Bible”. And that’s probably not entirely unintentional. The young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has become the symbol of the worldwide movement once morest political inaction in the face of the climate catastrophe, has asked scientists from a wide range of disciplines to submit a current situation report. Over 80 contributions have come together in this way – an impressive compendium.
“The climate and ecological crisis is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. Without a doubt, it is the problem that will shape our future everyday life like no other.” This is how Thunberg begins her foreword. “I firmly believe that the only way we can avert the worst consequences of this emerging existential crisis is by gathering a critical mass of people to demand the necessary changes. For that to happen, we need to raise awareness quickly, because there is still a lack of awareness the general public with the essential knowledge needed to understand the plight we are in. I want to be part of the effort to change that.”
In the more than 500-page book, the climate, ecology and sustainability crisis is to be dealt with holistically. “My hope is that this book will become a kind of reference book to understand these different, closely intertwined crises,” said Thunberg. “It covers everything from melting ice shelves and ice caps to the economy, from fast fashion to species extinction, from pandemics to sinking islands, from deforestation to the loss of fertile soil, from water scarcity to tribal peoples’ sovereignty, from the future… From food production to carbon budgets – and it reveals the actions of those responsible and the failures of those who should have conveyed this information to the citizens of the world long ago.”
It is an impressive gathering of around a hundred scientists who present their knowledge in the fields of ecology and economics, biology and meteorology, geophysics and mathematics, oceanography and climatology, psychology and philosophy. Thunberg moderates, summarizes, transfers and sharpens. Your contributions are the guide through the thick book, which is illustrated with diagrams and graphics, but this thread is not red, but blue: Thunberg’s essays are highlighted in light blue. The 19-year-old is the leading figure and will present the book in a worldwide live stream on Sunday evening as part of the London Literature Festival.
The “Climate Book” aims to provide comprehensive and clear information. Therefore, there is a basic part that explains “how the climate works”, how humans and nature interact, what role which gases play in the atmosphere and when climate change was actually discovered (namely already at the end of the 19th century, how US geoscientist Michael Oppenheimer describes). But then we quickly get down to business and the changes that can be seen everywhere. Johan Rockström from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research writes regarding tipping points and feedback loops and his institute colleague Stefan Rahmstorf regarding ocean warming and sea level rise. We learn regarding droughts and floods, sea warming and ocean acidification, microplastics, the jet stream and terrestrial biodiversity. The British biologist Goulsen (“Dumb Earth”) tells us something regarding insects, the Swede Örjan Gustafsson, professor of biogeochemistry in Stockholm, something regarding permafrost.
In between, Greta Thunberg repeatedly raises her warning voice: “It’s much closer than we think,” she writes, and: “The world has a fever!” It gets worse and worse the longer you read it. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), provides “Health Cases for Action Against Climate Change”, environmental epidemiologist Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera deals with the connection between heat and disease, and economist Solomon Hsiang, who teaches at Berkeley, contributes “Climate Change and Inequality”. Of course, the chapters dealing with “what we did regarding it” describe failure rather than action. “How can we undo our failures if we can’t even admit that we’ve failed?” Greta Thunberg puts it in a nutshell. It’s regarding greenwashing and geoengineering, “The Cost of Consumerism” and the “Recycling Myth”. Economic anthropologist Jason Hickel writes on “Reverse Growth”, world-renowned Indian author Amitav Ghosh on “The Perception Gap” and his Canadian colleague Margaret Atwood on “Practical Utopias”.
All of this threatens to kill you. But there are also hopeful approaches to “overcoming climate apathy,” as the Norwegian psychologist Per Espen Stoknes calls it, and the book names some of them in the final chapters. “Are we able to use our skills, our knowledge and our technology for a cultural change that will motivate us to change in time to avert a climate and environmental catastrophe? We clearly can do that. Whether we do it, is entirely up to us,” writes Greta Thunberg. “The most effective way out of this deadlock is to educate ourselves,” she advises us on the path that should lead out of the impasse, but will in any case be a long and arduous one. “The Climate Book” is actually a good starting aid for this. And is just right for the Christmas business.
(SERVICE – “The Climate Book” by Greta Thunberg, translated by Michael Bischoff, Ulrike Bischoff, S.Fischer Verlag, 512 pages, 38.50 euros, hybrid book presentation: Greta Thunberg in conversation with Samira Ahmed in the Royal Festival Hall , Southbank Centre, London: 30.10., 9 p.m., can be followed via live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ropBOwPvmLM)
