Steven E. Koonin

In our age of enraged and vacuous polemical partisanship, this sober and rational foray into an important topic couldn't be more welcome or (sadly) out of place.

An important and salient work that, especially in Part I, tells an important story from the vantage point of someone very much in the thick of climate and energy policy. That this is the work of a knowledgeable scientist whose work in academia, industry, and government (last in the Obama admin's Energy Department) puts him at the very heart of the international effort to figure out what is happening to the earth's climate (for whatever cause) and collaborate on potential ways to address it, makes the story within all the more compelling and critical to understand. Should be required high school/university reading for young people, the most worried, but least informed, about climate and the supposed looming catastrophes related to it.

The climate is changing, man is contributing to it, but what you think you know after that is largely not backed by real-life science. If that astounds you, read this book and then look into the data, the reports, and the primary research for yourself. You won't be sorry, no matter where you're coming from.… (mere)

The climate is certainly warming, but why and what to do about it are uncertain
Steven Koonin is a physicist and science policy expert, former undersecretary for science in the US Department of Energy. His book is replete with graphs, and data, showing that although fossil fuel consumption is causing warming, it is not causing tornadoes and hurricanes to increase in number or intensity, the sea levels are rising very gradually (3 mm per year) and the changes in surface temperatures have been seen in the historical record prior to the industrial era. He argues that "The Science" as presented in the media is exaggerated in the direction of crisis, beyond what the UN and US climate assessment reports have stated. The economic impact of an extreme 5 degree C by 2100 will be to lower the US economy by 4%. The book would have been markedly improved by having graphs in color; the grayscales are very hard to see. The author has been attacked by the climate lobby and progressives, but I see this book as a reasonable assessment and an antidote to the hysteria surronding "green energy transition"
Publisher's note:
"Surging sea levels are inundating the coasts."
"Hurricanes and tornadoes are becoming fiercer and more frequent."
"Climate change will be an economic disaster."

You've heard all this presented as fact. But according to science, all of these statements are profoundly misleading.
When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that "the science is settled." In reality, the long game of telephone from research to reports to the popular media is corrupted by misunderstanding and misinformation. Core questions--about the way the climate is responding to our influence, and what the impacts will be--remain largely unanswered.… (mere)