Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth
There鈥檚 nothing like becoming a parent to concentrate one鈥檚 attention on the future. What will the world be like for that little one decades from now?
That鈥檚 the driving force behind Mark Hertsgaard鈥檚 Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth.
When his daughter Chiara (now 5 years old) came along, it became clear to him that global warming 鈥� something he鈥檇 written about in books and leading magazines for 20 years 鈥� was not just an abstract scientific and political issue whose full effects wouldn鈥檛 be seen in his lifetime.
Becoming a dad not only changed Hertsgaard鈥檚 point of view but it also added urgency to his subject. He vowed to find out 鈥渨hat had to happen for my daughter and her generation to live through the storm of climate change.鈥�
To be honest, I was not looking forward to this book. Having tracked climate change journalistically for nearly 20 years myself, I felt burned out on the subject. It seemed as intractable as 鈥渢he Middle East peace process鈥� or 鈥渃ampaign finance reform鈥� 鈥� issues more battered than helped by politics.
But I came away thinking and feeling differently 鈥� not only renewedly interested in what humankind is doing to Earth鈥檚 climate, but also actually somewhat more hopeful. (Perhaps becoming a grandfather recently had changed my outlook, too.)
Here鈥檚 why I like and recommend 鈥淗ot鈥�: Hertsgaard鈥檚 rhetorical device 鈥� considering global warming with a regard for the future of children 鈥� is good without being too smarmy.
He covers the ground on the science and politics of climate change clearly and with an amount of detail that is sufficient without being overwhelming 鈥� for example, explaining without confusing the reader the relative importance of mitigation and adaptation. (In other words, doing things to reduce the greenhouse gases that result in climate change, and then getting ready for the global warming that鈥檚 already inevitable.)
Hertsgaard travels all over the world 鈥� Africa, Europe, China, South Asia, the United States 鈥� for descriptive on-the-ground reporting and many in-depth interviews with the world鈥檚 leading experts. Also, he details the important things some communities (like the Seattle area) and nations (like the Netherlands) are doing to prepare, so it鈥檚 not all a downer.
Hertsgaard鈥檚 travels led him to parts of the world 鈥� some of them surprising 鈥� where people are taking important steps to deal with the inevitable. In other areas (New Orleans, Florida, and Shanghai) the attitude is mostly business as usual.
So while things aren鈥檛 hopeless, the situation is serious.
Because of the increase in greenhouse gases that began with the Industrial Revolution and accelerated in the 20th century with industrial agriculture, motor vehicles, and worldwide population increase, Hertsgaard writes, 鈥淥ver the next fifty years, climate change will transform our world in ways we have only begun to imagine.鈥�
Most scientists (minus a handful of skeptics and outright deniers) are warning of stronger storms, deeper droughts, shifting seasons, and sea-level rise, Hertsgaard points out. It鈥檚 not a matter of whether these things are likely to happen but of degree.
鈥淗umans have changed the weather on this planet, and that will change everything,鈥� he predicts, 鈥渇rom how we grow food and obtain water to how we construct buildings and fight disease; from how we organize economies and control borders to how we manage transportation systems and deploy armies; from how we write insurance and produce wine to how we talk with our children and plan for the future.鈥�
It鈥檚 a challenge that鈥檚 already begun, fraught with potential dangers, including (as US military leaders have pointed out) regional conflict born of forced migration.
With his daughter and other children of the world in mind, Hertsgaard has illuminated the challenge while pointing the ways toward resolution.
Brad Knickerbocker is a Monitor staff writer.
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