Fixing Climate [Hardcover]

Combine one coauthor who is the world's leading expert on climate change with a skilled science journalist and you get a riveting biography of Wallace S. Broecker that reads like a National Book Award novel. The science is a bonus, but, more than that - it is, I think, the definitive book on the subject of climate change.

One of the world's greatest living geoscientists, Wally Broecker, weaves an historical chronicle of earth's natural cycles with the modern history of humans that are, according to the Director of Earth Institute at Columbia University, poking the beast by combining mass use of fossil fuels with massive deforestation on earth. And Broecker warns that global society is at a crossroads where massive instability in climate, sea levels and survival of species threatens future generations.

If the geological past is prologue, Fixing Climate may be presient unless we pay attention to the author's solutions to tame the beast.

This is a thin book and a fast read for anyone with prior knowledge concerning Wally Broecker and climate science. For the rest of us, it is well worth the small effort required to embark on a fascinating journey through the geologic ages of much of North America and the Earth. It is expected that most people who have paid attention to news or science articles on climate change would have seen Keeling's CO2 (carbon dioxide) curve, which is inexorably increasing over time. Far fewer people would know of Keeling's son and his O2 (oxygen) curve, which is decreasing over time. Well, both are shown here, and furthermore, a simple but accurate explanation is given of how scientists know what proportion of human emissions of CO2 is absorbed by plants, absorbed by the oceans, and left lingering in the atmosphere.

As the reader progresses through the book, an interesting picture emerges of what it was like to be a scientist in the middle of the 20th century. The resourcefulness of the young climate scientists is deftly conveyed to the reader, and it is clear that they were primarily curiosity-driven. It certainly wasn't about grants or recognition as some people have impugned, it was the resolution of puzzles that drove the early climate scientists like Wally Broecker and his colleagues, in their work to uncover evidence about past climate changes. Indeed, Wally Broecker's strong belief was that understanding our current climate system required an understanding of past climate.

The biggest puzzle that Wally is famous for identifying and communicating is that of the global conveyor belt - the transfer of heat by thermohaline currents - of which the gulf stream is a part. His insight was to pose the question of whether the conveyor belt may be disrupted, and what would be the consequences. The shutting down of the gulf stream, for instance, would trigger a drop in temperature across western Europe, leading to harsh winters and miserable summers. It sounds improbable but the global warming currently underway might sufficiently alter the salinity (indirectly) and temperature of the surface waters crucial to the conveyor's operation, that it shuts down and consequently induces freezing winters in western Europe and elsewhere.

Aside from the first dozen or so pages which felt a bit clunky, the book hits its stride early on. I would recommend this to anyone with an enquiring mind - and especially to people who are still somewhat sceptical about the notion of humans affecting climate. You don't need to be a scientist to enjoy the unfolding story within.

This book is a biography. It says very little about fixing climate or about "what past climate changes reveal about the current threat--and how to counter it." If you are interested in the details of how this particular climate scientist grew up, then read this book. If you are, as I was, looking for a book about "fixing climate," as this is inappropriately titled, then look elsewhere. I am very disappointed in the publisher for such a misleading tactic.