Clive Hamilton’s new book, Earthmasters: Playing God with the climate, investigates the use of geo-engineering technologies to mitigate climate change.
A positive review in the latest Australian Book Review, says:
It is a book that every politician, policy-maker, and citizen should read. The future of the planet and its inhabitants simply demands it.
Rosalie Schultz, a doctor working in remote Aboriginal health and a member of the Climate and Health Alliance, also recommends it in her review below.
***
Clive Hamilton “Earthmasters: Playing God with the climate”. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest Australia 2013
Rosalie Schultz writes:
Climate and other earth systems are changing, and it is now too late for us to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in time to prevent significant changes to the earth.
Fossil fuels are the basis of our global society. Food, water, clothing, shelter – our most basic needs – depend on fossil fuels, as do transport, lighting, entertainment and consumerism.
The carbon dioxide that is released when fossil fuels are burnt will remain in the atmosphere, or dissolved in the ocean for hundreds of years. It will remain long after the last tonne of fossil carbon has been shovelled in to the furnace of a coal-fired power plant.
We see our earth changing – wild storms, wild fires and droughts, poor harvests and loss of wildlife. Our lives depend on these things. Our lives are changing rapidly, and no one is in control.
“Earthmasters” confronts humankind’s inability to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We have not even reduced emissions, let alone carbon dioxide concentrations. These continue to rise.
We must now contemplate Plan B – managing the earth’s climate despite higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Powerful people, businesses, and security organisations are already investing in research on climate engineering.
I think that everyone needs to know about this, and Earthmasters is a readable introduction.
Do not be distracted by the juvenile cartoon on the cover. It merely shows how deeply capitalism has penetrated into our culture. The book shows how climate engineering is now an issue for all of humanity.
I found the book held my attention and explained the issues clearly, in all their complexity.
Can anything be more important than the future of the earth?
• Previously at Croakey from Rosalie Schultz: Some suggestions for how health services can help respond to climate change
