The Heat Is On

by Ross Gelbspan
reviewed by Caroline Pufalt

This book should come with a warning: read at your own risk— may result in major priority change. Gelbspan’s book provides a lucid, readable, and persuasive account of the problems surrounding our response to global warming.

Few thoughtful people will fail to be moved by his arguments. Unfortunately that is not always the case with information regarding global warming. Global warming can seem like such a large but remote problem. It is easy for individuals, even those with concerns about the environment, to recoil at the enormity of the issue and deal instead with more concrete problems. But Gelbspan’s writing highlights the importance of global warming to so many other environmental concerns such as wildlife habitat, shoreline degradation, pollution, agriculture, etc. Global warming, like population growth, touches all our concerns.

First, it is useful to understand the use of the terms global warming and global climate change. Gelbspan primarily uses the term global climate change in his book. The Sierra Club, in its literature, tends to use global warming. Both describe the same scenario.

Historically the world’s climate has changed without the influence of human beings. Barring our impacts it would undoubtedly continue slow climate alterations. However, we have learned that the increase of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from industrialized society is causing a greenhouse effect that is generally associated with warming. But it is widely acknowledged that this “unnatural” drift toward warming will result in more temperature extremes (hot and cold) , more storms and other severe weather events. The term global climate change captures this scenario while the overall trend associated with this man made change is warming.

Gelbspan explains the natural events behind the greenhouse effect so that the reader has a basic understanding of why the “ heat is on.” But the title of the book refers not just to climate changes but to the imperative given to us to respond. This human induced climate change is the biggest challenge we have faced.

Basically we need to change our energy strategy from a carbon based system to alternative sources. Ideally those alternatives should be as non polluting and safe as possible, such as wind, solar, and hydrogen, although gas and even nuclear may play a role. Gelbspan does not spend much space arguing the pros and cons of nuclear energy, but he does identify it as an industry whose subsidies should be transferred to more appropriate alternatives.

Gelbspan does an excellent job explaining the reasons we have been so tardy and inadequate in responding to climate change. The problems include organization, cost, and fairness. Although the technology exists, it will take planning and industrial changes to move from carbon based to alternative sources. The good news is that these changes will result in cleaner and often cheaper energy, but the start up costs will require financial investments. Fairness becomes an issue because countries face this problem from widely different starting points. Developing countries want to increase their energy use per capita and may rightly feel it is unfair require them to cut back on carbon based fuels before they have achieved par with developed countries. Developing countries are least able to afford changing to new technologies, but if countries, such as China, continue to develop carbon based economies, curtailing climate change will be nearly impossible.

One wishes these three problems (organization, cost, and fairness) were all we had to deal with. But, alas, a major problem has been misinformation regarding global climate change that much of the oil and gas industry has promoted. Three scientists, Balling, Michaels and Singer, have been identified as the “greenhouse skeptics.” Their pronouncements and “research” were often underwritten by oil and gas funding. Along with oil and gas interests, certain politicians have used these skeptics as reference for their opposition to deny the reality of climate change. The overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that global warming is real. Uncertainty remains regarding the details of projected impacts and timescale of the changes that this climate change will produce The three greenhouse skeptics do not represent any solid challenge to the greenhouse premise and Gelbspan thoroughly debunks the skeptic position. His book contains an appendix of scientific responses to their claims. Unfortunately, despite their lack of credibility, the work of the greenhouse skeptics has been used bolster some of the most ignorant political responses to the challenge of climate change.

Gelbspan describes the political debate in this country and how the U.S. has and has not participated in international treaties regarding global warming. He clearly outlines the possibilities for the U.S. to play a positive leadership role in meeting climate change challenges. However, to get there will take more pressure from citizens who understand this issue. I strongly encourage Sierrans to learn more about global warming and become those informed citizens.