By Ink Alone: Fixing Climate

Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About The Current Threat – And How To Counter It
Wallace S. Broecker and Robert Kunzig

Kunzig and Broecker issue a very short volume to educate the general public about the future and the numerous previous climate changes that we have had throughout earth’s history. They then spend the last couple chapters discussing the best ways to solve the problems associated with excessive CO2 release and the resultant global warming.

The first half of the book is dedicated the growth of climatology as seen through Broecker, who is considered by many to be the guy in the climate history world. The story follows Broecker and his rise and the theories and scientific breakthroughs he was apart of. The development of the history of climatology at times was too tedious and the authors get caught up in making characters interesting, something that Kunzig does very well, but they moved away from the central point of the book, at least as it is expressed by the title “what past climate changes reveal about the current threat.”

However, as annoying as the first half of the book is, the second half is brilliant. Kunzig and Broecker dive into the science behind the global warming debate. Particularly, the increase in CO2 levels and tracing those throughout history, and how the atmosphereic changes created changes in environmental patterns. Broecker and Kunzig spend a prodigious amount of time discussing the Ice Ages, and how we have learnt so much from the climate changes during those periods, but more importantly, how the earth has warmed since then, following a similar path with similar consequences that we are seeing now.

Kunzig and Broecker spend a brilliant chapter discussing the climate disasters that human development has wrought. Focusing on California and the nature of Los Angeles to divert waters from the Sierra Nevadas. Broecker and Kunzig point out that LA has drained and corralled numerous streams, lakes, and rivers in order to water the city and much of the agriculture in California. The problem is that over the past century and half, California has received significantly more rain than is normal for the region. California (and therefore most of the Western US) has had two significant droughts (described as Megadroughts) where precipitation levels were down 75% from current levels or even less and they lasted for over 50 years. If we include these cycles, then California has been seeing record rains for the past 150 years.

California has been in a drought period since about 1999 and it is possible that its not really a drought, but simply the climate reverting back to its natural tendency. Kunzig and Broecker are hitting on a particularly interesting point that is also expressed in Brian Fagan’s book The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization. Fagan’s thesis is that societies grow because they adapt to their specific climate and exploit it. But when that climate changes, for whatever reason, the “civilization” is destroyed because it was so dependent on that prior climate. Kunzig and Broecker don’t actually go as far as to say this is happening in California, but it would not be hard to imagine it is.

I was particularly interested to see if Kunzig and Broecker would touch at all on the epic droughts impacting western Australia the past five years, and while they hinted at it, it was quite obviously that not enough research has been done in that area of the world to evaluate the prior rain fall patterns and climate changes.

Kunzig and Broecker finish out the book assessing the possible paths that we can pursue to reduce our levels of CO2 and thus decrease global warming. They argue that there is no easy solution, in fact, most are doomed to failure because fossil fuels are so easy and cheap to use: no one will give them up. They heartily endorse a plan to ‘scrub’ CO2 from the air and then capture it under oceans and deep in the ground. There are already companies who can capture and a Norwegian Oil company has been sequestering excess CO2 under the sea.

Overall, I’m more of a fan of solar power and getting that used in more settings. Why aren’t cars solar powered? Why doesn’t every house in America have its own solar cells or wind turbine? These are solutions we can pursue that would reduce our need for fossil fuels and their excessive release of carbon. Kunzig and Broecker rightly point out that cost wise, we are years away from full deployment of solar power and we need to start capturing CO2 as soon as possible.

Overall, the book is interesting, though I would have loved to see more development of the current climate debate less on the development of the climatology. I heartily endorse this read to anyone just entering the climate change debate or to those who want to know the thinkers and their impact on the field. I give it four out of five Melons.