The Climate Fix: What Scientists And Politicians Won’t Tell You About Global Warming
The Climate Fix seeks to reframe the political debate over climate policy by reviewing what science can tell us about the future state of the world’s climate and what governments can actually do to manage the influence of humans on our atmosphere. The book will be very helpful to those who have a rudimentary knowledge of the science of the atmosphere and seek to understand what drives the debate over global and local climate policies.
The author, Roger Pielke, Jr., is a professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he served as the Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. He earned graduate degrees in both public policy and political science and was a staff scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in its Environmental and Social Impacts Group from 1993 to 2001.
In The Climate Fix, the author explains three aspects of the current debate: (1) he explains how politicians use science in the ongoing policy debate; (2) he explains how politics influences the science of climate; and (3) he explains the dimensions of the territory within which action on climate can actually take place. Further, the author explains the roles of the institutions that government policymakers established to address climate change – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and NCAR – and what motivates their efforts.
The first three chapters clear the air regarding the current state of knowledge of the impact of carbon emissions on the environment. The initial chapters of the book review the actual science of climate by describing the mechanics of the emission of carbon and its natural, organic removal from the atmosphere. The lack of balance in this equation influences change in climate. The author then delineates and challenges the principal assumptions of advocates of climate policy and introduces the “Iron Law of Climate Policy” which states that when economic growth confronts climate, economic growth always wins. Those who advocate for advancing climate policy must work within the limits of this principal. He then describes the “Kaya Identity” which states that greenhouse gas emissions depend on four factors: (1) population, (2) the size of the global economy, (3) energy efficiency, and (4) carbon intensity. With the context provided by the “Iron Law of Climate Policy,” it is simple to understand that the policy focus must be on energy efficiency and carbon intensity. Thus, the author sets the stage for the engaging discussion about the clash between politics and climate science.
Several other chapters are noteworthy and helpful. Chapter 4 provides specific examples of governments that have recently created policies to “decarbonize” the environment that are aspirational but unrealistic, and the author discusses what drives them to create climate policies that are destined to fail. Chapter 6 discusses what is at stake for the winners and losers in the climate policy formula and how their positions have prevented a consensus in the climate debate. The rest of the book reveals the politics of climate – how politicians use science to advance their agendas and how climate science professionals react to the pressure of the policy debate and process. The author’s recommendations to reframe and restart climate policy are both pragmatic and reasonable.
The chapter that I found most interesting was Chapter 7 entitled “Disasters, Death and Destruction.” Pielke studied the increase in property damage due to climactic disasters such as hurricanes and floods in recent decades and offers a surprising, yet intuitive, conclusion that underscores the control that humans exert at the intersection between economic progress and climate.
