In June 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen testified to the U.S. Senate that global warming was underway and humans were a factor. As Hansen recounts in Storms of my Grandchildren, he thought U.S. politicians would do the logical thing: begin scaling down the use of fossil fuels and transitioning to alternative sources of energy. Over twenty years later the U.S. has yet to do either, even as climate change is occurring more rapidly and violently than many had predicted. Frustrated and alarmed, this book is Hansen’s scientific, political, and personal meditation on the issue, spliced with images of his grandchildren to remind us exactly what climate change is really about.
The book begins with Hansen’s discussion of climate change science and his reports to U.S. and world politicians, eventually leading to his frustration that his research and findings were so often drawn upon selectively for political purposes, such as former Vice President Dick Cheney focusing on the role of soot in global warming as a way to potentially downplay the role of carbon dioxide, which is the main contributor. Such inside peeks into politics and power based on Hansen’s first-hand accounts is interesting and illuminating. Even more interesting is learning about the history of the world’s climate from one of the top scientists in the world on the issue, whose calculations on climate change have proved remarkably accurate again and again.
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