Shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year awardA renowned climate scientist shows how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change, and offers a battle plan for how we can save the planet.Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we've been told can slow climate change. But the inordinate emphasis on individual behavior is the result of a marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals.
Fossil fuel companies have followed the example of other industries deflecting blame (think "guns don't kill people, people kill people") or greenwashing (think of the beverage industry's "Crying Indian" commercials of the 1970s). Meanwhile, they've blocked efforts to regulate or price carbon emissions, run PR campaigns aimed at discrediting viable alternatives, and have abdicated their responsibility in fixing the problem they've created. The result has been disastrous for our planet.In The New Climate War, Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters-fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petrostates. And he outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change, including: A common-sense, attainable approach to carbon pricing- and a revision of the well-intentioned but flawed currently proposed version of the Green New Deal;Allowing renewable energy to compete fairly against fossil fuelsDebunking the false narratives and arguments that have worked their way into the climate debate and driven a wedge between even those who support climate change solutionsCombatting climate doomism and despair-mongering With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won't happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward. This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet.
About the Author :
Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. He has received many honors and awards, including NOAA's outstanding publication award in 2002 and selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002. Additionally, he contributed, with other IPCC authors, to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
More recently, he received the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018 and the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union in 2018. In 2019 he received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. In 2020 he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of numerous books, including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, and The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania.
Tim Campbell, winner of AudioFile Earphones Awards, is a narrator and actor based in Los Angeles, California. He studied at the University of California and earned a BA in music and theater and a certification from the prestigious Great Books program at Pepperdine University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He is also a classically trained singer and performs regularly with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Opera Chorus, as well as on studio soundtracks for film and television.
Review :
The New Climate War is an insightful treatise on how the polluting fossil fuel industry and their right-wing allies have deflected the blame for the climate crisis. The book charts a common sense course for collective actions to force government and corporations to make real solutions to the climate crisis-an existential threat to humanity and the planet.-- "Robert D. Bullard, Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University"
"I hope it will be read by everybody who is engaged in making the case for action."
-- "The Guardian (London)"
"Michael Mann may or may not be a Climate Jedi, but he is a climate smart guy and The New Climate War is a must read."
-- "Globe and Mail (Toronto)"
"This book is a must read...[to] about past challenges, struggles, and attacks that have been aimed at climate champions."
-- "Science"
Fossil fuel companies have, for decades longer than I have been alive, been the largest contributors to the climate crisis that affects my generation today--all in pursuit of profits and growth. In The New Climate War, Michael Mann holds them to account, and shows us how we can take the bold steps we must all take together to win the battle to save this planet.-- "Greta Thunberg, climate activist"
"An expert effectively debunks the false narrative of denialism and advocates communal resistance to fossil fuels."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
"Few people bear more scars from the climate wars than Michael Mann--and few have fought longer and harder for a basic, rational approach to dealing with this greatest of crises. Because of his persistence--and that of so many others--we are finally making progress!"
-- "Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author"
"Mann...says, global warming is a problem way too hot for any one person to handle. He's optimistic though, because he sees what we really can and will do."
-- "Bill Nye, science educator and CEO of The Planetary Society"
"Michael Mann...shows us how we can take the bold steps we must all take together to win the battle to save this planet."
-- "Greta Thunberg, climate activist and Time magazine Person of the Year"
"Pulling no punches, Michael Mann lays out our predicament...He deftly cuts through the propaganda and shows us the path forward."
-- "Jerry Brown, former governor of California governor"
"This book takes the reader behind the front lines into the decades-long information war waged by the fossil fuel industry and those that share their interests...[He] shows how we can come together to wage a new war in the fight for our future."
-- "Leonardo DiCaprio, actor and environmentalist"
