Climate watch: Two new climate books that make excellent holiday gifts

In our family, books are much loved Christmas presents. If your family is like ours, I have two excellent new books on climate change to recommend. Very different in scope and intention, they have two things in common. Neither focuses on the science of climate change, and they are great introductions for people who are not experts.

Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist from Texas Tech University, but she is most famous for her ability to engage all kinds of people in discussions about climate. Her animated podcast called “Global Weirding” is on YouTube. “Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World” starts with the assertion that all of us, no matter our background or political views, merely by virtue of being human beings, care about what happens to our planet’s future.

In one clear chapter she demonstrates quickly why the arguments against climate science are not valid. The rest of Hayhoe’s book explores the human side of the problem.

She explains why people resist addressing climate change and shows by vivid examples from her own and other people’s lives how personal connection can bring about change. Her approach is down to earth. In one instance, she compares international climate cooperation to her church potluck dinners. She shows many people contributing to solutions: researchers, organizers, psychologists, farmers, faith leaders, and politicians.

Hayhoe urges us to join the effort. This eminently readable book shows us how and gives us hope.

In “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need”, Bill Gates approaches the problem of climate change as an entrepreneur and an investor. Written by a man who helped transform the business world by putting a computer on every desk, his suggested plan for transforming the world economy certainly merits our attention.

What exactly will we have to do to reach net zero in carbon emissions by 2050? He lays out the challenges of such an enormous enterprise and breaks down the problems in easily comprehensible propositions. He begins with the basic problem: “Fifty-one billion is how many tons of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere every year. ... Zero is what we need to aim for.” Every proposed solution should be judged by its ability to get us to that goal.

It is a truism that we must electrify everything and produce all our electricity with renewable fuels. Just how much electricity will that require? What are some of the problems in producing electricity from renewables? Other issues also loom large. How will we produce cement? How much space must we devote to solar panels? How do we guarantee a reliable grid? And “How much is this going to cost?”

The book is clear, well-organized, comprehensive, and persuasive. Building on the work of the firms and philanthropic foundations that Gates has established, it never loses sight of global concerns. Our solutions should be cheap enough for adoption by less wealthy nations.

Transforming the world economy away from fossil fuels presents an enormous, difficult, and urgent undertaking. Gates is not interested in assessing blame, but rather in creating change.

This is my favorite quote from Gates’ book: “When somebody wants toast for breakfast, we need to make sure there’s a system in place that can deliver the bread, the toaster, and the electricity to run the toaster without adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. We aren’t going to solve the climate problem by telling people not to eat toast.”