Reddit reviews Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity

The heat-trapping effect of greenhouse gases is basic physics, known for over a century. So to believe that the Earth is warming but it's not our fault, you have to believe that:

1. After 10,000 years of exceptional climate stability, the planet just coincidentally warmed up a lot right after we increased the atmospheric CO2 concentration by 43%, and
   
   
2. There's some unknown negative feedback which is countering the known warming effect of the greenhouse gases we emitted, and
   
   
3. There's another unknown natural process which is actually doing the warming.
   
   To dig into the case in more detail, the best source I've found is Hansen's Storms of My Grandchildren. He focuses on physics and geological history, rather than complicated computer models, and works through multiple lines of evidence.
   
   On another tack, a book which is often recommended but I haven't read yet is Merchants of Doubt, which documents how the fossil fuel companies are using the same tactics the tobacco companies used, to get the public to doubt well-established science.

On this particular topic, here are some books that I have read (sorry, mere comments from them will not do them justice):

• The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
  
• Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen
  
• CO2 Rising by Tyler Volk
  
• Hell and High Water by Joseph Romm
  
• With Speed and Violence by Fred Pearce
  
• Under a Green Sky by Peter D. Ward
  
  All of these authors have legitimate scientific credentials. With a little searching there is a lot more to be found. You might also check out www.climate.gov.
  
  Good luck.
  

http://www.amazon.com/Storms-My-Grandchildren-Catastrophe-Humanity/dp/1608195023

Dr. James Hansen.

Storms of my grandchildren.

Hi /u/reversejellyfish that's an excellent question. Unfortunately a large portion of my knowledge is based from courses and materials (scientific articles, lab experiments, etc.) during my degree. Further, I would cast myself as an outlier preferring to read actual text books, and peer-reviewed studies to gain insight. In other words I believe my preference choice for materials would also have members of your book club 'sawing logs.' That being said, I would recommend x-posting your question to a couple of other subreddits that typically see far more activity from its subscribers than /r/GlobalClimateChange. Try /r/environment and /r/climate.

As far as what I would recommend, quickly off the top of my head...

Documentary:

• An Inconvenient Truth
  
  
• Chasing Ice
  
  TV Series:
  
  
• Years of Living Dangerously
  
  Youtube Short:
  
  
• Welcome to the Anthropocene
  
  
• The Anthropocene and the Near Future: Crash Course Big History #9
  
  Books:
  
  
• Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity
  
  Hopefully that was of at least some help, though I feel none of these recommendations really details a full analysis of the "anthropocene"

http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/mindex.shtml

https://climate.nasa.gov/

https://www.amazon.com/Storms-My-Grandchildren-Catastrophe-Humanity/dp/1608195023

http://michaelmann.net/

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/

http://www.nature.com/climate/

https://www.omicsonline.org/earth-science-climatic-change.php

Feel free to find the livestock numbers.