The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet

Over twenty years ago Michael Mann was a lead author of the 'hockey stick' graph paper. Arguably the most important piece of climate science research. Since then he, and colleagues, have had to suffer the ire of the climate 'deniers' - often those who know climate change is happening but don't wish to lose their wealth.This book starts from the premise that the argument over climate change has now been won. The evidence is so overwhelming that those that cling to climate change being a 'blip' or not happening sound more and more like flat-earthers than rational people.But winning the argument only leads us to the 'New' climate war. Those deniers who have lost the argument haven't gone away. They haven't given up wishing to cling to profits made through climate damaging businesses. Their tactics now are more subtle and aimed at distracting or stopping people who want us to stop damaging the climate further.In his book, Michael Mann describes these tactics, how we can recognise them and how to overcome them. How we can act together and avoid division. How we can make those who write the rules change their approach. Useful not only in climate change but much wider too.Fundamentally this is a book that provides hope that we can address the issues of climate change and shows that solutions are at hand. Put this on your must-read list.

Let me be blunt: you should buy this book. It has changed my perspective on almost every climate story I read in the news or on social media. Not a difficult read, it provides an essential primer on climate denial/delay as well as a strong message of hope and realism. It prevented me from spiralling into feelings of climate doom.IMO many of the negative reviews are missing the point. This book has a gigantic set of references at the end where you can follow up on the specifics of X technology or Y policy. I also think that while US-focused much of the political discussion translates readily to UK domestic politics. This book is what it aims to be: an easily digestible yet vital orientation, often referencing social media because that is where much of the front line is now located.Do it.

This is a renowned best-selling book, shortlisted for, if not winning, some prestigious awards. It concentrates on the powerful fossil-fuel industry lobby, albeit with a strong US bias. We have to go back nearly 50 years to Anthony Sampson’s “Seven Sisters” to find the equivalent documentation of what the NY Times called “institutionalised greed and an abrogation of governmental responsibility” about the oil industry. The author explains the various threats of greenhouse gases and maintains hopes of decarbonising solutions. My own preference is for what is described on p108 as a fee-and-dividend model that corrects pricing to take account of polluting common resources and returns it back to the people. In our modern capitalist world only pricing can correct for the “tragedy of the commons”. The term “inactivists” is used for those supporting fossil-fuel interests and there is regular use of the word “agency” for a sense that action is possible. Inactivists include protagonists for “solutions that are not solutions at all”, including carbon capture and geoengineering. It is shown that some popular responses play into the hands of the industry lobby. The book avoids appearing anti-capitalist and anti-growth which is a commonplace pitfall of this genre. There are a few UK references but most of the lobbying organisations discussed are in the US: readers in the UK might find some equivalents by searching for “Tufton Street climate”. The book is well argued and easy to read and even if you don’t agree with everything you will get something out of it. After all, what is the harm of exploring some new views?

I'm struggling with this one. I'm sympathetic to the cause but I was expecting to be inspired and I am halfway through the book but feel like all I have read is a littany about how climate deniers are fighting dirty and everyone else is distracting themselves by arguing about the wrong things. It feels a bit like I am reading someone's venting.

"Correct the misinformation" Mann pleads on page 145 (as far as I could get with the book)."I wish I could", I thought to myself, disappointed that his well-reviewed book had fallen short of providing any information one could use to be a 'soldier' in the New Climate War. I should state emphatically that I am a proponent of addressing the climate crisis and largely back Mann's views, but I wanted an up-to-date book to equip me with the scientific facts of addressing climate change and this didn't deliver. So before you purchase, here's a brief summary of what the book is, and what it isn't.WHAT IT IS: the book is essentially political/media commentary; American politics and media, to boot. It largely deals with individuals who seem to have crossed Mann, their tweets and op-ed articles, as well as the propaganda of Fox News, the corrupt fossil-fuel interests and their lackies in the Republican Party, and the misfiring of the 'woke' Left. It seeks to bring awareness to the reader of the fallacies, diversionary and deflective tactics of those who harm the fight to address climate change. It sort of does this, in a long-winded way. But for a cynical environmentally-minded Brit, most of the 'he said, she said' of Mann's critique of the political and media landscape is deeply uninteresting and tiring. It feels like we're in an age where a book can be no more than a running commentary of what people said on Twitter or wrote in the New York Times.WHAT IT IS NOT: the book offers no insight into the science of climate change (or to the subjects of media studies or politics). In fact, in the 145 pages I could get through, there are remarkably few facts relating to climate research at all; probably no more than could be summarised in 3-4 pages. Perhaps this gets covered in the last chapter, 'Meeting the Challenge' - but I just couldn't persevere through 200 pages of low-detail politicking to get there. The light detail makes for an exhausting read - Mann will spend pages on why so-and-so's Tweet about carbon tax makes them a Fox New "shill" and how they're connected to the Koch brothers, but never takes the time to explain what carbon tax means, how it might be implemented, or how it would help. It never explains why they're wrong or what the right answer is. All you know is that Fox and the Koch Brothers are evil (a belief I already held and didn't need reinforced). Replace carbon tax with some other subject, and you'll find every chapter has this problem.I'm sure Mann is doing a lot of good work, but for me this book offered nothing of value. I'd highly recommend 'Sustainable Energy Without The Hot Air' if you want a more detailed exploration of renewable energy - sadly it's now 12 years old and the author passed away, as an updated version would be invaluable. Even Gate's techno-utopian book was more thought-provoking.