THE NEW CLIMATE WAR (Lead): the fight to take back our planet

I usually don’t review books or give less than 3 or 4 stars to books as the limited number of books I’ve read so far, have all taught me something or the other or have been enjoyable reads. This one demanded that I write something to warn anyone who wished to inform themselves a little more about climate change and put their time, effort and money into a book for that purpose.To start off the title of this book is misleading. This book isn’t about a climate ‘war’ or ‘the fight to take back our planet’ in the context anyone would be fooled to believe. The summary should be read as follows- “he’s wrong, she’s wrong, Trump was wrong, Scott Morrison was wrong, Murdoch media was wrong, Wallace was wrong, I was right and I am right and I spent my sabbatical in Australia but I won’t tell you what to do. Whatever right that happened in the past I had predicted and said so much before it happened and he’s a moron for having said something and she’s a moron for tweeting something and Russian trolls are trolling…” and so on. Mann goes around in circles in all the chapters, repeating some ‘information’ so many times it’s difficult to take this seriously. Which is tragic, coz I think his intent was (should have been) otherwise.He’s used all the lingo he could think of and that too so many times in the book that you’d barf every time any of these words come up - ‘deniers’, ‘messengers of doom’, ‘soft doomism’, ‘deflectors’, ‘doctor doom’, ‘climate doom porn’ etc while being guilty of being or acting out all of those things in the little action/non-action he prescribes in the book.The seriousness of climate change deserves something better than the bickering and self-serving piece that this book is. Should’ve been an article/blog post instead of a book. Frankly, I don’t get why would someone like Mann write something like this? I wonder if this is coming from a place of ego or hubris. Whichever way, this book can definitely be avoided.Oh and the quote by Greta Thunberg at the cover (“Shows us how we can take the bold steps we must all take together to win the battle to save this planet” ) couldn’t be more wrong. There’s no bold steps. Words, confusion and contradictions- yes. But I guess that goes along the general theme of the author in this book.

Michael Mann is notorious for manipulating data to suit his false narrative of human-influenced climate change. This book is no exception.

If you read only one book on climate change this year, make sure it isn't this one. There are lots of good ones around and this is not one of them. There is almost nothing in the way of scientific explanation, evidence or persuasive arguments for particular policy prescriptions in it. It is largely just a series of rants designed to undermine those who disagree with the author, by questioning their motives, funding or associations, calling them names and quoting his Twitter feed as evidence. I'm largely aligned with many of the policies the author favours (although it's hard to be sure because he spends so little time explaining his own position precisely because he's so busy attacking other people - note, he usually attacks the people not their arguments), so it was really very disappointing to find so little of substance in the book. No doubt he would happily ignore this review, or any like it, as "deflection" that will fuel the agenda of the "inactivists", thus leaving him immune to learning anything from the criticism.

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.

This had a fair amount of mentioning other scientists by name and some criticism, so I stopped reading it half way through. There is a problem, in fact a lot of problems and we need to accelerate progress. None of the targets of various climate conferences have actually been delivered. Suggesting a limited number of companies that create most pollution is a good place to start but other books by people looking for solutions and to reduce the Green Premium are more constructive. While global warming is a fact the science is not settled enough to be sure we are tackling it effectively or in a way that wont damage life for many especially the poorest.

“But are individuals really to blame for the climate crisis?” … WTFThe book starts with the author congratulating himself and listing his credentials, then laying out the jejune thesis of this book: scapegoat oil companies and victimise individuals.Those oil companies however are nearly all American, with mainly American shareholders, fuelling the most carbon and energy-intensive country on Earth (America) for the last 50 years. Then you have the incessant American intervention in the Middle East and Latin America over the last 50 years to keep oil cheap. Then you have this American idea that GDP growth is the purpose of life and that companies exist to generate dividends for American shareholders. Then there are 300M+ American individuals hoovering Brazilian steak and driving Ford 4x4s to consume whatever the American media tells them to.American industry, media and politics is nothing more than an aggregate of their most privileged individuals. Let’s get that straight. They made choices and they ain’t the victims. The existence of nasty lobbyists in America is in some small part the author’s responsibility. No matter the wit of this academic or any other thinker - they are part of the problem if they don’t look inwards first.

"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.