Play Book Tag discussion

4.25 stars

This is a graphic novel that chronicles the author as he learns about various aspects of climate change. The author interviewed nine experts in their fields, many (most?) climate experts/scientists, but also economists (with some kind of connection/knowledge of climate change), and one person who combines study of the environment, economics, and society.

I’ve read a lot about this topic, but I still learned a lot from this. It was interesting the way he did this graphic novel, where the majority of the book is providing the information, but some of it was his own musings with his partner about what he was learning. There was much about the science, the exact causes (information about the gases themselves), but also what can be done (or HAS to be done) to mitigate what we’ve done/are doing to have caused those gases to overwhelm nature and our world.

There were dry parts, often when he was going through what some of the scientists were saying (with illustrations that only showed the scientists), but even when the focus was on the experts, it wasn’t all dry; in fact, most of it wasn’t. I also think it’s very important information. Not only do we need to stop our reliance on fossil fuels, we still need to cut back severely on over-consumption and so much more. Things many people aren’t going to want to do.

I learned more about some of the solutions being proposed (mostly by people/politicians who still don’t want to move to renewables (though even that won’t be enough to change our current trajectory, which I suspect is much worse now, as the book is 10 years old), but also by the people who profit from those industries), like hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and nuclear power (that’s only for electricity and nothing else).

It seemed to me this was very truthful discussion. Something I haven’t really read much about or heard/seen discussed much was the intersection of the economy, the environment, and society, particularly from the one expert where that is her field of study.