Hothouse earth: An inhabitant's guide, By BillMcGuire, Icon Books, London, 2022, 192 pp., paperback, $19.95 (ISBN 978‐1785789205)

Bill McGuire's book has a foreword, ten chapters, an afterword, three sparse pages of references, and an index. Unfortunately, the book has no maps, which could have been helpful in many places. Its premise is “there is now no chance of dodging a grim future of perilous, all-pervasive, climate breakdown” (p. xiv). “In order to be as prepared as we can be, we need to plan for the worst even as we hope for the best” (p. xvii). However, McGuire views this as difficult because there are countries, such as Canada, which continue developing fossil fuel infrastructure. McGuire discusses a range of issues including: how industrialization gave rise to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels; natural climate changes (including the role of CO2 in those changes); the warming of polar regions; extreme heatwaves and other extreme weather events; sea level rise; elements of uncertainty worsening climate change impacts; how climate change will lead to conflict; climate change's impacts upon human health; and the worst-case scenario in a world of runaway climate change. McGuire's book has its strengths. It gives a readily understandable explanation of how the loss of Arctic Sea ice leads to a meandering jet stream producing extreme cold weather events. McGuire also addresses the oft-articulated view that some places may benefit from climate change due to growing areas moving poleward, pointing out that actually, no one benefits from climate change. “As far as agriculture is concerned,” wrote McGuire, “there are no winners in the global heating game” (p. 80). Discussing geoengineering, defined as “technological schemes involving intentional wholescale interference with the climate” (p. 151), McGuire declares them a distraction only addressing climate change's symptoms rather than its cause, and therefore a distraction from reducing CO2 emissions as fast as possible. McGuire is similarly unenthusiastic about carbon capture and storage—viewing it as something hijacked by fossil fuel industries to “squeeze out the last dribbles from senescent oil fields” (p. 150). McGuire addresses inaction to address climate change, pointing out that “emissions continue to surge, and serious global action to turn the tide is still nowhere to be seen” (p. 151). McGuire also points out how governments provide $11 million of subsidies to the fossil fuel industry every minute. Ultimately, McGuire blames capitalism for the climate crisis, with its emphasis on competition (instead of cooperation) and profit (instead of the greater good). To McGuire, “capitalism is exactly the wrong economic system to have in place during a time of global crisis” (p. 161). McGuire's book is not, however, without weaknesses. McGuire discusses the asymmetries in CO2 emissions between rich and poor; by 2030 the world's richest 1% are predicted to have annual per capita CO2 emissions of 70 tonnes, while the world's poorest 50% (who will bear the brunt of climate change) are predicted to have annual per capita emissions of only “one measly tonne” (p. 160). However, the book lacks discussion of climate injustice, how those countries who have done the least to cause climate change are also those most vulnerable to its effects (Holden, 2018; Shue, 2014; Vanderheiden, 2008). The lack of a comprehensive bibliography providing sources for virtually all the book's pithy statements is disappointing. There are also other books, focusing on climate change's specific aspects, which provide more robust discussions. For climate change's severity there is Wallace-Wells (2019); for drought there is De Buys (2011); for the oceans there is Rohling (2017); climate change and conflict are better covered by Parenti (2011); and for the incompatibility of capitalism with climate change there is Klein (2014) or even Pope Francis's 2015 Encyclical Laudato Si. Nevertheless, this reviewer recommends this book. As someone who teaches environmental science in Alberta, where many view climate change as a socialist plot to undermine the oil industry (and where environmentalists are described with opprobrium), McGuire provides a succinct warning of humanity's perils in the coming dystopian future.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.