| Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | James E. Hansen |
| Illustrator | Makiko Sato |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Press |
| Publication date | 2009 |
| Pages | 304 pp |
| ISBN | 9781608192007 |
| OCLC Number | 435420333 |
| Dewey Decimal | 363.73874 |
| LC Classification | QC981.8.G56 H365 2009 |
Storms of My Grandchildren is climate scientist James Hansen's first book, published by Bloomsbury Press in 2009.[1] The book is about threats to people and habitability for life on earth from global warming.
Contents |
In the book, Hansen argues that burning of fossil fuels is changing our climate and that the Earth is in "imminent peril". He suggests that millions of species, and humanity itself, are threatened.[2] The title of the book, Storms of My Grandchildren, refers to the ferocious and extreme weather events "that will greet the next generation if the unmitigated use of fossil fuels continues".[3]
In Hansen's evaluation, the response of politicians to this crisis has mainly been "greenwashing", where their proposals sound good but amount to little.[2] Hansen states that we immediately need to "reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide to at most 350 ppm in order to avoid disasters for coming generations". He advocates prompt phaseout of coal plant emissions, plus improved forestry and agricultural practices.[2] Hansen supports a carbon tax returned to citizens as a dividend and rejects cap and trade.[4] He also supports nuclear power and rejects geoengineering.[5]
Storms of My Grandchildren has been reviewed in Nature,[3] the Los Angeles Times,[6] Science,[7] and Cosmos.[8] An excerpt from the book appeared in The Nation in 2009.[9]
James Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is often called the "father of global warming".[6]