This Changes Everything

For a book on climate change, it’s curious how little time Klein spends discussing the science or engaging with the arguments of climate change deniers. She clearly states this is not a book about climate science (many of these have already been written) but about the politics of climate change and how we respond to the challenges it poses.

She states the position of 97% of the scientific community, who accept that on current projections, we are headed for a global temperature rise of over 2 degrees by the end of this century, with 4 degrees (or more) being cited as very likely in reputable studies. This would trigger irreversible climate change phenomena with a huge impact on human and natural life, including the disruption of weather and seasonal patterns causing droughts and famines, a significant increase in extreme weather conditions, and rising sea levels making low-lying lands uninhabitable. As Klein puts it, “climate change has become an existential crisis for the human species” (15).

The research has been widely done and corroborated by the scientific community, and that authority is good enough for Klein to accept as the starting point of her own political and cultural study.

Defining the scope of her book in this way is legitimate, and it allows her to focus her critical attention on the political and cultural dimensions of the situation, but it does mean that someone unconvinced or uncertain about the truth of climate change is not likely to be persuaded by what they read here.