By Michael Beck

NASA’s political spinmeisters must think that their global-warming attack dog, Dr. James Hansen, slipped his leash again this year when he released his first book ever, Storms of My Grandchildren. Now the book doesn’t exactly predict the destruction of the planet, only the living surface that we tend to be fond of. The subtitle gives you the drift: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity.

You be the judge: Has Dr. Hansen joined the ranks of those longbeards who tote signs proclaiming “The End is Near”? He does have a history of delivering his science bluntly, but now, appalled by major climate-change effects popping up decades earlier than predicted, he’s gotten really aggressive. Here’s my informal personal summary:

Strike One: Disaster Heaven. This is the “good” news. We outlaw coal and raise trillions in carbon taxes to fund nuclear and renewables. Nothing worse happens than stuff like flooded cities (New York, Shanghai, London, etc), breath-taking superstorms, and some new deserts (U.S. Midwest, Southern Europe, etc). Civilization takes a body blow but recovers.

Strike Two: Global Catastrophe. This is the bad news. We phase in carbon taxes and renewables too slowly. After a decade or so, we find out that we’ve sailed right past the tipping point, and CO2 triples. Result: a major global extinction such as when the dinosaurs got wiped out. Civilization expires. But a few thousand lucky bands of survivors get reacquainted with the Stone Age.

Strike Three: Beyond Armageddon. This is the unthinkable. Yet all it would take is “business as usual,” goosing up coal extraction as oil runs low, with China and the rest of the world joining the U.S in a coal-burning frenzy of consumerism as if there were… yep, no tomorrow. C02 shoots up six fold to trigger a runaway greenhouse “Venus” syndrome. The bright side: unlike with Venus, polar temperatures probably wouldn’t exceed 250 degrees. Even so, goodbye to life (except microbes).

Time to take a deep breath. Now, is this the kind of calamity-howling we’re always hearing from the fringes? It can sure sound like it. For example, climate-change contrarians are delighted by the book, whose scaremongering, they say, neatly proves how global warming is just another alarmist fad.

They’ve got a good point. But there’s a catch: Hansen happens to be arguably the world’s top climate expert. Other scientists squirm at his stridency, but they marvel at his body of peer-reviewed data and at his impressive record of predictions that have come true. So… is Hansen a brilliant but melodramatic scientist who’s finally let success go to his head and gone half crazy?

The Bottom Line: Does Storms of My Grandchildren aim a manic challenge at our beloved free-enterprise American Dream? Or is it deadly serious, demanding global gut-wrenching economic changes ASAP if not sooner? And if it’s the latter, could it hold at least one blessing in disguise? Could it refocus our culture away from shop-till-you-drop and towards caring community and relationships and peace of mind?

I repeat from above, you be the judge. Please do not hesitate to share your opinions and comments. You can comment either below, on facebook, or both!
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Image: The Sahara comes to New York. Dr. Hansen predicts that a worst-case runaway global warming would raise temps past 200 degrees, boil the oceans, and cover all the land with desert.
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