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SOLVING THE CLIMATE CRISIS

FRONTLINE REPORTS FROM THE RACE TO SAVE THE EARTH

A solid overview of mostly sensible tactics, some of which are succeeding.

Not a polemic but a sober presentation of mitigation techniques for our most significant global threat.

Berger, a prizewinning environmental journalist and author (Beating the Heat, Climate Myths, Restoring the Earth, etc.), begins with the bad news: Around the world, millions have already died or have been sickened or displaced by climate change. The U.S., he writes, “still counts on fossil fuel for four fifth of its energy needs, and many influential politicians remain opposed to decisive action.” He presents reasonable if not completely convincing arguments that reversing climate change will not require “belt-tightening or rationing.” Rather, it will bring prosperity, increased employment, and long-term economic security. Berger emphasizes nations, mostly in Europe, that have set goals of zero carbon emissions in the coming decades and are making dramatic progress. He admits that vigorous action from American politicians is unlikely, but many blue states and even some cities are taking up the fight. The author offers admiring portraits of hardworking individual activists, and a dozen chapters describe how to reduce and ultimately eliminate greenhouse gases. The good news is that wind and solar power prices continue to fall, and battery and hydrogen technology continue to improve, so 100% clean electricity and electric cars will be viable eventually. In chapters on decarbonizing agriculture, shipping, aircraft, forestry, and dirty industries such as steel and cement production, Berger emphasizes imaginative startups, evidence that progress is slow but perhaps steady. The final 120 pages, on international efforts and suggestions for further action, are the least uplifting. Long before the Trump administration’s embrace of science denial, American leaders bluntly refused to accept international guidelines. Consequently, most international agreements are toothless. Throughout, Berger downplays complex geoengineering solutions but then devotes a long, mildly skeptical chapter to concepts such as extracting carbon dioxide from the air, giant space mirrors to block the sun, and planting a trillion trees.

A solid overview of mostly sensible tactics, some of which are succeeding.

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023

ISBN: 9781644213223

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Seven Stories

Review Posted Online: June 20, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023

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THE BACKYARD BIRD CHRONICLES

An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.

A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.

In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”

An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.

Pub Date: April 23, 2024

ISBN: 9780593536131

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024

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ELON MUSK

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.

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A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.

To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023

ISBN: 9781982181284

Page Count: 688

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023

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