CLIMATE RESTORATION

THE ONLY FUTURE THAT WILL SUSTAIN THE HUMAN RACE

by Peter Fiekowsky with Carole Douglis ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 22, 2022

A systematic approach to reversing catastrophic climate change.

In an interesting narrative gambit, physicist and engineer Fiekowsky, who writes his nonfiction debut with Douglis, invites readers to imagine the future of Earth under what current-day climate specialists routinely refer to as the best-case scenario: Humanity comes together to bring the world’s net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. As Fiekowsky points out, this would still result in a nightmare world of barren (and menacingly rising) oceans and many millions of “climate refugees” fleeing their native countries—because even if carbon-zero initiatives succeed, they’ll only halt carbon emissions at what are already historically high, lethal levels. “Will humanity long survive on a planet where the climate patterns that all living things have relied on for 12,000 years have been permanently changed; where the last of the large fish and wild animals are on a path to extinction; and where human activity has taken over nearly all the land needed for diverse ecosystems?” Regardless of whether such survival is possible, Fiekowsky has an alternate solution: replace “climate action” with “climate restoration,” which has as its goal the reduction of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere to preindustrial levels. The author discusses tactics like using “marine permaculture” (vast seaweed farms), shunting CO2 to the infinite sink of the oceans, and something he calls enhanced atmospheric methane oxidation, which would involve “dispersing a very fine mist (aerosol) of iron chloride into the lower atmosphere to augment what forms naturally over the ocean.”

Fiekowsky covers fundamental issues involved in climate health, including global overpopulation, and in all cases, he matches his remediation suggestions with practical strategies for implementation. That last point underscores how effective and galvanizing this book is: Fiekowsky isn’t suggesting idle, unworkable fairy tales of restoring ecological balance. In brisk chapters supported by wide-ranging research, this work details not only the theoretical validity of the steps proposed, but also their workability. He doesn’t overstress one of the more subtle contentions, which is that humans seeking to restore climate health would be aided by the planet itself. In answer to why he’s so confident in climate restoration, the author says: “ ‘It’s been done before.’ Nature has removed massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere 10 times in the last million years, and likely many more times before then.” True, projects like enhanced atmospheric methane oxidation (EAMO) may strike even some fanatic climate warriors as far-fetched and unlikely. And although the author is unquestionably correct about the disastrous effects human overpopulation has on the world, his suggestions for “population restoration” will likewise jar some readers who are convinced a healthy climate is impossible with current population levels. But the book’s prevailing tone of energetic optimism ultimately carries the day; readers of climate change classics like The Uninhabitable Earth(2019) by David Wallace-Wells will find these calls to specific, doable action intensely refreshing. The cause is not hopeless, Fiekowsky says; the world can still be saved.

An invigorating, thought-provoking plan to address climate change.

Pub Date: April 22, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-953943-10-1

Page Count: 262

Publisher: Rivertowns Books

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2022

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | NATURE | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES