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Fixing Climate
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About the Author

Wallace S. Broecker is the Newberry Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. He has received many honors for his work, most recently the 2008 Balzan Prize for Science of Climate Change. Robert Kunzig is a freelance science writer.

Reviews

""Fixing Climate" gives a colorful history of a few of the theories and some of the people that have identified the course of catastrophic climate change. The book deftly explores how we arrived at the point where climate change is no longer preventable and will continue even if we all adopt sustainable alternatives the day after tomorrow.... Broecker and Kunzig make the case that this scheme is not just attainable but essential to our survival." --"Discover "magazine "If anyone should be taken seriously on the topic of climate change, it is Wallace Broecker." --"OnEarth" "Written by journalist Robert Kunzig and renowned Columbia University climate scientist Wallace Broecker, "Fixing Climate" is as much Broecker's scientific memoir as it is a call to action. The authors wend their way through a good deal of the history of climate-science research--a fair amount of it over the past five decades conducted by Broecker or his close associates--in a measured, graceful manner." --"The Christian Science Monitor" "A call to arms for us to take responsibility for our fossil-fuel dependency." --"Nature "magazine "An excellent history of climate science in the 20th century. . . Broecker himself is an eminent climate scientist [and] he is worth listening to." --"The Guardian "(UK) "A wonderful and easy to read book..." --"The New York Observer" "A strong but never strident document of the coming crisis, expressing some optimism on our chances of surviving it." --"Kirkus Reviews" "Fascinating. . . Framed around the life and career of author Broecker, one of the earliest voices on global warming, this history of the climate crisis reads like a series of mini scientific biographies as the authors travel around the world and across centuries illuminating the lives of those who sought answers to climate mysteries. . . Anyone interested in environmental science, even at the most basic levels, will be intrigued by the wealth of climate history covered and the manner in which Broecker and Kunzig make personal stories from 200 years ago as relevant and fascinating as those from last year."--"Booklist""" "A remarkably readable and compelling account of the important advances in our understanding of the complexity of global climate that have taken place over the past 40 years. The book is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand the unique nature of the climate change underway today."--Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies, Harvard University "The world needs pioneering scientists, visionaries, leaders in the global debate on climate change. Broecker and Kunzig offer us a unique contribution by mapping out how to fix the climate. Their book is a must for all who care about the future."--Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, President of Iceland "'If you're living with an angry beast, you shouldn't poke it, ' warns Wally Broecker, the world's leading expert on abrupt climate change. Yet we're doing just that, say Broecker and co-author Robert Kunzig in their riveting new book "Fixing Climate." Our vast use of fossil fuels--combined with massive deforestation--is dangerously poking Earth's climate and threatening massive instability in climate, sea levels, and even the survival of species. The heroic labors of scientists such as Broecker illuminate the risks the world now faces as well as the choices our global society must make in order to live in harmony with Earth and ensure the wellbeing of future generations."--Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon "A wonderful book about climate change and how to fix global warming, as seen through the eyes of one of our greatest living geoscientists. This extremely well-written account presents a host of fascinating characters, discovering secrets about how the climate system worked in the past and what this means for the future of civilization. It's the best book on the subject I've read."--George H. Denton, professor of geological sciences, University of Maine
"The best insight into our future must come from the Earth's history--and Broecker is the world's expert on climate history."--James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies "This very readable volume is the happy outcome of a collaboration between Wally Broecker, one of the founding fathers of climate science, and an exceptional science writer. Kunzig plays Boswell to Broecker's Johnson, and through a felicitous marriage of anecdote and lucid explanation they show how the science moved forward by a combination of hard work, insight, personal interactions and a little serendipity. A very enjoyable way to grasp the fundamentals of modern climate science!"--Baron Ron Oxburgh, former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Head of the select committee on science and technology of the United Kingdom House of Lords "Wally Broecker is one of the most interesting figures in the study of the biggest problem the world has ever faced. This book explains why that problem may be getting completely out of hand, and offers at least an outside possibility for helping to tame it."--Bill McKibben, author "The End of Nature" and "The Bill McKibben Reader" "Towering scientist Wally Broecker and master-wordsmith Rob Kunzig tell the story we must read, of the great environmental challenges facing us and a path to solving them. Along the way, we catch a glimpse of the humanity behind the great mind, of what it is to be Wally Broecker trying to rescue the world from itself."--Richard Alley, professor of geosciences, Pennsylvania State University "A brilliant and iconoclastic scientist, Wally Broecker is largely responsible for shaping the modern discipline of chemical oceanography. His pioneering work has improved our understanding of the ocean's roles in the carbon cycle and climate system and demonstrated that climate often shifts in unpredictable jumps and spurts. In "Fixing Climate," Broecker teams with science journalist Robert Kunzig to offer a well-crafted description of the history of such research, our current climate predicament, and possible paths forward. . . . ["Fixing Climate"] demonstrates that Broecker has again identified an important and difficult problem for which he offers creative solutions that will open new lines of productive research." --"Science"

"A close-up look at how scientists arrived at the evidence for global warming. Broecker teams with science writer Kunzig to document decades of climate research, much of it conducted by Broecker himself. Broecker became a pioneer of radiocarbon dating, the discipline that transformed the geological time scale into a useful chronology. Measuring the proportions of two isotopes of carbon, scientists could date events in the remote past, particularly the ice ages during which glaciers covered much of Europe, Asia and North America. Other techniques, such as the study of mile-long cores taken from Greenland glaciers and of annual sediment layers on lake bottoms, gave a precise look at climate fluctuations over hundreds of thousands of years. The focus on carbon as a chronological measuring rod also led to awareness of the relative historic abundance of carbon dioxide, which had been known since the 1850s to retain the sun's heat in the atmosphere. Between 1958 and 2004, Dave Keeling of the Scripps Oceanic Institute recorded a 20 percent increase in the atmospheric level of the gas linked to the burning of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, Broecker formed a theory of the 'conveyor belt, ' a system of oceanic currents moderating the climate of Western Europe. Kunzig uses the theories of Broecker and others to show how the evidence for global warming accumulated, how it relates to the history of past ice ages and its likely effects over the next century. The book ends with looks at techniques that may mitigate the warming, from reduction of emissions--unlikely, say the authors, with India and China reaching for technological parity withthe West--to wholesale scrubbing to get them out of the atmosphere.A strong but never strident document of the coming crisis, expressing some optimism on our chances of surviving it." --"Kirkus Reviews" "Framed around the life and career of author Broecker, one of the earliest voices on global warming, this history of the climate crisis reads like a series of mini scientific biographies as the authors travel around the world and across centuries illuminating the lives of those who sought answers to climate mysteries. From glacial studies in the early-nineteenth-century Swiss Alps to the work of Serbian Milutin Milankovic, who calculated orbital cycles while in a World War I Austrian prison," Fixing Climate" highlights the research of dozens of men who followed their own natural curiosity into areas not actively studied by their contemporaries. Anyone interested in environmental science, even at the most basic levels, will be intrigued by the wealth of climate history covered and the manner in which Broecker and Kunzig make personal stories from 200 years ago as relevant and fascinating as those from last year. The title is unfortunately misleading, as it does not hint at the brilliant eccentrics portrayed within. There is far more here than just another academic discussion on climate change; fascinating stuff."--"Booklist" "The once arcane field of climate change has certainly moved up our agenda. Here, science writer Kunzig traces the influential career of Broecker, one of the learned voices sounding the alarm on this subject. Various climate concepts like the 'conveyor belt' of global ocean circulation originated with Broecker. Their book also lays out important findings made by climate observers and scientists over the past century. Its centralpoint is that Earth's climate is sensitive, it has changed abruptly in the past, and humans mess with it at our peril. The authors add succinct climate predictions for the coming decades and centuries. Concluding that 'there is still no sign that we are capable of weaning ourselves from fossil fuels, ' they offer a radical solution to our present carbon dioxide glut and introduce physicist Klaus Lackner, who has developed a device to scrub excess CO2 out of the atmosphere, then sequester it. It looks technically feasible but would require major resources. This accessible science book is recommended for all public and academic libraries." "--Library Journal""" "A remarkably readable and compelling account of the important advances in our understanding of the complexity of global climate that have taken place over the past 40 years. The book is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand the unique nature of the climate change underway today."--Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies, Harvard University "The world needs pioneering scientists, visionaries, leaders in the global debate on climate change. Broecker and Kunzig offer us a unique contribution by mapping out how to fix the climate. Their book is a must for all who care about the future."--Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, President of Iceland "'If you're living with an angry beast, you shouldn't poke it, ' warns Wally Broecker, the world's leading expert on abrupt climate change. Yet we're doing just that, say Broecker and co-author Robert Kunzig in their riveting new book "Fixing Climate," Our vast use of fossil fuels--combined with massive deforestation--is dangerously poking Earth's climate and threateningmassive instability in climate, sea levels, and even the survival of species. The heroic labors of scientists such as Broecker illuminate the risks the world now faces as well as the choices our global society must make in order to live in harmony with Earth and ensure the wellbeing of future generations."--Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon "A wonderful book about climate change and how to fix global warming, as seen through the eyes of one of our greatest living geoscientists. This extremely well-written account presents a host of fascinating characters, discovering secrets about how the climate system worked in the past and what this means for the future of civilization. It's the best book on the subject I've read."--George H. Denton, professor of geological sciences, University of Maine
"The best insight into our future must come from the Earth's history--and Broecker is the world's expert on climate history."--James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies "This very readable volume is the happy outcome of a collaboration between Wally Broecker, one of the founding fathers of climate science, and an exceptional science writer. Kunzig plays Boswell to Broecker's Johnson, and through a felicitous marriage of anecdote and lucid explanation they show how the science moved forward by a combination of hard work, insight, personal interactions and a little serendipity. A very enjoyable way to grasp the fundamentals of modern climate science!"--Baron Ron Oxburgh, former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Head of the select committee on science and technology of the United Kingdom House of Lords "Wally Broecker is one of the most interesting figures in the study of the biggest problem the world has ever faced. This book explains why that problem may be getting completely out of hand, and offers at least an outside possibility for helping to tame it."--Bill McKibben, author "The End of Nature" and "The Bill McKibben Reader" "Towering scientist Wally Broecker and master-wordsmith Rob Kunzig tell the story we must read, of the great environmental challenges facing us and a path to solving them. Along the way, we catch a glimpse of the humanity behind the great mind, of what it is to be Wally Broecker trying to rescue the world from itself."--Richard Alley, professor of geosciences, Pennsylvania State University

"A remarkably readable and compelling account of the important advances in our understanding of the complexity of global climate that have taken place over the past 40 years. The book is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand the unique nature of the climate change underway today." --Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies, Harvard University"The world needs pioneering scientists, visionaries, leaders in the global debate on climate change. Broecker and Kunzig offer us a unique contribution by mapping out how to fix the climate. Their book is a must for all who care about the future."--Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, President of Iceland"'If you're living with an angry beast, you shouldn't poke it, ' warns Wally Broecker, the world's leading expert on abrupt climate change. Yet we're doing just that, say Broecker and co-author Robert Kunzig in their riveting new book "Fixing Climate," Our vast use of fossil fuels--combined with massive deforestation--is dangerously poking Earth's climate and threatening massive instability in climate, sea levels, and even the survival of species. The heroic labors of scientists such as Broecker illuminate the risks the world now faces as well as the choices our global society must make in order to live in harmony with Earth and ensure the wellbeing of future generations." --Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon "A wonderful book about climate change and how to fix global warming, as seen through the eyes of one of our greatest living geoscientists. This extremely well-written account presents a host of fascinating characters, discovering secrets about how the climate system worked in the past and what this means for the future of civilization. It's the best book on the subject I've read." --George H. Denton, professor of geological sciences, University of Maine"The best insight into our future must come from the Earth's history--and Broecker is the world's expert on climate history." --James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies"This very readable volume is the happy outcome of a collaboration between Wally Broecker, one of the founding fathers of climate science, and an exceptional science writer. Kunzig plays Boswell to Broecker's Johnson, and through a felicitous marriage of anecdote and lucid explanation they show how the science moved forward by a combination of hard work, insight, personal interactions and a little serendipity. A very enjoyable way to grasp the fundamentals of modern climate science!" --Ron Oxburgh (aka Baron Oxburgh), former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, heads the select committee on science and technology of the UK House of Lords"Wally Broecker is one of the most interesting figures in the study of the biggest problem the world has ever faced. This book explains why that problem may be getting completely out of hand, and offers at least an outside possibility for helping to tame it." --Bill McKibben, author ""The End of Nature"" and ""The Bill McKibben Reader"""Towering scientist Wally Broecker and master-wordsmith Rob Kunzig tell the story we must read, of the great environmental challenges facing us and a path to solving them. Along the way, we catch a glimpse of the humanity behind the great mind, of what it is to be Wally Broeckertrying to rescue the world from itself." --Richard Alley, professor of geosciences, Pennsylvania State University

"'If you're living with an angry beast, you shouldn't poke it, ' warns Wally Broecker, the world's leading expert on abrupt climate change. Yet we're doing just that, say Broecker and co-author Robert Kunzig in their riveting new book "Fixing Climate," Our vast use of fossil fuels--combined with massive deforestation--is dangerously poking Earth's climate and threatening massive instability in climate, sea levels, and even the survival of species. The heroic labors of scientists such as Broecker illuminate the risks the world now faces as well as the choices our global society must make in order to live in harmony with Earth and ensure the wellbeing of future generations." --Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon "A wonderful book about climate change and how to fix global warming, as seen through the eyes of one of our greatest living geoscientists. This extremely well-written account presents a host of fascinating characters, discovering secrets about how the climate system worked in the past and what this means for the future of civilization. It's the best book on the subject I've read." --George H. Denton, professor of geological sciences, University of Maine
"The best insight into our future must come from the Earth's history--and Broecker is the world's expert on climate history." --James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
"This very readable volume is the happy outcome of a collaboration between Wally Broecker, one of the founding fathers of climate science, and an exceptional science writer. Kunzig plays Boswell to Broecker's Johnson, and througha felicitous marriage of anecdote and lucid explanation they show how the science moved forward by a combination of hard work, insight, personal interactions and a little serendipity. A very enjoyable way to grasp the fundamentals of modern climate science!" --Ron Oxburgh (aka Baron Oxburgh), former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, heads the select committee on science and technology of the UK House of Lords
"Wally Broecker is one of the most interesting figures in the study of the biggest problem the world has ever faced. This book explains why that problem may be getting completely out of hand, and offers at least an outside possibility for helping to tame it." --Bill McKibben, author ""The End of Nature"" and ""The Bill McKibben Reader""
"Towering scientist Wally Broecker and master-wordsmith Rob Kunzig tell the story we must read, of the great environmental challenges facing us and a path to solving them. Along the way, we catch a glimpse of the humanity behind the great mind, of what it is to be Wally Broecker trying to rescue the world from itself." --Richard Alley, professor of geosciences, Pennsylvania State University


"A wonderful book about climate change and how to fix global warming, as seen through the eyes of one of our greatest living geoscientists. This extremely well-written account presents a host of fascinating characters, discovering secrets about how the climate system worked in the past and what this means for the future of civilization. It's the best book on the subject I've read." --George H. Denton, professor of geological sciences, University of Maine
"The best insight into our future must come from the Earth's history--and Broecker is the world's expert on climate history." --James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
"This very readable volume is the happy outcome of a collaboration between Wally Broecker, one of the founding fathers of climate science, and an exceptional science writer. Kunzig plays Boswell to Broecker's Johnson, and through a felicitous marriage of anecdote and lucid explanation they show how the science moved forward by a combination of hard work, insight, personal interactions and a little serendipity. A very enjoyable way to grasp the fundamentals of modern climate science!" --Ron Oxburgh (aka Baron Oxburgh), former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, heads the select committee on science and technology of the UK House of Lords
"Wally Broecker is one of the most interesting figures in the study of the biggest problem the world has ever faced. This book explains why that problem may be getting completely out of hand, and offers at least an outside possibility for helping to tame it." --Bill McKibben, author ""The End of Nature"" and ""The Bill McKibben Reader""
"Towering scientist Wally Broecker andmaster-wordsmith Rob Kunzig tell the story we must read, of the great environmental challenges facing us and a path to solving them. Along the way, we catch a glimpse of the humanity behind the great mind, of what it is to be Wally Broecker trying to rescue the world from itself." --Richard Alley, professor of geosciences, Pennsylvania State University


"The best insight into our future must come from the Earth's history--and Broecker is the world's expert on climate history." --James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
"This very readable volume is the happy outcome of a collaboration between Wally Broecker, one of the founding fathers of climate science, and an exceptional science writer. Kunzig plays Boswell to Broecker's Johnson, and through a felicitous marriage of anecdote and lucid explanation they show how the science moved forward by a combination of hard work, insight, personal interactions and a little serendipity. A very enjoyable way to grasp the fundamentals of modern climate science!" --Ron Oxburgh (aka Baron Oxburgh), former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, heads the select committee on science and technology of the UK House of Lords
"Wally Broecker is one of the most interesting figures in the study of the biggest problem the world has ever faced. This book explains why that problem may be getting completely out of hand, and offers at least an outside possibility for helping to tame it." --Bill McKibben, author ""The End of Nature"" and ""The Bill McKibben Reader""
"Towering scientist Wally Broecker and master-wordsmith Rob Kunzig tell the story we must read, of the great environmental challenges facing us and a path to solving them. Along the way, we catch a glimpse of the humanity behind the great mind, of what it is to be Wally Broecker trying to rescue the world from itself." --Richard Alley, professor of geosciences, Pennsylvania State University

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