Lipsky’s book is a project of maximum ambition. He retells the entire climate story, from the dawn of electricity to the dire straits of our present day. It’s well-trod ground, but Lipsky...makes it page turning and appropriately infuriating ... Otherwise dry proceedings of back-room history are given a juicy injection of drama and humor. We get tales of vanity, fame and money — and at least one God complex ... Every new face (and there are many!) is important ... Cinematic.
A tour guide to the vicissitudes of climate change ... The tone and language of this book bounces between inviting (it is an excellent, approachable primer on the science of global warming) and irritating (the informality is at odds with the urgency of the argument). That almost certainly reflects how infuriating it must have been to trace the evolution of an idea that is a challenge to human survival ... The virtue of this volume lies in Lipsky’s dizzying account of how long we have known so much about an issue that means so much, how long we have ignored a problem that has begged not to be ignored, how much time we have wasted when time was of the essence, how clear the danger was when the opponents repeatedly asked for further clarity, how undeniable and how urgent the threat is now due to the peregrinations of the deniers
A journey ... With the amount of research that went into this book, this can be considered the historical record to date on climate action and inaction.
