Fighting climate change takes more than data - it needs wonder, love and hope

"The idea that rising carbon dioxide concentrations could warm the planet dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. Women's rights campaigner and scientist Eunice Foote showed in 1856 that CO 2 and water vapour trap heat in the atmosphere. Her work, which was mostly overlooked at the time, has been validated by decades of research that has built a remarkably clear picture."

"Efforts have been hindered by decades of lobbying by powerful organizations such as oil companies. In this persuasive book, Marvel argues that people need to embrace an emotional response, not just a data-driven one, to prompt widespread action. Climate scientists and activists would be familiar with some of the emotions that double as chapter titles - anger, fear and grief. But Marvel insists on the need for wonder, love and hope, too."

"By weaving in personal anecdotes, she makes the science behind climate change accessible: how Earth's system functions, how greenhouse gases disrupt it, the effects of global warming and the complexity and uncertainties of models. For instance, Marvel poignantly recounts her fearful experience of living through Hurricane Ida in 2021, which caused disastrous floods that killed at least 13 people in New York City."

The greenhouse effect from CO2 and water vapour has been understood since the mid-nineteenth century, starting with Eunice Foote’s 1856 demonstration that CO2 and water vapour trap heat. Average global temperatures have risen since the Industrial Revolution, with fossil-fuel emissions driving higher greenhouse-gas levels and human activity as the principal cause. Policymakers have enacted little action, hindered by decades of lobbying from powerful organizations such as oil companies. Emotional engagement—anger, fear, grief, wonder, love and hope—is necessary alongside data to prompt widespread action. Personal anecdotes and clear explanations link physical processes to impacts, for example warmer air holds about 7% more water vapour per degree Celsius, producing heavier downpours.

Read at Nature