Small Gases, Big Effect: this is climate change
David Nelles & Christian Serrer; illustrated by Lisa Schwegler, Stefan Kraiss and Jana Geisse
Penguin Books Ltd., 2021
ISBN 978-0-241-46188-4
Small Gases, Big Effect: this is climate change is a compact (15.5cm square) book that comprises 50 double page spreads divided across 7 sections: The Earth’s climate, Possible causes of climate change, The cryosphere, The oceans, Weather and climate extremes, Ecosystems, and Humans. These are followed by a Conclusion and a What next look ahead. Every double page spread is illustrated with graphs, charts and/or drawings. It’s an attractive format and the blend of text and image often works well, although to my old eyes the illustrations are not large enough and the text used in them is both too small and far too grey to make for easy reading.
The book is certainly informative and, as the section headings illustrate, it covers the ground. It is also logically set out. You can read it from front to back (as I did) or dip in and out to read about an issue. There are references although you need a smartphone to access the digital bibliography.
What’s not to like, you might think?
Well, there are problems, and these are as much to do with what the book claims for itself as what it contains. I was put off the book immediately by the blurb on the back cover:
“The international bestseller that gives you the facts about climate change. Approved by over 100 scientists, but written and illustrated in a way that everyone can understand, this clear, simple, concise book tells you everything you need to know about the most important question of our time.”
What hubris there is in the word everything: “… this clear, simple, concise book tells you everything you need to know.” The authors were students of economics at Friedrichshaften.
Then I wondered, what question, because the blurb doesn’t actually say. I suppose it’s ‘What is climate change?’ which is the focus of the book after all. But that is not the most important question when it comes to climate change; in my view it’s not even the second most important. For me, the two questions that rank above it are ‘What can we do about climate change?’ and ‘What are we going to be able to do about it?’ Despite their outward similarity, these are different as the first is grounded in technology and economics, and the second in sociology and politics. In fairness to the authors, they do explicitly address these questions in the final 4 of their 122 pages (6 if you’re feeling generous), but when they do it turns out that they completely underestimate the nature of the political task ahead of us as they repeat the fashionable mantra that personal responsibility, behaviour change, and action will suffice. For example:
“The efforts of each individual are every bit as important as political action for sustainability on the national and international stage. … if we each motivate those around us to protect the natural environment and safeguard our climate – if we all, at every level, do what we can – together we will make an essential difference.”
We should note that the authors live in Germany, a country that plans to keep producing electricity from dirty brown coal until 2038 and to import as much Russian gas as it can. There is nothing that individuals can do about this. The authors’ stance also ignores the fact that the transition to net-zero-carbon will be particularly difficult in democratic countries where people will be asked to vote for developments that will be both expensive for them and mean giving up long-established and often highly cherished activities. Much of this will be resented and some resisted, and populist political parties are already positioning themselves in opposition as a cynical means of hoovering up votes. The gilets jaunes movement gave us an insight into how this might play out.
When I got over the blurb and started to read the book, it did not begin well. This is the first sentence of Chapter 1 (The Earth’s Climate):
“Climate refers to the average weather conditions over a long period of time – a period of time of at least 30 years, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.”
Well, that won’t do, I thought, so I looked at what the WMO has to say. As you might hope, it’s much more nuanced and detailed. Quite coincidentally, of course, what the authors write is similar to how Wikipedia begins its explanation of climate.
So, what of the rest of it? During my reading, I had cause to think once more about the blurb, specifically the word everyone. That is: “… written and illustrated in a way that everyone can understand, this clear, simple, concise book, …”. Patently, this is an absurd claim to make as the subject areas covered are cognitively difficult and require a scientific vocabulary and reading ability that not everyone has. And as for being “clear and simple”, well, it’s just not. But how could it possibly be “clear” when you’re writing only a few words (typically between 150 and 250) on a topic that is itself complex rather than simple?
More fundamental, however, and this is the most important point to come out of the book, is that many people trying to read it for understanding (as opposed to for facts) would benefit from having a well-informed and skilled teacher on hand to help them sort out the ideas and their implications. Unwittingly, then, this book is the best argument for expert environmental education that I’ve seen for quite a while.
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Reviewed by Professor William Scott