Our Greatest Unintended Experiment
Scientists have known about carbon dioxide’s atmospheric warming potential for 160 years, but they weren’t immediately concerned about the impacts. In a new book, writer and climate campaigner Alice Bell traces the history of evolving climate science and energy technologies.
Climate One · Climate One from The Commonwealth Club
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Show Notes
For years, scientists, activists, and politicians have tried to warn the world of the potential catastrophic consequences of dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere: Think of An Inconvenient Truth in 2006. Or NASA scientist James Hansens’ testimony before the U.S. Senate in 1988, in which he said that “the greenhouse effect has been detected and it is changing our climate now.” Or go all the way back to 1856, when Eunice Newton Foote first warned the world that an atmosphere heavy with carbon dioxide could send global temperatures soaring.
Writer and climate campaigner Alice Bell lays out the history of evolving climate science and our forays into different energy technologies in Our Biggest Experiment: An Epic History of the Climate Crisis. Despite our current emissions trajectory, Bell says there’s still reason to hope: “We have been left a lot of opportunities and we still have got some time to seize them.”
Guests:
Alice Bell, climate campaigner, author, Our Biggest Experiment: An Epic History of the Climate Crisis
Meera Subramanian, environmental journalist
Katerina Gonzales, climate scientist
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