How to Cool the Planet

DNF @ 27%.

Not gonna bother rating it, but I DNFed it very intentionally and with great gusto - I BANISHED it. Here's why:
- This was published in 2010. Fourteen years later, it felt VERY dated.
- The science felt dated. For example, the author talks about how completely implausible it is that we'll EVER get off coal and this 2022 video by Kurzgesagt discusses just that.
- The examples of EVERYTHING felt cherry-picked. The scientists he spoke with, the historical figures he chose to centralize (rainmakers and Edward Teller).
- The anti-geoengineering arguments felt overstated and strawmanly. Like, I AM very curious about the political economy of geoengineering. But it was hard to wade through all the broey journalist “aaaaaah” noise to find the kernels of ACTUAL argument.
- DID I MENTION HOW BROEY THIS WAS? The straw(s) that broke the proverbial feminist camel's back were a few: (1) first, who he chose to emphasize and centralize the voices of - it just felt so incredibly limited and boring. Like, I just learned that the inventor of the solar desalination still was Maria Telkes - DOUBLE X CHROMOSOME COMIN AT YA. But, here, no. It's just a history of great men. (2) Next, he makes several off-hand broey jokes like, “Mother Nature was showing some serious leg” (to signify that it was a beautiful day) and how Great Man Scientist X spent his youth “shagging nurses” and was “refreshingly candid about sex” and I was just like, ya know... this is obnoxious. And finally, (3) I kinda already stated this, but I feel like this interaction between presenting geoengineering as another example of Great Men of History guiding history was just so boring and reductive and not actually informative.

Soooo. Yeah. If anyone knows any more recent books, with updated climate science and with a less simplified and more political economy-minded portrayal of the pros and cons, HIT ME UP.