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---
bibliography: bibliography.bib
title: Reading log
author: Joe Carstairs
---
## 2026-04-14
## 2026-04-13
### @{greenhouse-effect}
Key themes:
- Warning
- Catastrophe now and in near future
- Government action
- International co-operation
- Hidden threat
- Urgency, crisis
- Scientific knowledge critically important
The authors emphasised that catastrophic effects of atmospheric pollution are
happening now and will get worse. The drought of 1988 in Africa and the USA,
threats of food shortage, and the ozone hole features prominently, but so do
floods, sea level rise, et alia.
Chp 1: increasing danger. The cause is all around us: combustion. (Hidden
threat?)
They emphasise action from governments and businesses. They briefly diverge to
claim that their book is addressed to individuals (Chp 8), asserting that the
root cause of the greenhouse effect is individual behaviour. But then it
subjects individual behaviour to bigger forces: ignorance (media environment),
poverty, third-world debt, corporate greed. It immediately turns to 'stories of
hope' entirely focused on action by NGOs, development banks, and governments.
However, it does also feature consumer advice, esp. Chp 7.
I noted an epigram by TH Huxley at the beginning of TH Huxley. The scientists to
the rescue of society?
Chp 5: Everest had three approaches. Budyko infamous for the wait-and-see
approach, accused of 'swearing in church', implies scientific research, not
enough happening. Adaptation necessary; climate change used as a bad excuse for
inaction by leaders in the Sahel. Moderation of the greenhouse effect also
necessary, implies not reducing consumption or limiting economic growth but
energy efficiency and renewables. Tim Wirth gave a speech to the US Senate
condensing Earth's history into 100 years: we must act in the next four seconds.
'Experiment' language used frequently. WMO 1985. Thatcher 27 Sep 1988 at annual dinner of Royal Society, 'Mrs Greenmantle,' motivated by public opinion, Hinkley Point, international politics? 'The massive experiment is going awry.'
There was a story in Chp 4 that international politics is waking up to the
threat. Thatcher, Bush 'White House effect', Gorbachov saying traditional
industrialisation means environmental catastrophe. In Chp 8, optimistic about
international co-operation, climate change as a common enemy around which the
divisions of the world must and therefore will crumble, ideological/economic
systems likely to converge, 'universal crusade to save the planet.'
Also in Chp 4: 'environmental security' idea, protecting environment needed for national security, climate change already causing millions of climate refugees.
Book written as a warning. Chp 4: 'We must begin to take action to reduce global
warming. And we must learn that global warming is in reality a global warning to
heed the thresholds of ecological tolerance. The massive experiment is going
wrong.'
Chp 2 an interesting history of climate science and action. 1957, Scripps, Roger
Revelle. 'Great geophysical experiment.' Mauna Loa vs Antarctic cores showed CO2
had increased since 1850. Early 1970s, computer models showing increasing CO2
and temperatures. No interest in first WCC 1979 Geneva, Kenneth Hare biting his
nails, but it created WCP with a remit to 'warn governments.' It produced dire
warnings. Needed alarmism to provoke interest? Prophetic function? Major warming
and weather events (esp droughts) helped to generate attention.
Chp 3. Climate change in the past makes the world look weird: extinctions of
major animals, Europe with no trees, hippos in the Sahara 6000ya. 21st century
may be more extreme, we can't know how much. Strong emphasis on 'we don't know
enough and need more research.'
### @{lost-words}
I noticed:
- Icons
- Jumbled letters hiding in the environment
- Bramble apocalypse
- Weasel-fire connection: 2 Pet 3:10?
- Things hidden in plain sight
- Remembering things (words, names) that had been forgotten
- Naming things without names
## References
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