Bill McGuire, Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide

Excerpt

Climate scientists are by nature extremely conservative individuals. Reluctant to speculate beyond the core conclusions of their research, they typically express themselves in carefully composed, guarded language that seeks to encompass the inevitable uncertainties involved in future forecasting. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, written in what has recently been described as the “maddening, plodding prose of a document subject to a thousand editors.” For many individual climate scientists, the worst case consequence of painting a picture of the stark reality of the impacts of climate change is to be labelled an ‘alarmist’. Peers may scoff at what they believe is ‘pseudo-science’ and social media offers relentless pressure from ill-informed trolls. In highlighting the likely adverse impacts of global heating, the academic system offers no career rewards for going out on a limb. …