Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era
Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era – Review
The Carbon War is aptly titled – it shows that the rough and tumble politics of global warming is actually a kind of war, one successfully fought with political weapons in the finest (or worst) Machiavellian approach currently using deception, lies, misuse of power, money, and any other means of quickly gaining the desired goal. Although both sides in the debate (large business and governments beholden to large business versus ecological groups) resort to numerous machinations and deception to promote their agendas, as this book plainly demonstrates from a personal eye-witness (of one who was “in the trenches”), the large business consortium is much more guilty of lies, corruption, and blatant mis-use of power than the environmental side. One reason may simply be that the conventional energy industry (petrochemical and coal) fear they will lose large sums of money if they change the way they do business. This book would be interesting to widely read in about 100 years. If things do not go so with partially mitigating climate change, the book could serve as an charge of the responsible parties. If things do go so, people could say “I’m so happy governments didn’t listen to those energy companies”. Easily five stars. Also, unfortunately in some ways, a very eye-opening look at the way international ecological politics is conducted. It possibly goes without really saying that many great energy companies really do not care about what is right for the average human, they only care about what is right for their shareholders. If you are still undecided on whether or not global warming is real, or is an issue you should be concerned about, and you receive conflicting information, keep in mind as you decide who is most likely to more truthful – the side trying to keep the planet livable, or the side with the most money to lose? (Second Review one week later, same Reviewer): Title of Second Review: Casualties High in the Carbon War. Jeremy Leggett has written a equally fascinating first-person relation of an ecological organization representative’s front row seat to the battle waged during the change of the Kyoto Protocol. As others have stated, politics is really a form of blood sport, with the winners let now standing and everybody also dying or wounded. As Mr. Leggett points out, the actual casualties are the truth and the average person. Huge sums of money are at stake in any plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and most plans will create recent winners in the constantly changing market, and also will create original losers. No free company needs to be one of the losers, and they will do everything in their power to maintain the status quo. If you aren’t already suspicious of the petrochemical energy business, you probably will be after actually reading this book. (Note: Large energy companies do not necessarily have your greatest interests in mind.)