Small Guides to Big Issues: Climate Change by Melanie Jarman

Maddy Fry reviews the new Oxfam book on climate change.

''This particular book is remarkably refreshing; and in an age when people are taking The Great Global Warming Swindle as their gospel, we need as many like it as we can get.''

Ever since the issue of climate change has ascended the political agenda, a whole wealth of material, from books to TV programmes, has accompanied its rise. A myriad of issues surrounding the crisis of global warming have been touched upon, from the environmental impacts of tourism to assertions that the whole idea is a con (see Channel 4’s recent monstrosity The Great Global Warming Swindle). However, due to the subject of climate change being so contentious, there have been few straight-forward, factual and almost fully objective sources explaining exactly what this rather complicated issue is all about. Thankfully, Melanie Jarman’s book does exactly that.

It begins by explaining exactly the situation is, what has caused it, and how human behaviour is linked to it. For those who had their heads on the desk during GCSE science (as I did), such a no-nonsense run-down of the facts, completely free of scientific jargon, is just what is needed. The language is clear, comprised of well-constructed sentences peppered with facts, free from condescension but also without assuming that the reader has an extensive knowledge of the scientific details of global warming.

However, don’t be prepared for a particularly exciting read; as Climate Change is a purely fact-based book, the narrative is at times slightly dry and uninspiring. Perhaps unsurprisingly, what with it being written by someone other than an irate hack from the Guardian or the Independent (Jarman is a professional writer on environmental and political issues), the book’s commitment to an objective style of writing means that it often lacks passion.

Another of the book’s weaknesses also lies in the fact that its proverbial finger is not quite on the pulse of the current issues that are raging around the climate change debate. By this I mean that there are still a worrying number of people who believe that the aforementioned Channel 4 programme has once-and-for-all disproved any notions that humans might be responsible for our worsening environmental situation. This is something that Climate Change does not address. And even though, in a chapter entitled ‘False Solutions’, it looks at renewable energy sources, exposing red herrings like nuclear power for what they are, don’t expect to find rebuttals to the assertions that your climate change-sceptic friends will throw at you (such as one I heard recently that humans are apparently only responsible for 2% of overall carbon emissions).

But despite this, Climate Change is a serious analysis of a deadly serious situation. What this book lacks in passion it makes up for in being free from the usual ranting, proselytizing and cringing anti-Americanism that normally characterises the spate of books on climate change that have come mainly, until now, from broadsheet journalists. Despite its dry style, this particular book is remarkably refreshing; and in an age when people are taking The Great Global Warming Swindle as their gospel, we need as many like it as we can get.