Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet

In this impassioned debut report, climatologist Marvel uses the emotions engendered by the climate crisis to explore the science of global warming. Reflecting on her anger over inaction in the face of damning evidence, Marvel describes how the warnings of 19th-century scientist Eunice Foote, who was among the first people to realize that rising CO₂ levels would increase global temperatures, were dismissed because she was a woman. Marvel also covers the fear-inducing realities of a warmer planet, explaining that weather stations in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates have recorded combinations of heat and humidity so extreme that sweating can no longer cool the body and even sitting in the shade with an unlimited supply of water couldn’t prevent fatal heatstroke. Later chapters offer cautious reasons for hope, as when Marvel argues that a successful mid-20th-century ban on hunting whales for oil shows how legislation might hasten the transition to clean energy. The history and climate science enlighten, and the poignant final chapter, in which Marvel reflects on the beauty of life and humanity’s contradictions while comparing her feelings about living with a potentially lethal brain clot to confronting the grim possibilities of climate change, is a bona fide tearjerker. This unique take on the climate crisis stands out. Agent: Rachel Vogel, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (June)