Will I love The Heat Is On?

I met Ross Gelbspan when he came to speak at my university. Until I heard him, I knew climate change was a problem, but I didn’t understand why it was so hard to do anything about it.

Hearing him speak and later reading his books showed me that it wasn’t a lack of faith in science; it was the relentless lobbying and big budgets of the coal and oil industries. This book changed my understanding of what we need to do.

Climate change is difficult enough to address, even if everyone is on the same page. Unfortunately, climate change has become a very divisive issue in the United States. This book, by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, was maybe the first to comprehensively examine the source of this climate skepticism and how it manifested itself into our political system. Even though it was written about 25 years ago, the issues it raises are still with us today. Unless we can rise above them, getting sound climate policy implemented, which is essential to solving the problem, will be nearly impossible.