The election, ‘Our Final Warning’ and us

Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency by Mark Lynas

Published in June 2020

The Venn diagram overlap of readers of Our Final Warning and Trump voters is likely exceedingly small. Add in readers of Universities on Fire, and the probability of overlap drops to near zero.

So, what can be usefully said about yet another climate emergency book as we try to digest the election results of Nov. 5?

There exists a group of higher ed people who believe that addressing and preparing for the worst effects of climate change should be the central focus of our institutions. That climate change represents an existential threat and that academia has the responsibility to focus our attention and resources on the issue. This means changing everything from what we teach and study to how we heat and cool our campuses.

Of all the books on climate change that I read after reading Universities on Fire, Our Final Warning is the scariest. Detailing the ever-deepening impacts of a warmer planet at each new degree-Celsius rise in temperature is a narrative choice that makes the book difficult to put down (or, in my case, stop listening to). The news just gets worse and worse the hotter things get. 

The challenge is that after Jan. 20, those in charge of making climate-related policy in the U.S. will not only have never read a book like Our Final Warning, but the administration will deny the entire reality of climate change.

With the second Trump administration, there will likely be little investment in a transition from carbon burning to renewable energy. Investments and incentives in solar, wind and hydro will disappear. Policies designed to subsidize the extraction and burning of fossil fuels will again be the federal government’s focus.

Perhaps of all the things we are worried about as the result of this election, climate policy seems less urgent. I can’t argue with that. However, climate is one area where universities can have a broad and tangible impact.

We can redouble our efforts to educate the next generation of workers, who will manage the energy transition. We can offer courses, degrees and nondegree certificates in climate policy, renewable energy and sustainability. 

We can choose to make long-term investments in decarbonizing our campuses. 

Choosing to address the climate emergency at the center of our institutional priorities is one way that we can stand up to the antiscience orientation of Trump and his appointees. 

Books like Our Final Warning can help us remember why it is so important for universities to make addressing climate change the core of their mission.

What are you reading?