Awards for Storms of My Grandchildren
• 2011 Green Book Award from the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute for Technology
• Royal Society 2010 Prize for Science Books
• 2010 Sophie Prize
Don’t miss James Hansen on the following television and radio broadcasts.
• Planet Green’s “Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff” – air date 12/26/09
• PBS’s “Charlie Rose” – air date 12/18/09
• MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” – air date 12/17/09
• CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” – Interview with David Letterman – air date 12/10/09
• C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” – James Hansen, "Storms of My Grandchildren" – air date 12/07/09
• NPR’s “Morning Edition” – Scientist: Urgency Needed On Climate Change Action – air date 12/07/09
• KQED’s “Forum” – air date 12/07/09
• NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” – A Climate Change Reading List for Laypeople – air date 12/03/09
Find out more about James Hansen and Storms of My Grandchildren in print and online.
• Excerpt in The Nation – 12/30/09
• Reviewed in The L.A. Times – 12/27/09
• Profile & Book Mention on The Huffington Post – 12/09/09
• James Hansen’s op-ed in The New York Times – 12/07/09
• Review on DailyKos.com – 12/06/09
• Reviewed on Greg Laden's Blog (scienceblogs.com) – 12/05/09
• Article & Book Mention on Mongabay.com – 12/03/09
• Featured on New Scientist Blog – 12/03/09
• Featured on London Times The Daily Dish – 12/03/09
• Review & Inverview on ClimateProgress.org – 12/02/09
• James Hansen’s op-ed in The Observer – 11/29/09
• Feature in Nature – 11/26/09
• Q&A; and Additional Questions at Newsweek.com – 11/25/09
Praise & Reviews:
Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
“In Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity, James Hansen gives us the opportunity to watch a scientist who is sick of silence and compromise; a scientist at the breaking point -- the point at which he is willing to sacrifice his credibility to make a stand to avert disaster, to offer up the fruits of four-plus decades of inquiry and ingenuity just in case he might change the course of history…An urgent book.”
DarkSyde, DailyKos.com
“Hands down the best, most informative, brilliantly written book on general climate science I've ever read…The book seamlessly integrates that original analysis and the latest scientific findings with the author's growing realization that the news is bad, getting worse, and too many elected leaders are either green-washing the issue or denying it exists…Readers from all across the political spectrum will quickly come to respect the fiercely independent, brutally honest Hansen as he heaps both encouragement and criticism equally on people and party…Storms of my Grandchildren will make an ideal Christmas gift for the science aficionado or climate change skeptic in your life, especially on the tight budgets plaguing so many Americans this year.”
Michael Le Page, New Scientist
“This is not the best-written science book ever, nor the easiest to understand. But it could be the most important one you'll ever read. It's not too late to avert disaster, Hansen says, but we need to change tack fast.”
Dr. Francis Moul, The Lincoln Journal Star
“Read these two books and you will become both a knowledgeable eyewitness to our unfolding crisis, and even an advocate for change.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“In his debut, a leading climatologist lambasts world governments for their ineffectual response to the dangers of global warming.
After sounding the climate alarm in papers and conferences for two decades, here Hansen takes off the gloves, faulting “the undue influence of special interests and government greenwash” for the failure to take the actions necessary to stabilize Earth’s climate. Much of the book is a heady crash course in the science of global warming, and the author makes readily apparent the nuances of human-caused and other factors involved in climate change. Offered within the context of Hansen’s work of the past eight years—including his widely reported clashes with the Bush administration—the science sections are followed by his own prescriptions for action. Unlike politicians, he writes, nature does not compromise. He dismisses key aspects of legislation now before Congress as well as the Kyoto approach to international climate treaty-making, arguing that setting goals for a gradual slowing down of emissions will not solve the problem. “Ladies and gentlemen, your governments are lying through their teeth,” he writes. Coal use must be prohibited unless ways can be found to capture and dispose of carbon dioxide emissions. Relying on renewables and increasing energy efficiency will not do the trick either. Dismissing the cap-and-trade approaches now being considered by lawmakers, Hansen proposes a fee-and-dividend approach as the best way to phase out fossil fuels. He considers nuclear power a possible safe-energy alternative and calls for the United States to build a test fast-reactor nuclear power plant. Hansen blames the Obama Administration for listening to the advice of Environmental Defense and other well-meaning environmental groups, which are satisfied with gradual legislative progress. As the author writes, we’re simply out of time.
With urgency and authority, Hansen urges readers to speak out—taking to the streets if necessary—to protect the Earth from calamity for the sake of their children and grandchildren.”
Booklist (starred review)
“Climatologist Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and an internationally renowned global-warming expert, became even more famous when he was censored by the Bush administration. After decades of studying the role fossil fuels play in global warming and witnessing the federal government’s failure to take action to lower carbon emissions, he felt compelled to write his first book out of concern about the potentially catastrophic future facing his grandchildren. Hansen condemns governmental ‘greenwashing’ and the undue influence of more than 2,300 energy lobbyists, and attempts to close the gap “between public perception and scientific reality” by lucidly explaining the dynamics of global warming, its acceleration, and how a slight rise in temperature can lead to disastrous consequences. He then boldly declares that the way to solve the climate crisis is to ‘rapidly phase out coal emissions.’ How will we meet our energy needs without coal? Hansen tells the ‘secret story’ of the jettisoned ‘fast’ nuclear reactor, a safer and more efficient reactor than those currently in use, and advocates for its resurrection. Rich in invaluable insights into the geopolitics as well as the geophysics of climate change, Hansen’s guaranteed-to-be-controversial manifesto is the most comprehensible, realistic, and courageous call to prevent climate change yet. It belongs in every library.”
Al Gore, Time magazine
“When the history of the climate crisis is written, Hansen will be seen as the scientist with the most powerful and consistent voice calling for intelligent action to preserve our planet's environment.”
Bill McKibben, coordinator 350.org and author of The End of Nature
“Jim Hansen is the planet’s great hero. He offered us the warning we needed twenty years ago, and has worked with enormous courage ever since to try and make sure we heeded it. We’ll know before long if that effort bears fruit—if it does, literally no one deserves more credit than Dr. Hansen.”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“Dr. James Hansen is Paul Revere to the foreboding tyranny of climate chaos—a modern-day hero who has braved criticism and censure and put his career and fortune at stake to issue the call to arms against the apocalyptic forces of ignorance and greed.”
Dr. Chuck Kutscher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and American Solar Energy Society (ASES), editor of ASES report “Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.
“If you want to know the scientific consensus on global warming, read the reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But if you want to know what the consensus will be ten years from now, read Jim Hansen’s work.”
Publicity Inquiries for Storms of My Grandchildren:
» For US publicity inquiries, please contact Peter Miller or Michelle Blankenship
» For UK publicity inquiries, please contact Bloomsbury UK