CLIMATE OPPORTUNITIES KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR

Mebane offers strategies and insights for dealing with the climate emergency in this nonfiction work.

In his nonfiction debut, a collection of pieces previously published in Wall Street International Magazine, the author presents readers with reflections on many aspects of the ongoing and worsening climate emergency that becomes more apparent and unavoidable with every passing year. At the heart of his book is a resistance to the fatalism that tends to characterize discussions of the subject. The fatalism is understandable; the world’s industrialized nations are a long way from reaching the goals for lowered carbon emissions set by environmental scientists years ago as the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change in the lifetimes of the current generation’s grandchildren (if not earlier). The problem seems too big to be solved; as Mebane puts it, “only an urgent system-wide transformation can avoid a climate disaster.” But the author has spent years in the environmental movement, including a stint spearheading Italy’s energy revolution in the 1980s, and he offers what he calls a “story of transformation—a story that proves that even in the face of daunting challenges, the power of human ingenuity and collaboration is essential.” In a series of beautifully illustrated (and well researched—the book’s reference section is extensive) chapters, Mebane looks at the practicalities of green investment in all its forms, from renewable energy sources to improved grids and electric vehicles to what he calls “forest therapy”—the power of green spaces to help with ailments like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and asthma.

The tone of tough, informed optimism the author adopts is crucial to the convincing power of his argument: This work combines the research of a professional with the optimism of a true believer. Mebane never sugarcoats how dire the current climate situation is, particularly in the energy-hungry developing world. He acknowledges that we have “more unresolved problems than solutions” and notes that “the primary issue is how to help developing and evolving countries invest in mitigation and adaptation,” coming to the ethically inevitable conclusion that a large part of any such help will have to come from the developed countries that caused the climate crisis in the first place. Mebane is very skilled a deploying his many charts and graphs in ways that fit naturally into his text—readers never feel bludgeoned with facts or statistics, even though much of what the author is describing can get fairly technical. Readers skeptical of the industrialized world’s ability to reach “net zero” goals by target dates like 2050 will emerge from this book not only immeasurably better informed about every aspect of the challenge, but also invigorated to take it on. Mebane may have spent many years in Italy, but he himself is a Texan and the son of a petroleum geologist, and this background gives the fact-heavy sections of his book an air of authority and personal involvement. This tone is crucial for staving off the despair that readers might otherwise feel when the author hits them with plain talk about how bad things are: “Weather and climate-related disasters are growing exponentially,” he warns. “We may not know the hell we are creating.”

A knowledgeable and ultimately upbeat look at mitigating climate change.