With Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial due to be published on 7th October (https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/hot-air/) the proofs have started going out and some early reviews are coming in. I have had some wonderful comments from people who really know their stuff about climate science, climate politics and popular science writing which is amazing and for which I’m very grateful. I’ve appended below the comments we have had so far.
“The fight against climate change has not just been the struggle to persuade governments to change their energy systems – it has also been a vicious personal clash between climate scientists, and the climate deniers funded by the fossil fuel industries whose very existence is threatened by our attempts to slow down global warming. It has been a battle between truth and lies, a saga with heroes and villains and dramatic confrontations, and Peter Stott has been at the heart of it for a quarter of a century. In Hot Air he has written a riveting despatch from the frontline of this historic fight which makes essential reading for anyone interested in the greatest threat human society has ever faced.”
—Michael McCarthy, former Environment Editor, The Independent, and author of The Moth Snowstorm
“Hot Air is a compelling indictment of the people and organisations that, for whatever reasons, refuse to accept the evidence of human-induced global warming. The scientific case for this has been clear for more than thirty years. It is disappointing that there is still a need for this book, but gratifying to find such a clear exposition of the science and the politics. The most important book you are likely to see this year.”
—John Gribbin
“This important book lays out many of the stories behind the most important science in human history–the effort to prove, against the well-funded denialists and vested interests, that the planet was heating, that humans were responsible, and that we better take swift action. If there are historians around someday to tell this epic story in all its complexity, they will lean heavily on this account.”
—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
“Gripping, urgent and human… Stott provides a unique “eye-of-the-storm” perspective on the story of the century.”
—Leo Hickman, Director and Editor, Carbon Brief
“This is a rare and gripping insight into the drama behind the UN’s landmark science reports shaping how the world responds to rising temperatures. With the feel of a fast-paced thriller, Peter Stott takes the reader on a tense and sometimes painful journey through battles with climate deniers and oil-rich powers. It’s a book that reveals the exhilarating triumphs and personal challenges of the researchers discovering how our planet is changing.”
—David Shukman, Science Editor, BBC News
Peter Stott has been a key figure both in demonstrating the strength of climate science and in fighting the climate deniers, and HOT AIR is a thrilling, enthralling and, yes, enraging account of his years at the heart of the most important battle of our time.’
—Rowan Hooper, New Scientist, author of How To Spend A Trillion Dollars
In today’s world climate scientists don’t just do science. As Peter Stott reveals in this extraordinary story, over recent years climatologists have also had to do battle with fossil fuels-financed deniers with a dark and dangerous agenda – of that blocking international action to tackle the most pressing crisis of our times, global planetary heating. Whether science wins or loses this high-stakes war still remains to be seen…
—Mark Lynas , author of Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency
Peter Stott 