Book Review: “Our Fragile Moment” by Michael Mann

The first few pages of Michael Mann’s new book, "Our Fragile Moment", places the current situation of our planet in a beautiful but brutal perspective. The precarious beauty of the chain of climate events that have led to this unique planet arriving at this point in time, is breathtaking. But as Mann states in the introduction, “ For the vast majority of its 4.54 billion years, Earth has proven that it can manage just fine without humans,” adding that as our scanning of the universe with steadily strengthening telescopes increases, we are yet to find any planet resembling earth.

However, the climate crisis which the planet currently faces is brutally serious. More precisely, it is the continued existence of human life, as recently evolved, which is fundamentally threatened: the planet has an excellent track record in adapting to survive.

And Michael Mann should know. Mann is an American climatologist and geophysicist, who works as director of the Center for Science, Sustainability & the Media at the University of Pennsylvania [1]. Mann has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change and is credited with publicising the ‘hockey stick curve’, a graphical representation of the rapid rise in global temperatures over the last 300 or so years [2].

In this book, the author initially presents a review of the evolution of human life on this planet, in the context of the major geological and climate epochs of the last 45 billion years. There have been many, many millennia in which the climate of this planet has developed through numerous environmental extremes, the result of a complex interaction of the physics, chemistry and biological forces generated at the time. 

The observation that, while they have been much higher, it was 5 million years ago that CO₂ levels were last this high (i.e.380-420 ppm) is also concerning, when one realises that the temperature was 3.5 - 4F warmer and sea levels were 30 feet higher at that time.  

This last sentence also illustrates one of my minor niggles with the text; the book has a strong USA bias and the quoting of much information in degrees Fahrenheit and feet was slightly annoying to one who willingly converted from Imperial to Metric units some 60 years ago!

Chapter by chapter, Mann presents numerous scenarios of a changing climate, from which the benign situation of today's planet has emerged and influenced human evolution, especially over the last 200,000 years. It is also interesting to note the oscillations of carbon dioxide levels, which have fallen dramatically at times, as well as risen. One such fall followed the collision of the Indian subcontinent with Eurasia, which saw the elevation of the Himalaya and the erosion of silicate rocks by the increasing rainfall, a process which drew down CO₂. Another fall followed the evolution of photosynthesis, which was accompanied by a dramatic rise in oxygen levels, as the atmosphere began to resemble that of today. He also spends some time exploring the Gaia hypothesis, demonstrating that there is nothing mystical involved in the physics and chemistry of the planet’s balancing mechanisms.

One of the interesting topics he discusses in detail is the relatively benign climate of the last 6,000 years which has aided the development of human civilization. Dismissing the well publicised events of that period, including the mini ice age and droughts of the last one thousand years, as relatively minor events in the context of the planet, he presents some work which strongly suggests that evolving human existence, particularly the change from a nomadic lifestyle to slash and burn agriculture, has gently warmed a planet that should have been drifting slowly into the next ice age. The wobbling of the planet about its tilted axis introduces a warming-cooling cycle of around 26,000 years. But human life was starting to influence this trend and our burning of fuels, especially the fossil fuels of the last 300 years, has usurped this gentle trend and provided a warming effect which is rapidly accelerating. The chickens are now coming home to roost (or roast!)

Mann’s writing style is often humorous, picking on light hearted quotes like “the stone age didn’t end for a want of stones but because something better came along,” to illustrate points, while basing the foundation of the book on an indepth knowledge of paleoclimatology, the study of past climates.

As a result the book provides a detailed, but easily read, overview of the history of the numerous climate crises our planet has previously faced, and their impact on human life as we marched towards our current predicament. I found this analysis particularly useful, in that I now feel better informed to fend off the comments of climate sceptics who declare “but it was warmer in the past.” 

And Mann concludes with a simple message: the planet has been through far worse before but the record shows it is not too late to prevent “a truly catastrophic future.” The obstacles to the required change remain largely political and in human hands.

This book may seem to be some distance away from the farmer and his vet discussing strategies to reduce the on farm carbon footprint. But it is an interesting and absorbing read that will, I believe, significantly extend the background knowledge of any veterinarian working in this area, and so better equip them for their daily professional role.

‘ Our Fragile Moment ’  by Michael Mann

Published by Scribe   ISBN  978 1 761380 510 (UK edition)