Hacker News Books

Climate research moves from papers to articles to headlines like a game of telephone. I think this is a big problem because it gives your average doomscroller a sense of impending dread and helplessness. Michael E Mann (the famous climate scientist who published the "hockey stick" emissions paper) talks about this in his new book -- "The New Climate War." Check it out.

The body of this article does touch on the actual claim of the paper -- that a myriad of factors linked to climate change have stymied agricultural productivity (particularly in less-affluent countries) compared to what that productivity would have been without those factors -- even though total agricultural output has grown due to better technology and so on.

However, if all you see is the headline the impression you get is: the world is getting hot and our farms aren't being productive enough. That's a different claim that inspires despair, not action.

Climate change is real and very, very scary. But the progress we've made in renewables, battery tech, agricultural yields, desalinization, etc., is really remarkable. It ain't over 'til it's over.