By Peter Dykstra for The Daily Climate
In the 1981 movie “Arthur,” Sir John
Gielgud plays Hobson, a viciously sarcastic servant and confidant to Arthur
Bach, a happy, drunken heir to a fortune.
In a desperate attempt to get the
brain-addled Arthur to read something, Hobson says, “Here, take this magazine.
There are many pictures.”
He would have appreciated Michael Mann’s
and Tom Toles’s The Madhouse Effect.
Mann, the climate scientist widely respected in his field but despised by
climate deniers, and Toles, the Washington Post’s Pulitzer-winning
editorial cartoonist, have turned in a solid, accessible explanation for those
who haven’t yet gotten the memo on climate change.
And thanks to Toles’s pen, there are
many pictures.
With some notable exceptions, scientists
grapple with a universal problem: They tend to treat standard English as a
second language, with a tendency to speak, write, and describe even the most
fascinating fields of study in terms only another scientist could understand.
Subjects like climate change and climate denial affect literally
everyone, but their fearful impacts drive an audience away – even more so when
communicated in a high-handed, exclusionary way.
In
clear, mostly un-sciencey language, The Madhouse Effect lays
out each aspect of the climate challenge from the basic science to public
policy, future consequences, potential solutions, and the strange pathology of
climate denial.
The text describing today’s highest
profile climate deniers might have been a strong opportunity for Mann to settle
some scores with politicians and political operatives who have attacked him
savagely.
The
book gives concise accounts of the contradictions and hypocrisy of climate
denial, but the authors wisely leave the best score-settling to Toles, who
offers gruesome caricatures of Sarah Palin, Congressman Joe Barton, Sir Rupert
Murdoch, Marc Morano and others. His drawing of all-purpose denier-for-hire
Steve Milloy bears a strong resemblance to the New Yorker’s early
cartoons of Gomez Addams.
Truth be told, the book offers little in
terms of new information for climate scientists, policy wonks, or journalists
who cover it all (on those occasions when it all gets covered). The
straightforward explanations of the science, politics and consequences of
climate change are old hat to insiders.
But that’s the point: The Madhouse Effect uses
a clever format to introduce what the know-it-alls already know to the much
wider audience that needs to hear it. Ironically, this book’s most
valuable offering for the eggheads, wonks and tree-huggers may be the cartoons,
even though to my knowledge there is no rigorous peer review process for
cartoonists.
Yes, there are many pictures. They may
not reach the hardcore climate deniers, but The Madhouse Effect is
an entertaining and effective pitch to the vast of majority of citizens who
have a vague sense of the problem, but need to be coaxed into learning more,
and soon.
The
Daily Climate is an independent, foundation-funded news service covering
energy, the environment and climate change. Find us on Twitter @TheDailyClimate or email editor Brian Bienkowski at
bbienkowski [at] EHN.org
Book
cover (Credit: Amazon)