#OurFragileMoment: How Lessons From Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive The Climate Crisis | My recent lecture at @uniofexeter @gsi_exeter, with references to Gordon Sumner, The Police, Carl Sagan & more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3epdfOdvAg&ab_channel=UniversityofExeter
#gsiexeter

“#OurFragileMoment: How Lessons From Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive The Climate Crisis” | I’ll be delivering a seminar on environmental sciences Tomorrow, April 4, 2025, at 2:30 PM (EST) hosted by Alan Robock from @rutgersu.:

https://envsci.rutgers.edu/seminars/abstracts/Michael_Mann.html

“#OurFragileMoment: How Lessons From Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive The Climate Crisis” | I’ll be delivering a seminar on environmental sciences on Friday, April 4, 2025, at 2:30 PM (EST) hosted by Alan Robock from @rutgersu. See details here:

https://envsci.rutgers.edu/seminars/abstracts/Michael_Mann.html

“#OurFragileMoment: How Lessons from Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis” | I’ll be delivering a seminar on climate crisis on Monday, February 24 at 7:00 PM EST followed by a book signing @rowanuniversity. See details here:

https://michaelmann.net/events/our-fragile-moment-how-lessons-from-earths-past-can-help-us-survive-the-climate-crisis-7/

Recent reading:

OUR FRAGILE MOMENT: HOW LESSONS FROM EARTH'S PAST CAN HELP US SURVIVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS, by @MichaelEMann, surveys paleoclimate: what's known about Earth's climate in geological history, what that tells us about climate's variability over time, and what lessons we might draw from it.

This book isn't as entrancing as Marcia Bjornerud's TIMEFULNESS -- Mann uses a zillion acronyms, and near the end of the book, the section on the Pleistocene gets a little plodding -- but both books tackle the grand sweep of Earth's climate history, which has had some remarkable twists & turns.

For example, the first appearance of plants produced a lot of oxygen, which destroyed atmospheric methane and greatly reduced the greenhouse effect, so the planet glaciated completely (or almost?). Volcanoes drove up carbon dioxide, ending this icy episode. Temperature spiked at the Permian/Triassic boundary, and the asteroid that ended the Cretaceous drove cooling for a few decades, but the species die-off took millions of years to restore a carbon cycle.

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) may be the closest analogue to modern warming, with a 9 degF increase over 10 000 years. Some climate doomers are worried about seabed methane vaporizing and driving a sudden increase in greenhouse-effect warming, but Mann points out that didn't seem to happen during the PETM, which had much more warming than we've seen so far and will see for a century or two.

But Mann also notes that "the picture is bad enough", discussing possible effects on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, and they could be widely disruptive to Europe and to the Asian monsoons.

Overall it's a grounded & sobering book, but it's not utterly depressing, and it's a good discussion from a directly-involved scientist.

#books #bookstodon #science #scicomm #ClimateChange #OurFragileMoment #MichaelMann

Very excited that #OurFragileMoment (German edition titled "Moment der Entscheidung") is ranked #1 in @derspiegel's list of "the best science books of 2024"!
https://spiegel.de/wissenschaft/buch-tipps-ueber-wissenschaft-2024-ueber-das-schweigen-der-aliens-ki-und-einen-henker-a-64e95ebb-14b1-4acb-8093-41e2a829b857

"Climate Change & Our Fragile Earth" | I discuss my book #OurFragileMoment at the @miamibookfair TOMORROW, at 4:30pm. More info here: https://www.miamibookfair.com/event/climate-change-our-fragile-earth-nonfiction/

"Climate Change & Our Fragile Earth" | I discuss my book #OurFragileMoment at the @miamibookfair on Sun Nov. 24, at 4:30pm. More info here: https://www.miamibookfair.com/

Climate Solutions for the Living World" | I discuss #OurFragileMoment with @pennbiology's Plant Adaptability and Resilience Center TODAY, at 1:30pm. Link to register here: https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aYiHP45dAFP2LOu

"Climate Change & Our Fragile Earth" | I discuss my book #OurFragileMoment at the @miamibookfair on Sun Nov. 24, at 4:30pm. More info here: https://www.miamibookfair.com/

The Chinese edition of my book #OurFragileMoment available now: https://shop15352613.m.youzan.com/wscgoods/detail/2xdxnedxfl3elcl?share_from=poster&kdtId=15160445&is_share=1&shopAutoEnter=1&dc_ps=&from_uuid=5ba52f77-e33f-d4a0-2546-65a34e1e9409

"Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis" | I discuss #OurFragileMoment for the University of Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Scholars on Thu November 14, at 5:30pm. More info here: https://michaelmann.net/content/our-fragile-moment-how-lessons-earths-past-can-help-us-survive-climate-crisis-4

"Climate Solutions for the Living World" | I discuss #OurFragileMoment with Penn Biology's Plant Adaptability and Resilience Center on Fri November 15, at 1:30pm. Link to register here: https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aYiHP45dAFP2LOu

Great to see the new paperback edition of #OurFragileMoment featured at the @pennbookstore!
Available now: https://amazon.com/Our-Fragile-Moment-Lessons-Survive/dp/1541702905/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Paperback edition of #OurFragileMoment just went live today! https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1541702905

"Carl & Amy Jones Lecture in Interdisciplinary Science "Our Fragile Moment" with Dr. Michael Mann" | I discuss #OurFragileMoment at @carnegiemellon TODAY at 5pm ET. More info and link to register here: https://www.cmu.edu/uls/

"Carl & Amy Jones Lecture in Interdisciplinary Science "Our Fragile Moment" with Dr. Michael Mann" | I discuss #OurFragileMoment at @carnegiemellon TOMORROW at 5pm ET. More info and link to register here: https://www.cmu.edu/uls/

Paperback edition of #OurFragileMoment (via @public_affairs / @hachetteus) due out Oct 15!
Pre-order now 🙂
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Fragile-Moment-Lessons-Survive/dp/1541702905/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I'll be speaking about #OurFragileMoment +book-signing on Sat 10/26, joining luminaries like @neiltyson & @profbriancox at #CSICon24 in Las Vegas 10/24-27, courtesy of @center4inquiry / @skeptinquirer: https://csiconference.org/#top

"Carl & Amy Jones Lecture in Interdisciplinary Science "Our Fragile Moment" with Dr. Michael Mann" | I discuss #OurFragileMoment at @carnegiemellon on Tues Oct. 8, at 5pm ET. More info and link to register here: https://www.cmu.edu/uls/