If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that the world was on the verge of a global agreement to solve the climate crisis in the 1980s—and why did it ultimately fail?
- Have you ever wondered how a clear scientific consensus on global warming was systematically transformed into a decades-long political battle?
- Are you curious about the specific moment in history when we had the best chance to save the planet, and who exactly stood in the way?
Listen to Losing Earth — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from Losing Earth
- Discover how scientists and government officials fully understood the devastating threat of man-made climate change as early as 1979.
- Learn why early, practical solutions to global warming, like a modest carbon tax and renewable energy investments, were ultimately paralyzed by political indecision.
- Understand how fossil fuel companies like Exxon birthed modern climate denialism by funding aggressive defensive campaigns despite knowing the environmental risks since 1957.
- Find out how early momentum for climate action was deliberately derailed in the 1980s through aggressive government deregulation of the fossil fuel industry.
- Explore how early environmental activists and politicians like Al Gore used strategic congressional hearings to force climate change into mainstream public discourse.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from Losing Earth
Mind Map
Losing Earth
Early Scientific Consensus (1970s)
Initial Warnings
Data Confirmation
Early Policy Failures (1980)
Indecision
Proposed Solutions
Political Shifts & Activism (1981-1982)
Reagan Era Setbacks
Public Awareness
The Ozone Success Story (1983-1985)
Initial Apathy
A Working Blueprint
Bipartisan Momentum (Mid-1980s)
Political Action
Growing Consensus
Fossil Fuel Industry Sabotage (1988)
Threat of Regulation
Corporate Disinformation
Government Betrayal (1989)
Internal Sabotage
Global Failure
Ultimate Legacy
Missed Opportunities
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 7
What year is identified in the text as the starting point for the modern push to stop climate change, marked by the first World Climate Conference and the Charney Report?
Losing Earth — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Scientists have urged climate action for far longer than most people realize.
Chapter 3: Early climate legislation was blocked by widespread indifference and indecision.
Chapter 4: Activists used congressional hearings to make climate change a mainstream political issue.
Chapter 5: The ozone crisis revived a faltering climate change movement.
Chapter 6: In the mid-1980s, bipartisan international climate action seemed truly possible indeed.
Chapter 7: Modest climate-action efforts faced fierce pushback from the fossil fuel industry.
Chapter 8: The United States government shirked its responsibility to lead on climate action.
Losing Earth Summary & Overview
Losing Earth (2019) tells the story of climate change, both as a scientific fact and as a political conflict. This detailed piece of long-form reporting recounts the scientific community’s early push to raise the alarm about climate change and the coordinated effort the fossil fuel industry made to thwart those warnings.
Who Should Listen to Losing Earth?
- Environmentalists eager to understand their enemy
- Political moderates needing a dose of reality
- Anyone concerned about the future of Earth
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