The goal of this blog is to create a list of super facts. Important facts that are true with very high certainty and yet surprising, misunderstood, or disputed by many. This blog aims to be challenging, educational, and fun, without it being clickbait. I determine veracity using evidence, data from reputable sources and longstanding scientific consensus. Prepare to be challenged (I am). Intentionally seek the truth not confirmation of your belief.
This is my second and last post covering books from the Baby University series. There are 44 of them. I think the Baby University series books are quite interesting for children. They may not really be for babies, but they appear to me to be great for young children. The point of the books is not to make young children understand complex scientific concepts but to introduce them to scientific vocabulary and build their curiosity. We bought 10 of these books for our soon to be born first grandchild (due date September 17). We also bought other books for him. If you want to see my post for the five first books, click here.
Below I am presenting five books in the series, Evolution for Babies, Nuclear Physics for Babies, Astrophysics for Babies, Quantum Entanglement for Babies, and Newtonian Physics for Babies. For each of the books I am providing my review for the book and a link to my review as well as a link to the book on Amazon and a photo of the front cover.
This simple board book just shows different kinds of balls falling through a hole until one ball doesn’t. It’s too big for the hole. That’s the surviving ball. Balls like that ball will be the survivors. That is Natural selection. It is very simple, but I guess it is to the point. I guess anyone can understand that. Even a baby.
Nuclear Physics for Babies
Front cover of Nuclear Physics for Babies.
This is the Amazon link for Nuclear Physics for Babies.
This book is about red balls called protons. They have a positive charge, and they repel each other. There are also blue balls called neutrons. If you put a blue ball between two red balls, the two red balls will not repel and will not fly apart. The more red balls there are, the more blue balls we need. The red and blue balls are at the center of the atom. If the number of red balls and blue balls is not right the nucleus becomes unstable, and it releases energy. That is radioactive decay. The book explains half-life. So that’s the story. It is simple and fun, and your baby can start working on his PhD in nuclear physics when he turns one years old.
Note: I would like to add one thing that I did not note in my review. The neutrons would not be able to hold together two protons just by being neutral. What the baby book is not mentioning is that neutrons (and protons) have a force that acts like glue, called the strong nuclear force. The strong force, color charges, quarks and gluons is what my previous post is about.
Astrophysics for Babies
Front cover of Astrophysics for Babies.
This is the Amazon link for Astrophysics for Babies.
Earth is like a ball, and the sun is like a ball, and the earth orbits the sun. The sun is a star that looks big because it is close. Other stars look tiny because they are far away. Stars are heavy balls of hot gas. Inside stars atoms squeeze together. Smaller atoms squeeze together making bigger atoms and releasing energy in the process. The exploding stars spread bigger atoms across the Universe. The book is colorful and simple reading, but it features the Periodic table, which is not for babies, but ignoring that, this is a simple and fun book for young children.
Quantum Entanglement for Babies
Front cover of Quantum Entanglement for Babies.
This is the Amazon link for Quantum Entanglement for babies.
We bought this book for our future grandchild who will soon be born. It is a very short board book which takes one minute to read. It is about balls, like most of the “for babies” books. There are two red balls and two blue balls. Hide them in boxes. We know the colors, but Alice and Bob do not. However, in quantum physics the balls have a special bond. We put the tangled balls in two boxes. When the boxes are opened, both balls are blue or both balls red. What’s the point?
I am an adult who knows a little bit about Quantum Entanglement, and I did not understand what they meant. How is a baby going to understand it? It is a nice colorful board book but I wish they’ve taken a different approach.
Newtonian Physics for Babies
Front cover of Newtonian Physics for Babies.
This is the Amazon link for Newtonian Physics for Babies.
Newtons Laws and a Ball Explained to the Very Young
We bought this book for our future grandchild who will soon be born. It is a very short board book which takes one minute to read. The book is about a ball. A ball feels the force of gravity, and it is pulling it down. When the ball is on the ground the ball still feels the force of gravity but the ground pushes back with an equal force and the ball is at rest. If there is a net force the ball moves.
At the end the book lists the three laws of motion. 1. If an object has zero net force, it does not change its motion. 2. The net force is equal to mass times acceleration. 3. For every force, there is an equal force in the opposite direction. It is very simply expressed, and the illustrations are fun, but I still think this book requires the child to be a bit older for him to understand, maybe 3-4 years old rather than a baby. However, I think the book can evoke an interest in science and physics at an earlier age. Despite it being one of the tougher books in the series, I think it seems to be a pretty good book.
To watch a woman read Astrohysics for Babies. Click on the YouTube video below.
I think that one of the most interesting series science books for beginners that I’ve come across is the Baby University series. I bought it for our soon to be born first grandchild Jack, but I couldn’t help but go through them myself. It is a great series for those who hope to put their one-year-old toddlers in a PhD program. But seriously, these books explain science concepts as simply as it is possible to do. The books may still be a little bit tough for babies, but I think 2–3-year-olds might get something out of them. The point of the books is not to make young children understand complex scientific concepts but to introduce the vocabulary and build curiosity.
Below I am presenting five books in the series, General Relativity for Babies, Electromagnetism for Babies, Artificial Intelligence for Babies, Quantum Physics for Babies, and Organic Chemistry for Babies. I am providing my review for the book and a link to my review as well as the book and a photo of the front cover.
General Relativity for Babies
Front cover of General relativity for Babies.
This is the Amazon link for General Relativity for Babies.
We bought this board book for our not yet born grandson. This book simplifies the General Theory of Relativity as far as you possibly can. It uses simple language and colorful illustrations to give the reader an idea of what is going on. Different sized masses are different sized balls, space-time curvature is illustrated using a distorted grid, and objects orbiting larger masses, such as a star, are shown as small balls having their paths curved by a warped grid. There are simple explanations for what a black hole is and what gravity waves are.
A baby would not understand this book but maybe someone who is 3-4 years old would. But your expectations need to be realistic. It should also be noted that even if you understand the book, the explanations are too simplistic for you to really understand General Relativity, but the explanations are not so simple that they are wrong. The book will just give you an idea of what is going on. However, I was impressed by the fact that the author and illustrator were able to present such an abstract theory in a way that makes it possible for a child to at least have a clue. I think that the most important aspect of the book is not whether the child understands General Relativity but the interest in science that it may evoke.
Electromagnetism for Babies
Front cover of Electromagnetism for Babies.
This is the Amazon link for Electromagnetism for Babies.
We bought this short and colorfully illustrated board book for our not yet born grandson. I don’t think a baby will understand it but maybe when he is 2-3 years old. The book explains in simple terms and with colorful simple illustrations the basic concepts of charges, and attraction between negative and positive charges, and repulsion between two positive balls/charges and two negative balls. It explains about electrical and magnetic fields, and the fact that charges rotate around magnets. I believe this book can spur a child’s interest in science and engineering.
Artificial Intelligence for babies
Front cover of Artificial Intelligence for babies.
This is the Amazon link for Artificial Intelligence for babies.
We bought this board book for our not yet born grandson. He will not be able to understand it until he is at least one years old, but that is OK. The book explains the difference between a dog, a live thing, and a computer. It does this in very simple terms that I believe a young child could understand. According to the book, a computer can do some things that are impressive, such as complex calculations, and you can teach it certain skills, but it is not adaptable like a dog. I think that is about what you can make a very young child understand. Naturally, there are no neural networks or AI algorithms in the book. However, I think it sells artificial intelligence short, since artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly adaptable.
Quantum Physics for babies
Front cover of Quantum Physics for babies.
This is the Amazon link for Quantum Physics for babies.
Quantum Physics for Young Children and Adults who Detested Physics Class
We bought this board book for our not yet born grandson. We may need to wait until he is 2-3 years old before it makes sense to read it to him. In the meantime, it is also a good book for adults without a solid science education. The book talks about colorful balls with energy and presents a simplified version of the Bohr model of the atom. There are blue balls called electrons and red balls called protons in the middle (the nucleus). The electrons travel in circular orbits around the middle. Light can change the energy of electrons causing them to jump between the orbits.
My daughter made the comment that a baby is only going to understand that an electron is a blue ball and a proton is a red ball, which isn’t a correct description of electrons and protons. Protons and electrons don’t have specific colors, not to mention that a simplified Bohr model for the atom is quite different from the more realistic Schrödinger’s model of the atom with quantum waves and probabilistic electron clouds. However, I am still very impressed by how simple the author and the illustrator succeeded in making this abstract topic. It is a good start for budding physicists.
Organic Chemistry for babies
Front cover of Organic Chemistry for babies.
This is the Amazon link for Organic Chemistry for babies.
We bought this board book for our not yet born grandson. We will read it to him when he is 1-3 years old. Right now, we can read it. This book simplifies Organic as far as you possibly can. It uses simple language and colorful illustrations to give the reader an idea of what organic chemistry is. Basically, atoms are balls of different kinds. Atoms make up everything. Atoms can stick to each other, and they can make different shapes. The balls we call carbon (in black) can stick to small white balls called hydrogen and other balls called oxygen. We call those organic molecules, and they make up plants, food, and medicines. I think this is simple enough for a 1–3-year-old to understand, but not a baby. In my opinion, a better name for this series would have been “for Big Boys or Girls” rather than babies, because young children don’t like being called babies.
To watch a woman read Quantum Physics for Babies. Click on the YouTube video below.
I am not a super fact hunter today. This post is about an interesting book that I recently finished reading, “Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs by Juli Berwald”, a prominent marine biologist based in Austin, Texas. Coral Reefs are underappreciated. They are extremely important to the ocean’s ecosystems. A fourth of all marine species depend on the reef at some point in their life. Coral reefs are also very important to us humans for a variety of reasons.
Unfortunately, today’s coral reefs are assaulted by a host of environmental stresses. The largest is climate change, or if you call it global warming, which is warming marine ecosystems even faster than those on land. 75% of the reef building corals in the world have already been damaged by high seawater temperatures. This book is about corals, what they are, how they live and evolve, their DNA, and what is being done to save the coral reefs. The book is heavy on the science at the same time as it is not tough reading. She is a great author as well as scientist.
Life on the Rocks Book Formats
Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs by Juli Berwald comes in four formats. I bought the hardback format.
Hardcover – Riverhead Books (April 5, 2022), ISBN-10 : 0593087305, ISBN-13 : 978-0593087305, 352 pages, item weight : 1.25 pounds, dimensions : 6.31 x 1.11 x 9.26 inches, it costs $ 3.98 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Paperback – Publisher : Riverhead Books (April 4, 2023), ISBN-10 : 0593087313, ISBN-13 : 978-0593087312, 352 pages, item weight : 9.2 ounces, dimensions : 5.19 x 0.91 x 7.93 inches, it costs $ 15.44 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Kindle – Publisher : Riverhead Books (April 5, 2022), ASIN : B098PWTYLL, ISBN-13 : 978-0593087329, 348 pages, it costs $9.99 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Audio– Publisher : Penguin Audio (April 05, 2022), Listening Length : 10 hours and 52 minutes, ASIN : B09B83BHH1, it costs $ 15.75 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Front cover of hardback format of the book Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs by Juli Berwald. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the hardcover version of the book.
Amazon’s Description of Life on the Rocks
FINALIST FOR THE L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND BOOKLIST
The story of the urgent fight to save coral reefs, and why it matters to us all
Coral reefs are a microcosm of our planet: extraordinarily diverse, deeply interconnected, and full of wonders. When they’re thriving, these fairy gardens hidden beneath the ocean’s surface burst with color and life. They sustain bountiful ecosystems and protect vulnerable coasts. Corals themselves are evolutionary marvels that build elaborate limestone formations from their collective skeletons, broker symbiotic relationships with algae, and manufacture their own fluorescent sunblock. But corals across the planet are in the middle of an unprecedented die-off, beset by warming oceans, pollution, damage by humans, and a devastating pandemic.
Juli Berwald fell in love with coral reefs as a marine biology student, entranced by their beauty and complexity. Alarmed by their peril, she traveled the world to discover how to prevent their loss. She met scientists and activists operating in emergency mode, doing everything they can think of to prevent coral reefs from disappearing forever. She was so amazed by the ingenuity of these last-ditch efforts that she joined in rescue missions, unexpected partnerships, and risky experiments, and helped rebuild reefs with rebar and zip ties.
Life on the Rocks is an inspiring, lucid, meditative ode to the reefs and the undaunted scientists working to save them against almost impossible odds. As she also attempts to help her daughter in her struggle with mental illness, Berwald explores what it means to keep fighting a battle whose outcome is uncertain. She contemplates the inevitable grief of climate change and the beauty of small victories.
Interesting Science an Important Message and the Beauty of Corals
Coral reefs are incredibly important to the ocean and its ecosystems. A fourth of all marine species depend on the reef at some point in their life. Coral reefs are also very important to us humans for a variety of reasons. However, today’s coral reefs are assaulted by a host of environmental stresses. The largest is climate change, or if you call it global warming, which is warming marine ecosystems even faster than those on land. 75% of the reef building corals in the world have already been damaged by high seawater temperatures.
Our burning of fossil fuels also causes ocean acidification. The effects of ocean acidification have not yet damaged corals but will in the future. Add to that, hurricanes (getting worse due to climate change), diseases (SCTLD), pollution, fertilizer and sewage runoff, wild harvesting of corals for export, loss of urchins, illegal fishing, such as using explosives to catch fish (blast fishing), and cyanide. In 2009 70% of all fish in fish markets had telltale scars from explosions and in 2016 more than half the fish in aquarium shops tested positive for cyanide poisoning. The explosives and the cyanide destroy coral reefs. We know what’s causing the loss of coral reefs, but we also know how to solve these things: stop burning fossil fuels, manage fishing, prioritize sanitation, and control pollution.
This book will teach you about corals, that they are marine animal related to jellyfish and sea anemones, consisting of hundreds to thousands of tiny individual polyps that form colonies. That they are in a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae. That the algae power the coral by making sugar and the coral provides the supplies the alga needs to make that power. They are 160 million years old.
You will learn about the history of the oceans pH level (acidity). different species, coral bleaching, hybridization and reticulated evolution. You will learn about the threats to corals and the efforts to save the coral reefs. The author is a distinguished scientist who does a lot of research and scuba diving. She takes you on an underwater (and above water) journey around the world, Florida, Sulawesi, Bali, Dominican Republic, and Australia, like Jacques Costeau used to do.
The efforts to save the corals include coral restoration, which is very difficult and expensive, coral farming, marine protected areas, aquarium hobbyists growing corals, cryobiology/ cryogenics, which is a futuristic technology involving freezing and later restoring corals in a better future. It should be noted that as warming events and coral bleaching events kill corals the ones that survive are better equipped to survive future warming. This is not so much adaptation as evolution by natural selection. Even though this can give you hope, one should remember that the current warming is very fast and even if evolution might save some corals, it changes the composition of coral species.
However, scientists have sequenced coral DNA and are trying to identify the genes that help some corals to survive warming events better than other corals. This could lead to assisted evolution. The author also addresses geoengineering techniques to slow down climate change such as marine cloud brightening, and she discusses the tragedy of the commons.
This book is full of facts and interesting science. However, it is not a difficult read. In addition, she makes it more colorful and personal by discussing her personal opinions on issues, her daughter’s mental illness caused by a lingering strep throat infection, her experiences with covid-19, and as mentioned, this book is organized as a journey around the world. I should mention that I felt that some of her personal opinions and personal stories may have been distractions, especially when I could not agree with what she said. But I thought that was a minor issue. She is a great author who knows how to keep an audience captivated despite all the science. She lists 292 references. It is a very well-written and interesting science book about corals. I learned a lot from reading this book. I highly recommend this book.
Back cover of hardback format of the book Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs by Juli Berwald. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the paperback version of the book.
I haven’t posted or read blog posts for almost a week because I was busy with something else. I am a member of a non-partisan volunteer organization called the Citizens Climate Lobby which seeks to create political will for a livable future. As the name suggests we do a lot of lobbying. It is not the kind of paid lobbying that is done by professionals and that is often associated with money. We are average constituents, average voters, with no money, who are visiting our legislators to give them information and opinions on legislation we support or don’t support.
Since we are non-partisan, we visit both Democrats and Republican offices. We just had a CCL conference in Washington DC on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We were 800+ volunteers who visited 400+ Congressional offices in Washington DC on Tuesday July 22nd.
I visited four Texas Congressmen, including Senator Ted Cruz (R), Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (R), and Congressman Marc Veasey (D). We also had a zoom call with Congressman John Carter’s (R) office. I am the CCL liaison for Senator Cruz’ office and I was the one who organized our visit, from our side, with Senator Cruz and a couple of his staff. Ted Cruz does not always agree with us, or perhaps more correctly, he seldom agrees with us, but we had a friendly and interesting meeting, and he and his staff were very appreciative of us being there.
Senator Cruz hosts a Texas Tuesday Coffee for Constituents in Washington, DC on July 22, 2025. (Official U.S. Senate photo by Rebecca Hammel) Ted Cruz is standing in the back between the flags. I am in the front row, second from the right wearing a blue suit. We are twelve people.
Right after our meeting with Senator Cruz I posted the following on Facebook “I am in Washington DC meeting with congressmen. We had an in person meeting with Ted Cruz and we took pictures with him.” along with a photo of the capitol building (not the group photo). Most people left interesting or nice comments but then a far-left Facebook friend of mine left a very hostile comment. He started out saying “so you are finally revealing your true colors Thomas…” and that was followed by an angry outburst in two separate comments filled with F-bombs and how he was ending his friendship with me. I deleted his comments and blocked him. Basically, a centrist on-line friend visiting with a Republican politician for a friendly exchange of opinions enraged him. Naturally I have seen a lot of this on both sides.
Division has become so severe in this country that we are losing our ability to talk to each other. Families are divided against each other, and the rhetoric is overheated. This is dangerous and it is what Amanda Ripley, the keynote speaker at our CCL conference in Washington DC calls High Conflict. High Conflict is a natural psychological phenomenon that sucks us deep into conflict that eventually gets out of hand. She compares it to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. We form kinships and tribes, echo chambers, and dislikes for those with different opinions, we belittle and insult each other, which grows resentment, and we create an us-versus them scenario, which evolves into a good (us) versus evil (them).
Amanda Ripley is the author of the book High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. I think her message and her book are very important, and I have a lot of good things to say about the book. However, the book featured one false and defamatory statement and generalization about environmentalists, which prevents me from giving the book five stars. That claim pretty much ruined it for me , so I am giving the book three stars. I still recommend the book, and perhaps whether I like this book or not is not as important as the topic.
High Conflict the Book Formats
High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley. I bought the hardback format.
Hardcover – Publisher : Simon & Schuster (April 6, 2021), ISBN-10 : 1982128569, ISBN-13 : 978-1982128562, 368 pages, item weight : 1.26 pounds, dimensions : 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches, it costs $24.98 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Paperback – Publisher : Simon & Schuster (April 5, 2022), ISBN-10 : 1982128577, ISBN-13 : 978-1982128579, 368 pages, item weight : 2.31 pounds, dimensions : 5.5 x 0.92 x 8.38 inches, it costs $13.95 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Kindle – Publisher : Simon & Schuster (April 6, 2021), ASIN : B08LDW7M7J, ISBN-13 : 978-1982128586, 363 pages, it costs $ 15.99 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Audio– Publisher : Simon & Schuster Audio (April 6, 2021), Listening Length : 9 hours and 50 minutes, ASIN : B0DCCWRMJS, it costs $0.00 with membership on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Front cover of the hardback format of the book High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the hardcover version of the book.
Amazon’s Description of High Conflict
When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”—in our politics, at work, or at home—it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over.
That’s what “high conflict” does. It’s the invisible hand of our time. And it’s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s good conflict, and it’s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people.
High conflict is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them. In this state, the brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority, and everything we do to try to end the conflict, usually makes it worse. Eventually, we can start to mimic the behavior of our adversaries, harming what we hold most dear.
In this “compulsively readable” (Evan Osnos, National Book Award-winning author) book, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict—and how they break free.
Our journey begins in California, where a world-renowned conflict expert struggles to extract himself from a political feud. Then we meet a Chicago gang leader who dedicates his life to a vendetta—only to realize, years later, that the story he’d told himself about the conflict was not quite true. Next, we travel to Colombia, to find out whether thousands of people can be nudged out of high conflict at scale. Finally, we return to America to see what happens when a group of liberal Manhattan Jews and conservative Michigan corrections officers choose to stay in each other’s homes in order to understand one another better, even as they continue to disagree.
All these people, in dramatically different situations, were drawn into high conflict by similar forces, including conflict entrepreneurs, humiliation, and false binaries. But ultimately, all of them found ways to transform high conflict into good conflict, the kind that made them better people. They rehumanized and recategorized their opponents, and they revived curiosity and wonder, even as they continued to fight for what they knew was right.
People do escape high conflict. Individuals—even entire communities—can short-circuit the feedback loops of outrage and blame, if they want to. This is an “insightful and enthralling” (The New York Times Book Review) book—and a mind-opening new way to think about conflict that will transform how we move through the world.
Interesting discussion on conflict but with a lot of interpretation and opinion
“Good conflict” is healthy conflict in which questions get asked, in which there is curiosity and movement in opinions. “High conflict” on the other hand is what happens when conflict devolves into a good versus evil kind of feud. The conflict takes on its own life and draws us in like a tar pit.
The book gives many examples of high conflict and explains how they came to be; the Hatfield’s and the McCoy, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, our current political division, couples getting divorced, gang warfare, guerilla warfare, civil war, etc. The book focuses much attention on Gary, a friendly lawyer who rather solves conflict than benefit from it, as is typically a lawyer’s job. Gary runs for a local office and wins but because he is thinking a little bit too highly about himself and his abilities, he by mistake excludes some really knowledgeable, willing and helpful people from what he refers to as “the old guard”, which leads to a high conflict that he himself created. However, in the end he becomes part of the solution. It is a good story.
The author makes a lot of interesting observations such as; we have group belongings, we form factions, we need belonging, giving people two choices is dangerous, a proportional representation system might be better than the current American system, people have biases that inflame conflict such as confirmation bias, and there’s a conflict industrial complex. There are fire starters, group identities, conflict entrepreneurs, and humiliation. Media and social networking can function as conflict entrepreneurs. The areas in Rwanda where the radio reception was better there were more killings.
To escape high conflict, we need to recognize the conflict entrepreneurs around us, avoid excluding and humiliating people, and recognize that people want to be heard. Getting out of high conflict includes recognizing a saturation point where people had enough, building new broader identities, reframing the situation, and clearing the path for combatants. Welcome former combatants home rather than shaming them. Avoiding conflict involves complicating the narrative from the beginning. Simplifications do damage. I felt all that was pretty good advice.
Then on page 183 a strange claim is made, implying that very few people concerned about climate change would want a “carbon fairy” to solve climate change (that carbon fairy could be nuclear power) because they want to use “climate change” as vehicle for something else. I am volunteering in a climate change organization, and I have never met anyone who isn’t part of it primarily to solve carbon emissions. Half are pro nuclear power the other half skeptical about it being a “climate fairy” (I am pro nuclear). Some are pro-capitalists, others more left leaning, a substantial minority are Republicans, and world views are all over the spectrum. So obviously page 183 makes a false claim probably for sensationalistic reasons.
That’s just one dubious claim, but it alerted me to read the book more critically and I realized that the author is far from objective. She definitely wants to promote her ideas and make her book look more interesting. She is doing that by carefully selecting examples and stories, interpreting those cherry-picked situations, and there’s a lot of opinions, and who knows what she may get wrong or misreporting? It seems at first to be an authoritative work, but it is not a scientific book. That doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. I believe a lot of what the book claims to be true, but I do not know. It is a journalist’s opinion and interpretation of conflict, and it is therefore less than I expected.
Back cover of hardback format of the book High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the paperback version of the book.
I recently read a very interesting book on the history of climate change politics; Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics by Chelsea Henderson. Chelsea Henderson is a leader in the EcoRight movement, basically Republicans who care about the environment and climate change. She is a former senior advisor to Senator John Warner (Republican) and have held other positions in the US Congress. Her book is non-partisan. However, naturally she is accepting the reality of human caused global warming.
I should mention that the second last sentence of the seventh paragraph of my rather long review says this “As of very recently, a few days ago, those Tax Credits have been reversed.” Those few days ago have not yet happened. I thought Amazon would take longer to publish my review and I was predicting that the vote today/tomorrow on the Senate version of the Budget Reconciliation Bill (the Big Beautiful Bill) would allow it to pass. So those few days ago have not yet happened because Amazon was faster than I thought. Basically, the Budget Reconciliation Bill will roll back or phase out the clean energy tax credits enacted in 2022. For those who don’t know what a Budget Reconciliation Bill is, it is a bill that allows you to bypass the filibuster, and it is therefore typically a highly partisan bill.
Glacial The Book Formats
Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics by Chelsea Henderson comes in four formats. I bought the hardback format.
Hardcover – Publisher : Turner (August 6, 2024), ISBN-10 : 1684429579, ISBN-13 : 978-1684429578, 432 pages, item weight : 1.45 pounds, dimensions : 6.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches, it costs $ 23.11 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Paperback – Publisher : Turner (August 6, 2024), ISBN-10 : 1684429587, ISBN-13 : 978-1684429585, 432 pages, item weight : 1.34 pounds, dimensions : 6 x 0.96 x 9 inches, it costs $13.10 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Kindle – Publisher : Turner (August 6, 2024), ASIN : B0CBQKTM46, ISBN-13 : 978-1684429592, 460 pages, it costs $12.44 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Audio– Publisher : Tantor Audio (August 13, 2024), Listening Length : 9 hours and 50 minutes, ASIN : B0DCCWRMJS, it costs $0.00 with membership on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Front cover of hardback format of the book Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics by Chelsea Henderson. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the hardcover version of the book.
Amazon’s Description of Glacial
It took nearly sixty years for a meaningful climate change bill to run the political gauntlet from Capitol Hill to the Oval Office. Why?
From mavericks to party standard-bearers, U.S. Senators, members of the House of Representatives, and presidential candidates have campaigned for four decades espousing their intentions to address the impacts of climate change.
Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics is the first Inside-the-Beltway account to lay bare the machinations of what went wrong in Washington—how and why our leaders failed to act on climate change as mounting scientific evidence underscored the urgency to do so. Glacial tells a story of behind-the-scenes infighting and power struggles that blocked or derailed federal legislative progress on climate change, even in times of bipartisanship and with polls showing most Americans favored action.
The good news today is that public opinion is at its highest level of support for climate action, from corporate boardrooms embracing sustainability for business reasons to movements led by passionate younger generations who can’t afford to stand mute because it is they who will inherit the worst environmental catastrophes. If the missed opportunities in Washington are instructive, the path to doing so is clear. Our elected officials must use their offices not solely for the power and prestige it bestows upon them personally, but for the public good—and they must do so while there is still time.
This book recounts the history of the politics around climate change starting with the LBJ administration and ending with the Biden administration. LBJ was the first commander in chief to warn his fellow Americans of a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
The author, Chelsea Henderson is a leader in the Eco-Right movement, basically Republicans for the Environment. Some well-known names in this movement are former secretary of state James Baker (under H.W. Bush), and the former secretary of state under Ronald Reagan, the late George Shultz, Bob Ingliss former Republican Congressman from South Carolina, the founders of RepublicEN, the Republican congressman Carlos Curbelo who founded the Climate Solutions Caucus in Congress together with Ted Deutch, Republican Utah Senator John Curtis, and George Mankiw a notable conservative economist.
It may come as a surprise to some that once upon a time the environment was not a divisive left versus right issue. Nixon signed into law the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act, and founded the Environmental Protection Agency. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher led the ratification of the Montreal Protocol in 1987 – 1989 to phase out the global use of CFCs due to their detrimental effect on the ozone layer. As a result, emissions of ozone-depleting gases have fallen by 99 percent, and it saves an estimated 2 million lives from skin cancer every year. This was one of Ronald Reagans greatest successes and yet it has been mocked by some subsequent Republican Presidents.
The book also talks about the history of acid rain and our fight against that. Margaret Thatcher, a chemist, was very concerned about the greenhouse effect, or global warming, and so was George H.W. Bush and Reagan to some degree. Unfortunately, the words climate change has grown to be deeply polarizing due to decades long disinformation campaigns funded by fossil fuel companies and far right think tanks and talk show hosts.
Another factoid that might surprise readers is that in 1957, scientists working for Humble Oil, later known as ExxonMobil, sounded the alarm on the greenhouse effect / global warming caused by burning fossil fuels. However, the executive leadership decided to deride the type of work its own scientists had done. The same thing happened on later occasions and Exxon funneled a lot of money into anti-climate change think tanks.
As the evidence that carbon dioxide was causing the greenhouse effect (or global warming or climate change) became increasingly indisputable in the 1990’s the fossil fuel industry and far right think tanks, and conservative talk show hosts, started to push back on the science very hard, by spreading misinformation, insulting and attacking scientists, environmentalists, and politicians taking a stand they did not like. Koch industries, the American Petroleum Institute and the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), which contrary to what the name seems to imply, opposed climate action, teamed up to fight climate action.
However, it was not only people on the right doing this. Democrat politicians from coal districts also opposed measures on global warming. Clinton and Gore tried make progress on the issue, but it became politically unworkable. The book explains what happened during the Contract with America episode, the Kyoto protocol, etc.
However, the issue of climate change was not purely a right versus left. Some Republican leaders such as Senator John McCain and Mitt Romney championed climate action (perhaps on and off and on again) and the George W. Bush administration contained both pro-fossil advocates such as Dick Cheney and those favoring action on climate change such as Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, Condoleezza Rice, Christine Todd Whitman, and Colin Powell.
Later during the Obama administration there was a climate change bill that was very close to passing, the Waxman-Markey bill. The bill passed the house but when it was going to be voted on in the Senate, Barbara Boxer (democrat) used her role as a committee chairman to change it and take it so far left that it became unpassable. She wasn’t against climate action, on the contrary, but she thought it would work.
I can add that the Tea Party, which had started out to oppose the national debt, but later focused on the culture war and opposed climate action made climate action more difficult. Well, it did not help that the oil and gas industry spent 175 million dollars lobbying against the bill in less than a year whilst environmental advocates spent only 22.4 million dollars lobbying for it, despite that being a record effort for environmental advocates.
The end of the book focuses on the Biden administration and the Clean Energy Tax Credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. This part of the book reads like a thriller because it was held up by one man, Joe Manchin, the Democrat Senator from West Virginia, who was pressured from all sides and kept changing his mind, until he finally decided to support it. As of very recently, a few days ago, those Tax Credits have been reversed. The history of action on climate change marches on.
By reading this book you will learn about a lot of people and their stories, politicians and scientists, who became embroiled in the climate change issue, for or against, George E. Brown, Dr. Roger Revelle, Dr. James Hansen, Katherine Hayhoe, Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, Rafe Pomerance, Speth, Shimberg, Senator John Chafee, John McCain, Mathew Stembridge, Rick Boucher, John Warner, Alex Bozmoski, Bob Ingliss, Lindsey Graham, John Sununu, Rahm Emmanuel, Congressman Joe Barton, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, Scott Pruitt, Lee Iacocca, Senator Inhofe, Rush Limbaugh, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Myron Ebell, and many others. You will also learn about terms that relates to the American form of Democracy, the filibuster, budget reconciliation, appropriation, the parliamentarian, the various senate and house committees and caucuses, how bills are created and passed, an Omnibus bill, etc.
If you are interested in political history, the history of climate change politics, and the stories of the people involved, then this book is for you. The author explains all the terms used and it is not a complicated book. The book reads like a journey through political history, and you will learn thousands of facts and anecdotes. If you are a somewhat older reader, like me, you will be reminded of the events from the past and you will recognize people, and what they said, and the chaos, and the complexities, and all the hoopla, and you will think to yourself, what a crazy world politics is.
I also think that the book gives you a perspective of where the politics have been and where it might be going. Despite the many setbacks in the past, this book will give you reason for optimism. The younger generation both on the left and the right are more willing to accept the science and are more willing to embrace action on climate. Well, I guess it is their future. The world is moving forward, and it is decarbonizing, no matter what we do. Overall, I think the book is entertaining and fascinating and I highly recommend it.
Back cover of hardback format of the book Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics by Chelsea Henderson. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the paperback version of the book.
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An update : The Senate version of the Budget Reconciliation Bill passed today (7/1 – 2025). The phase out of the clean energy tax credits stayed, as I predicted, but the excise tax on renewables that the Senate previously added to the bill was removed in the last minute, which is good news for those who care about the environment.
Super Facts 