The 100% Solution

A Plan for Solving Climate Change

By: Solomon Goldstein-Rose

Narrated by: Adam Lofbomm

Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

The world must reach negative greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. Yet no single plan has addressed the full scope of the problem - until now.

In The 100% Solution, Solomon Goldstein-Rose - a leading millennial climate activist and a former Massachusetts state representative - makes clear what needs to happen to hit the 2050 target: the manufacturing booms we must spur, the moonshot projects we must fund, the amount of CO2 we'll have to sequester from the atmosphere, and much more.

Most importantly, he shows us the more prosperous and equitable world we can build by uniting the efforts of activists, industries, governments, scientists, and voters to get the job done.

This is the guide we've been waiting for. As calls for a World War II-scale mobilization intensify - especially among youth activists - this action-oriented book arms us with specific demands, sets the stakes for what our leaders must achieve, and proves that with this level of comprehensive thinking we can still take back our future.

©2020 Solomon Goldstein-Rose (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

An excellent top-down primer on climate change

For me, it was a great primer on climate change -- the best top-down breakdown I've seen so far, not just of the problem, but also of what possible complete solutions could end up looking like. He takes into account political viability, cost, etc -- so it's not an ideological fantasy. And the way he reasons about everything aligns with how I tend to approach complex problems in my job as an engineer.

Definitely not for everyone, but for an analytical thinker who wants to learn more about climate change and possible solutions, I'd say this is worth the read.

Learned

I learned a lot about this. We have to do more. Empty words aren’t fulfilled enough.

Too many hypotheticals not enough real examples

"Could" and "should" pontificating is easy to write. What I was hoping for was examples of "are". A lot of progress has been made with MSR nuclear power, HTSE and SOEC green hydrogen production, fuel cell and rare earth recovery, and green steel production especially in Europe. This is the book I'm waiting for.

Good thinking damaged by heavy bias

Unfortunately, the author’s inexplicable view of what past environmentalists and progressive policy thinkers have done (witness all the legislation passed in the 60s and early 70s) to try to deal with climate change in a comprehensive way makes the correct approach that the author finally comes to recommend damaged by his diminished credibility—the result of his blatant naïveté and cocky ageism. He stipulates, with proud ignorance, that only young people can think forward and care about the future.

So far, the revered millennials have done little more than talk and protest and proclaim (as the dishonored progenitors did so much better) and by all indicators seem to be diving wholeheartedly into consumer capitalism, while looking over their shoulders at the climate catastrophe that is chasing them and their precious, overpopulating children down.