BOOK REVIEW
Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet Kate Marvel Ecco (2025)
The idea that rising carbon dioxide concentrations could warm the planet dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. Women’s rights campaigner and scientist Eunice Foote showed in 1856 that CO2 and water vapour trap heat in the atmosphere. Her work, which was mostly overlooked at the time, has been validated by decades of research that has built a remarkably clear picture. Average global temperatures have risen since the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels release CO2 that push up greenhouse-gas levels and human activity is the main cause of global warming.
Yet, as climate scientist Kate Marvel observes in Human Nature, policymakers have taken surprisingly little action in response to the mounting evidence. Efforts have been hindered by decades of lobbying by powerful organizations such as oil companies. In this persuasive book, Marvel argues that people need to embrace an emotional response, not just a data-driven one, to prompt widespread action. Climate scientists and activists would be familiar with some of the emotions that double as chapter titles — anger, fear and grief. But Marvel insists on the need for wonder, love and hope, too.