Climate of Hope

How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet

Michael Bloomberg speaking with Elon Musk at the Climate Summit for Local Leaders. All images courtesy of St. Martin’s Press

Edited by Paul Hawken, Penguin Books, 2017, 240 pages, $22.00

Book review by N. R. Mallery

This is the second book I want to share with readers in this important edition of Green Energy Times. These book reviews may be the most important we have ever shared with you. It may be because of the timing, as we live in a country run by an administration that is denying climate change and has threatened to remove the USA from the Paris Climate Accord commitment.

The timing of Climate of Hope is impeccable. Just when we need hope, here it is! Co-authors Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope show us how we need to handle the planetary crises ourselves. Cities, businesses, and citizens can all together save the planet. Released in time for Earth Day, the book offers real solutions on how we can still tackle climate change.

The book shows that Bloomberg and Pope have the background, experience and passion to work together beautifully. They approach the catastrophic future that we face from a collaborative understanding. The leadership that each of them brings to the book is refreshing.

As mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, Michael Bloomberg has a background with how cities operate. The fact that he knows what works and what doesn’t is shown from personal experiences he freely shares. His understanding, experiences, and vision relating to the global climate dilemma — from the point of view of a mayor of such a large metropolis — is invaluable to help us move forward with hope. Perhaps, working on the level of a town or city will prove to be more powerful than we all realize.

Bloomberg is also the founder of Bloomberg LP, a global media and financial information company. HIs knowledge of how finances work help to create a reality of what and how it will be possible to transform cities and at a business level, as well. He leads us to understand that it is the responsibility of each one of us to work with the practical solutions that are presented in the book.

It is significant that Bloomberg’s history includes the fact that in 2014, the U.N. Secretary-General appointed him Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change. Bloomberg is one of the world’s most prominent philanthropists, and the environment is one of the five main focus areas of his foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropics.

Carl Pope meets with then Vice President Al Gore at the WhiteHouse, 1996. (Presidential Materials Division, National Archives, and Records Administration)

Climate of Hope was co-written by Carl Pope. You are probably somewhat familiar with him as the former executive director of the Sierra Club. You may have read his biography at the end of the numerous articles he wrote that we have published in Green Energy Times.

Pope’s passion could not stay contained when he retired from the Sierra Club, and today he continues looking for the underlying economics that link sustainability and economic development, as the principal advisor at Inside Straight Strategies. He has a long list of his accomplishments, along with three other books that he has written. Being a co-author with Bloomberg is a perfect complement to tie this all together with the authority and expertise necessary to give us a road map as we move forward with the hope they believe is real.

Together, in alternating chapters, they not only share their past experiences, but also are able to carve a path for how to tackle the most complicated challenge the world has ever faced.

The book shows that Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope have the background, experience and passion to work together beautifully. They approach the catastrophic future that we face from a collaborative understanding. The leadership that each of them brings to the book is refreshing.

The United States may leave the Paris Climate Accord, but maybe there is a gift in this happening to our country — it has served to create a higher level of awareness and understanding about the dangers of a warming planet to thousands who never really paid attention to the changing climate. There is indeed hope and this book helps to show the way out of our mess.

It’s time for cities, businesses and every citizen to follow the practical solutions laid out in Climate of Hope. The book is sure to be an inspiration for all who read it — with the information that is sorely needed now, more than ever. It is time for action that will produce immediate and solid benefits now and into the future. Let’s save the planet together. I recommend that you get yourself a copy of this book and share it widely.