Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters by Steven Koonin

(review by J S)

Climate is changing, that much is known. But what that means, what exactly we know, how much is caused by human activity, and what we should do about it, are subjects of great debate. Are hurricanes becoming more destructive? Are the hottest days getting hotter? Will climate change wreak havoc on the economy? Or have we been misled by politicians, the media, and scientific institutions? These are some of the questions explored by Steven Koonin in his book Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters. He claims that much of what we “know,” have heard, and possibly even told our friends about climate change, is not so.

I’m not a climate scientist, but I wanted to review this book for my own edification. I went into it with what I would consider the “mainstream” view of climate change, one that any average newspaper reader would have. I believed that climate change was a significant risk to society, but if there were counter arguments to this belief, I wanted to hear them.

I was not disappointed by the amount of education Koonin provided. Throughout the book, I learned about various aspects of climate change, from rising sea levels to changing hurricane activity. He clearly explains the fundamental principles of climate science and presents the chaos of climate in a way that is understandable without being simplistic. But as well as providing clear descriptions of climate science, he also makes claims that fly in the face of my understanding of climate change. He claims that things aren’t as bad as we’ve heard and humans have had a small impact on the climate. I found many of his claims surprising. It made me want to dig into the climate reports he cites to understand the full picture.

This review is the result of that research. It contains aspects of the book I found most interesting, as well as deep dives into climate reports and primary source material to further understand Koonin’s claims. I couldn’t cover the entire book at that level of detail, so I primarily focused on his claims about hurricanes and touched on other topics at varying levels of detail.