A radical statement of the truth

The climate of truth: Why do we need it and how to get it Mike Burnsers Lee Cambridge University. Press (2025)

I had the honor to hear the climate scientist Mike Burnsers Lee talking about his last book before publishing it. As for a crowded lecture thesis, his thesis was placed: an increase in honesty is more important than technological progress as a solution to climate change and the relevant threats facing humanity.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this proposal. Was it really simple, or was the author naive and unforgettable? What should the book say about the strange times that we currently live, described differently as after the truth¹ And the era of wrong information²? I went out on my way to get a prior version – it was a convincing reading.

The first chapter shows a clear and rich description of the data that we find ourselves. Berners-Lee takes us through interlocking issues of climate, energy, population, food, biological diversity, pollution and disease. It does not restore sugar.

The book is firmly pushing to those who argue that we are making progress in climate change. It shows what the science tells us that we can expect it with the high temperature that is already baked: collapsed crop revenues, exacerbation of fires and more floods. As emissions continue to increase on an annual basis, we are still accelerating the problem instead of placing the brakes.

Technology is not enough

How to reconcile this climate change point of view with the technical view that innovation provides continuous improvements to most people on our common planet, and will solve our environmental problems as well?

Berners-LE refers to technical optimism as the “new face of climate denial”. He argues that although we have the technical developments needed to treat polycrisis, these alone will never be sufficient. A good example is how efficiency gains tend to increase, instead of reducing them. This “recovery effect” is also well known as Jevons Paradox, after industrial in the nineteenth century, which noticed that the use of coal is more effective led to an increase in demand. Green transition requires that renewed energy to fossil fuel instead of completing it. This does not happen.

Despite Berners Lee’s speech, a lot of land shares him with the data scientist Hana Richie, whose excellent book It is not the end of the world (2024) It takes a technological position. They both believe that the global carbon price is high enough to stimulate a decrease in the use of fossil fuels. Both agree that we need a mechanism, such as CAP and trade, to ensure that the poorest are not deprived. Berners Lee focuses on how to get there.

High trick price

He brings back his book, the outer layer of Polycrisis, to discuss the sharp changes needed in equality, education, the media, politics, economics and law. The argument is that living well in anthroposin – which cannot be denied the material boundaries of growth – requires radical changes to how society works, but the required decisions will not be taken unless the voter understanding is not veiled with deception.

This leads us to the essence of Polycrisis. Bernersi highlights three crossed values ​​necessary for humanity to flourish in anthroposin: respect the environment, respect for others and respect the truth. The last few chapters focus on the most important crane: the truth.

The book displays the classification of deception. Explicit lies are just the tip of the iceberg, with more cleared forms such as wrong guidance, burying bad news and wrong impressions that may cause a lot of damage. He talks about how to spread the “temptation of nonsense”: sometimes because of the interested sarcasm, but often because of thinking about wishing or incomplete.