Elizabeth Kolbert’s new book explores striking ways to fix our ecological problems

Judy Woodruff:

The Biden administration has announced a new plan to substantially expand offshore wind power along the East Coast.

The president has called for far bigger changes to tackle what many scientists say is a climate crisis. But some are suggesting even more revolutionary ways of dealing with these problems.

A new book explores these proposals and historical efforts to combat environmental exploitation and ecological troubles.

William Brangham has the latest installment of "NewsHour" Bookshelf.

William Brangham:

In our remarkable success as humans, we have altered the natural world in so many ways, but many of those changes now threaten life on Earth.

A new book asks, can we change nature again in order to save it?

Elizabeth Kolbert's last book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Sixth Extinction," detailed how humanity's deep footprint has altered life on Earth like no other species has. Her new book, "Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future," looks at some striking ways we might address that footprint.

It's a portrait of — quote — "people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems."

Elizabeth Kolbert, very, very good to have you on the "NewsHour."

Elizabeth Kolbert:

Thanks for having me.

William Brangham:

As I mentioned, the focus of this book is on the scientists and researchers who are trying to fix these ecological problems that we have caused by trying to address other problems.

You start with the example of the Asian carp that were originally introduced into the Midwest of the U.S. as a way to address a biological invasive species itself. But then that whole thing got way out of hand. Could you give us a — just tell us that story?

Elizabeth Kolbert:

Sure.

So, Asian carp were introduced purposefully into the sort of Southeast in the '60s. This was after Rachel Carson had published "Silent Spring," sort of ironically, and people were trying to cut down on the use of chemicals.

People think of Asian carp as one species. It's really several. One was brought in to fight aquatic weeds, because they're voracious weed eaters, and a couple others were brought in to deal with the problems that arise from not entirely treated sewage effluent.

All four species got loose and are really wreaking havoc throughout the Mississippi watershed.

William Brangham:

The last part of your book addresses ways in which we might address climate change. And most people, when they think about dealing with climate change, think about cutting emissions, electric vehicles and things like that.

You're talking with researchers who are who are planning a very different kind of intervention. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Elizabeth Kolbert:

Well, one of the real difficulties with the — challenges with addressing climate change is that carbon dioxide hangs around in the atmosphere for a long time, and it will continue to heat the world for a long time, even once we do — and we absolutely have to — stop emitting into the atmosphere.

So, one group of scientists that I talked to for the book are trying to come up with ways to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. So, that's a very, very active area of research. And then another group of researchers I spoke to at Harvard are looking at this idea that you could counter climate change by pouring reflective particles into the stratosphere.

This is what happens when we get a volcanic eruption. We get a lot of sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere. That reflects sunlight back to space. And we get temporary cooling. So, if we could mimic volcanoes, we could theoretically potentially counteract one form of intervention in the atmosphere with another.

William Brangham:

I mean, the scale and audacity of some of these interventions really underscores just how severe this crisis is, that we're that we are literally talking about putting a particulate umbrella over the Earth.

Elizabeth Kolbert:

Well, I think it gets back to this idea which is really central in discussions of climate change.

And it's why climate scientists have been warning for so many decades now that we need to get our act together, because, once you get the climate that you don't like, there's no going back.

William Brangham:

It's too late at that point.

Elizabeth Kolbert:

Exactly. It's a supertanker. There's a lot of inertia in the system.

And, as I said, CO2 hangs around for a long time. So it's not like a lot of other environmental problems, where you stop doing what you were doing and it dissipates after a few years. Climate change will continue. We will have an altered climate even after we stop emitting CO2, unfortunately.

William Brangham:

I mean, I know you talk with the researchers about this, but what do they say about the concern that, if we focus on what seem like these Hail Mary interventions, that we may, governments may take their eyes off the very real, practical, tangible way to address climate change, which is cutting emissions today?

Elizabeth Kolbert:

It's a huge concern. It's a huge concern for the scientists who are working on these projects that there's what's called the moral hazard problem, that people will just, as you say, take their eye off the obvious things that we know we need to do, in the hopes or with the idea that, oh, someone someday is going to solve this with some almost magical technology, which, in the case of solar geoengineering, as it's called, it's completely untested and unproved.

So, that's certainly a risky thing to bank a planet on — to bet a planet on. And there's a huge debate. And it's going to play out over the coming decades about whether we should even allow experimentation, even tiny little experiments in this field, because will it be a distraction?

Or are we in a pretty bad situation, where something potentially could aid humanity and aid ecosystems like coral reefs? We have to think about it. And that's really the question at the heart of the book.

William Brangham:

The book is "Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future."

Elizabeth Kolbert, so good to have you on the "NewsHour." Thank you.

Elizabeth Kolbert:

Thanks for having me.