William H. Calvin, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, is the author of 16 popular books on science, mostly about brains, evolution, and climate change. They have been translated into 15 languages. He won the Phi Beta Kappa book prize for science as literature. His occasional magazine articles include an Atlantic Monthly cover story, "The Great Climate Flip-flop."
His most recent books, starting with Global Fever, are about global overheating and what to do about it. The Great Climate Leap attempts a major reframing of how we view the climate threats. Our biggest problem is no longer future emissions and climate creep; it is the excess CO2 we already have and the climate leaps that have already begun. The Great CO2 Cleanup undertakes a major reframing of what we should be doing about them: a short-term massive cleanup of CO2 in addition to the emission reductions needed for the long term. "We have three big problems-overheating, ocean acidification, and abrupt climate shifts. It's a triple threat. Any menu of climate choices that ignores the second and third is a dangerous oversimplification. We are indeed fortunate that one set of undo actions-cleaning up the excess CO2-will address all three."
