How did the world become addicted to fossil fuels? Did you know that the connection between carbon dioxide and global warming was already suggested in the 1850s? When did we realize that renewable energy sources could be a solution — and why this idea is not entirely new?
While most books on climate change focus on the – admittedly frightening – future, "Our Biggest Experiment" asks: how did we get here and when did we understand what was really happening? Alice Bell guides us through the people, ideas, policies, and technologies that shaped the path to the climate crisis. From the emergence of the concept of "greenhouse gases" in the 19th century and missions to oceans and glaciers, to the birth of the term "planetary overheating" in the 1970s, we follow how it became clear that human activity not only affects the climate — but transforms it.
We follow the first international climate discussions, experimental weather reports, pioneering measurements of carbon dioxide, initial enthusiasm for renewable energy, and an intrepid researcher-journalist standing up to the power of major oil monopolies. This is not a simple story of the "villains" of fossil fuels and the "heroes" of renewable energy and environmental activism. It is a much more complex journey, where scientific concepts, technologies, political decisions, infrastructure, everyday habits, individual people, and collectives weave the fabric of the world we live in today. And while as 21st-century citizens we inherit a huge problem, Bell argues that we already have the tools to address it.
