In 2009, Rolling Stone named Joe Romm to its list of "100 People Who Are Changing America." Romm is a climate expert, physicist, energy consultant, and former official in the Department of Energy. But it’s his influential blog, one of the "Top Fifteen Green Websites" according to Time magazine, that’s caught national attention. Climate change is far more urgent than people understand, Romm says, and traditional media, scientists, and politicians are missing the story.
 
Straight Up draws on Romm’s most important posts to explain the dangers of and solutions to climate change that you won’t find in newspapers, in journals, or on T.V. Compared to coverage of Jay-Z or the latest philandering politician, climate change makes up a pathetically small share of news reports. And when journalists do try to tackle this complex issue, they often lack the background to tell the full story. Despite the dearth of reporting, polls show that two in five Americans think the press is actually exaggerating the threat of climate change. That gives Big Oil, and others with a vested interest in the status quo, a huge opportunity to mislead the public.
 
Romm cuts through the misinformation and presents the truth about humanity’s most dire threat. His analysis is based on sophisticated knowledge of renewable technologies, climate impacts, and government policy, written in a style everyone can understand. Romm shows how a 20 percent reduction in global emissions over the next quarter century could improve the economy; how we can replace most coal and with what technologies; why Sarah Palin wears a polar bear pin; and why controversial, emerging technologies like biochar have to be part of the solution.
 
The ultimate solution, Romm argues, is bigger than any individual technology: it’s citizen action. Without public pressure, Washington and industry don’t budge. With it, our grandkids might just have a habitable place to live.
 
“The Web’s most influential climate-change blogger” and “Hero of the Environment 2009”
—Time Magazine
 
“I trust Joe Romm on climate.”
—Paul Krugman, New York Times
 
“America’s fiercest climate-change activist-blogger” and one of “The 100 People Who Are Changing America”
— Rolling Stone
 
“One of the most influential energy and environmental policy makers in the Obama era”
— U.S. News & World Report
 
“The indispensable blog”
—Thomas Friedman, New York Times

 
“One of the most influential energy and environmental policy makers in the Obama era”
— U.S. News & World Report
 
“The indispensable blog”
—Thomas Friedman, New York Times

Joseph J. Romm is a climate expert, physicist, energy consultant, and author. He is executive director and founder of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions; principal of the Capital E Group; fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former acting assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. His previous books include Hell and High Water, The Hype About Hydrogen, and Cool Companies. He writes the blog ClimateProgress.org.

"If you want to be culturally literate about climate change… you must read… Straight Up… presented so accessibly that even veterans of [ClimateProgress.org] will find it informative. No one in the public eye understands climate change, its solutions and its detractors better than Romm."

"Romm's forceful, impassioned blogging—and his book publishing—are a shining light...Simply put, if the 'nation' would read Straight Up and follow Romm's prescriptions, we would find ourselves moving away from decline into a new era of prosperity."

"Startlingly thoughtful and brutally blunt writing...[Joe Romm's] book is absolutely on point in its insistence that climate change long ago ceased to be a scientific issue and, instead, is most clearly a political one."

"Important...I recommend you read this book."

"I trust Joe Romm on climate."

"The indispensable blog"

"'America's fiercest climate-change activist-blogger' and one of 'The 100 People Who Are Changing America'"

"'The Web's most influential climate-change blogger' and 'Hero of the Environment 2009'"

"One of the most influential energy and environmental policy makers in the Obama era"

"A stiff drink of a book..In Straight Up: America's Fiercest Climate Blogger Takes on the Status Quo Media, Politicians, and Clean Energy Solutions, Romm distills his best work from the blog and honestly describes the catastrophic path humanity is on — and the clean energy solutions that offer hope for survival."