Carbon Dreams

Geochemist Tina Arenas studies climates of the distant geologic past—but her data has unexpectedly modern implications. Thrust into the nascent controversy over global warming at a time when American scientists had just begun to find themselves in the media spotlight, Tina must struggle to sort out her conflicting responsibilities to science and society.

Set in the early 1980s, when the problems of global warming were just beginning to garner public attention, Carbon Dreams is the story of one scientist’s struggle to reconcile her conflicting responsibilities to science, to society, and to her own loved ones. At an oceanographic research institute in northern California, Dr. Tina Arenas studies climates of the distant geologic past—but her data has unexpectedly modern implications. As she struggles to obtain research funding, Tina finds herself being dragged into the media spotlight on global warming and falling in love with a local organic farmer, who has his own ideas about climate, the media, scientific funding, and commitment.

Bremen FMS Book Club: 12 April 2016: Book Notes