Walter P. Kistler Book Award
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William Calvin Receives Walter P. Kistler Book Award for 2006
 Dr.
Calvin is the 2006 recipient of the Walter P. Kistler Book Award, which
recognizes authors of science-based books that make important contributions
to the public’s understanding
of the factors that may impact the long-term future of humanity.
In
A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution & Abrupt
Climate Change,
William Calvin takes the reader on an e-seminar odyssey from London
to Europe, then Africa, then over Greenland for a broad sweep of hominid
history and the likely impacts to it of abrupt climate change. And
one climate change the book discusses in detail is the catastrophic
cooling that is all too likely to stem from global warming. Calvin
writes: “… the abrupt cooling and drying promoted by human-enhanced
warming looks like a particularly efficient means of committing mass
suicide….”
The Walter P. Kistler Book Award is given annually to authors of science-based
books that significantly increase the knowledge and understanding of
the public regarding subjects that will shape the future of our species.
It includes a cash prize of US$10,000 and a certificate, and is presented
personally by the originator of the award program, Walter Kistler,
benefactor of the Foundation.
 Our attitude toward climate change has long
been like that of the driver who cannot stop when his headlights illuminate
an obstacle, because of going too fast. Science is providing us with
somewhat better headlights. Indeed, it has just told us that global
warming has an evil twin, that there are going to be some missing bridges
on that dark road ahead, not just some bumps but some voids where the
comfortable road drops out from under us.
— Dr. William H. Calvin,
A Brain for All Seasons
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