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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
Someday I'll be the kind of person who can read a full book about the horrors of climate change. But that day is not this day.
1.5
Alrighty. This is a rant review.
For context, I am currently a university student in the STEM field. I say this because while I am no expert, my perspective of climate change is from a scientific point of view and I know very little/nothing about the economics of climate change which is the perspective this book seems to be written from.
While I find the content of this book interesting, the biggest complaint I have is the execution. The prose and word choices made by this author makes no sense to me. The sentences were unreasonably formated and the choices of words when describing scientific findings genuinely made me angry. During this whole book, I really felt like he was using big scientific words to sound like he was more educated on the topic than he was. This is so upsetting to me because climate scientists do not want their work to be difficult. They are literally observing how human activity is destroying our planet. We WANT this information to be accessible and digestible to the masses. I felt that the execution of this book really contradicted that.
The second issue I had with this book is that it fell into the trap of telling the reader what is happening rather than showing them. This book was just a brief compilation of results but didn't show the reader how the results were concluded to. This may be beneficial for readers that are new to the subject and want a brief summary but as stated above, the execution contradicts that goal. This is probably something I could have figured out if I had done prior research into the book but it was so highly recommended that I figured I'd just give it a try.
Overall, this was a huge disappointment. If you are wanting a brief introduction to the topic of climate change, this might be for you. But if you are like me and wanted something that dove deeper into the science behind it: I would not recommend.
Alrighty. This is a rant review.
For context, I am currently a university student in the STEM field. I say this because while I am no expert, my perspective of climate change is from a scientific point of view and I know very little/nothing about the economics of climate change which is the perspective this book seems to be written from.
While I find the content of this book interesting, the biggest complaint I have is the execution. The prose and word choices made by this author makes no sense to me. The sentences were unreasonably formated and the choices of words when describing scientific findings genuinely made me angry. During this whole book, I really felt like he was using big scientific words to sound like he was more educated on the topic than he was. This is so upsetting to me because climate scientists do not want their work to be difficult. They are literally observing how human activity is destroying our planet. We WANT this information to be accessible and digestible to the masses. I felt that the execution of this book really contradicted that.
The second issue I had with this book is that it fell into the trap of telling the reader what is happening rather than showing them. This book was just a brief compilation of results but didn't show the reader how the results were concluded to. This may be beneficial for readers that are new to the subject and want a brief summary but as stated above, the execution contradicts that goal. This is probably something I could have figured out if I had done prior research into the book but it was so highly recommended that I figured I'd just give it a try.
Overall, this was a huge disappointment. If you are wanting a brief introduction to the topic of climate change, this might be for you. But if you are like me and wanted something that dove deeper into the science behind it: I would not recommend.
help! this is scary. the end is near. climate change is real and it’s accelerating at alarming pace. everybody’s talking about it but nobody’s taking any concrete action. we have become complacent and we think scientists will find some miracle at the eleventh hour. but we have already crossed the point of no return and it’s downhill from here. the max we hope for is to slowdown the pace but alas that’s not even happening either.
david wallace has done great job at shaking the reader awake but writing was monotonous. i had to skip lines and paras to finish.
david wallace has done great job at shaking the reader awake but writing was monotonous. i had to skip lines and paras to finish.
Ugh. I wanted to like this book. The topic is important. But the writing style is pompous and it felt like each chapter was one long run on sentence. Stopped reading at 7%. I couldn’t take any more.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
'The Uninhabitable Earth' is a hugely important book, outlining the major issues related to climate change and urging an immediate, globally-coordinated and comprehensive response. As an introduction to the problems currently faced by (and caused by) humanity, it is essential reading; urgent and well written (albeit with a curious overuse of the words 'quotidian' and 'sanguine').
The second half of the book is devoted to a set of essays about ethics and philosophy in relation to how the world can tackle climate change. These are speculative and at times rather obscure, and in my view let the book down somewhat. The first half of the book is must-read; the second half is pretty skimmable.
The take-away lesson is: anthropogenic climate change threatens the existence of humanity. If emissions continue along their present trajectory, we'll see an average temperature increase of several degrees celsius that will render huge parts of the planet uninhabitable, leading to wars, resource scarcity and mass migration on an unprecedented scale. It's not too late to prevent this outcome, but we have to start now, and it's not going to be achieved by individual virtue-signalling actions but by global coordination and political leadership. Whether we can managed this is up to us.
The second half of the book is devoted to a set of essays about ethics and philosophy in relation to how the world can tackle climate change. These are speculative and at times rather obscure, and in my view let the book down somewhat. The first half of the book is must-read; the second half is pretty skimmable.
The take-away lesson is: anthropogenic climate change threatens the existence of humanity. If emissions continue along their present trajectory, we'll see an average temperature increase of several degrees celsius that will render huge parts of the planet uninhabitable, leading to wars, resource scarcity and mass migration on an unprecedented scale. It's not too late to prevent this outcome, but we have to start now, and it's not going to be achieved by individual virtue-signalling actions but by global coordination and political leadership. Whether we can managed this is up to us.
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Had to return to library.
However it was starting to feel like the vibe was ‘oh wow I just found out how bad climate change is going to be and I am going to tell you because I’m sure you don’t know’. The climate movement is not new and I’m not sure I’m interested in the explanation from someone who has just found out about it.
However it was starting to feel like the vibe was ‘oh wow I just found out how bad climate change is going to be and I am going to tell you because I’m sure you don’t know’. The climate movement is not new and I’m not sure I’m interested in the explanation from someone who has just found out about it.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
It's hard to review a book that's so well-known in environmental circles, so I'll start by saying it's well-known for good reason. The Uninhabitable Earth is a wake-up call, a thoroughly researched and carefully considered neon warning sign of the imminent dangers of the climate crisis. An expansion of the author's 2017 New York Magazine article (which I highly recommend reading), it brings home just how pervasive these impacts will be. I suggest having a light, fluffy read to alternate it with, because this book is very likely to cause some eco-anxiety.
A lot of discussion of climate issues centers around well-known impacts - sea level rise, changing weather patterns, wildfires, more frequent and intense storms. Literature and research tends to stop at 2100, as so much is uncertain beyond this point. But the changes that have been made to our atmosphere, and the planet's responses to them, aren't limited to that, in scope or duration. I suspect that we mostly don't want to think beyond that, because just what we'll see in our lifetimes is overwhelming enough. Wallace-Wells goes beyond, exploring these long-term impacts, the worst-case scenarios we don't want to think of, and all the nitty-gritty changes that'll result, reverberating into economic and social suffering.
It's so packed with information that even people with deep knowledge of environmental issues will likely learn something new. For example, I knew that a changing climate promotes conflict and violence, but I didn't know it also increases rates of self-harm and suicide. I knew it affected health, but I didn't know that cognitive ability declines with increased CO2 levels. I knew that crops will suffer from more heat, but I didn't know that more CO2 actually makes plants less nutritious, as it increases their production of sugars, with attendant health ramifications.
As much as this book has sweeping coverage of climate impacts, I also appreciated the details it carefully included. It's global in scope, looking at how changes will occur worldwide, not just in a few select places. And it deeply understands, explores and integrates climate justice issues. The author doesn't just look at impacts on less economically developed countries, he delves into the imbalance of where impacts will be felt vs where the weight of historical emissions lies, how they'll affect countries and communities that already have less resources and are more vulnerable and struggle to recover from past disasters. I really appreciate the awareness of the unfair extent of suffering that the climate crisis will impose on previously colonized countries, and on already marginalized, vulnerable communities.
As much as the first part of the book is full of informative detail, it wraps up with more philosophical and theoretical explorations into the history, background and process of coming to terms with the issue that make for less accessible reading. Though less readable for a general audience, these sections do bring valuable insight into the systemic struggle of confronting this challenge, and communicating about it. And they reiterate how much of the changes still to come still lay in human hands to be decided. Thank goodness for that, because those conclusions help lift a book that's otherwise apocalyptic in tone.
Some have called this book alarmist - I would disagree. It's alarmed, and with good reason. But it's not hopeless.
A lot of discussion of climate issues centers around well-known impacts - sea level rise, changing weather patterns, wildfires, more frequent and intense storms. Literature and research tends to stop at 2100, as so much is uncertain beyond this point. But the changes that have been made to our atmosphere, and the planet's responses to them, aren't limited to that, in scope or duration. I suspect that we mostly don't want to think beyond that, because just what we'll see in our lifetimes is overwhelming enough. Wallace-Wells goes beyond, exploring these long-term impacts, the worst-case scenarios we don't want to think of, and all the nitty-gritty changes that'll result, reverberating into economic and social suffering.
It's so packed with information that even people with deep knowledge of environmental issues will likely learn something new. For example, I knew that a changing climate promotes conflict and violence, but I didn't know it also increases rates of self-harm and suicide. I knew it affected health, but I didn't know that cognitive ability declines with increased CO2 levels. I knew that crops will suffer from more heat, but I didn't know that more CO2 actually makes plants less nutritious, as it increases their production of sugars, with attendant health ramifications.
As much as this book has sweeping coverage of climate impacts, I also appreciated the details it carefully included. It's global in scope, looking at how changes will occur worldwide, not just in a few select places. And it deeply understands, explores and integrates climate justice issues. The author doesn't just look at impacts on less economically developed countries, he delves into the imbalance of where impacts will be felt vs where the weight of historical emissions lies, how they'll affect countries and communities that already have less resources and are more vulnerable and struggle to recover from past disasters. I really appreciate the awareness of the unfair extent of suffering that the climate crisis will impose on previously colonized countries, and on already marginalized, vulnerable communities.
As much as the first part of the book is full of informative detail, it wraps up with more philosophical and theoretical explorations into the history, background and process of coming to terms with the issue that make for less accessible reading. Though less readable for a general audience, these sections do bring valuable insight into the systemic struggle of confronting this challenge, and communicating about it. And they reiterate how much of the changes still to come still lay in human hands to be decided. Thank goodness for that, because those conclusions help lift a book that's otherwise apocalyptic in tone.
Some have called this book alarmist - I would disagree. It's alarmed, and with good reason. But it's not hopeless.