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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
The horizons are just as open to us, however foreclosed and foreordained as they may seem. But we close them off when we say anything about the future being inevitable. What may sound like stoic wisdom is often an alibi for indifference.
Hard to know what to say about this book--it generated quite a furor early last year. I wish it'd generated more of one.
This is not a book of 'nihilism' or of 'climate fatalism'; far from it, it is a very grim, serious, alarmed book dedicated to the inevitable cost to human life brought on by climate change as well as the power that we have within our collective hands to change and reduce this. Most of it is dedicated to pointing out the many, many ways in which our safe, healthy, and prosperous lives (as well as our lives at all) are balanced on very delicate systems, which would and will be upended by the warming caused by carbon emissions--some also addresses common responses ongoing to the situation, including pointing out some of the fallacies and simplistic emotional narratives coming even from people who take the problem seriously.
It's a very beautiful book and I found myself highlighting a lot of it. It gave me a lot to think about. A lot of shitty people have uneasily started trying to disavow responsibility for the coming crises by getting used to apathy towards people outside their own country; but some on the other side have also started trying to disavow responsibility by making 'depression' and 'nihilism' bywords for not doing anything. Both camps result in similar amounts of nothing. It's a good thing to keep in mind. Or, as Wallace-Wells put it - when noting 'apocalypse' and breakdown and other dramatic outcomes aren't the likeliest:
But one way we might manage to navigate that path without crumbling collectively in despair is, perversely, to normalize climate suffering at the same pace we accelerate it, as we have so much human pain over centuries, so that we are always coming to terms with what is just ahead of us, decrying what lies beyond that, and forgetting all that we had ever said about the absolute moral unacceptability of the conditions of the world we are passing through in the present tense, and blithely.
Too true. Here's to looking reality in the face.
As for those attempts to disown the world beyond local borders - good luck with that!
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Of course, depressing and hopeless most of the way through. The last two chapters were the most interesting I thought and the notes and sources are priceless.
I'm reading through Lithub's 365 Books to Start Your Climate Change Library, a reading list in four sections (Classics, Science, Fiction & Poetry, and Ideas). This book is #3 of Part 2: The Science and #11 overall.
The main part of this book is a series of short chapters each highlighting some future bad thing that will happen as a result of climate change. There are a lot of chapters due to the fact that a lot of future bad things are projected to happen.
This book does not need to be read in order, so the best way to read it would probably be to skip around and choose the chapters that interest you and not the ones that don't interest you. This will be good because if you don't read all the chapters you will not have to learn about as many potential bad things. This book really is just about pointing out future bad things, so if you are looking for solutions to these bad things, probably don't look here.
There's a lot of good information in this book, and on that alone I'd recommend it. I learned a lot. The book suffers most when the author inserts his own voice, which I found kind of condescending and unlikable, and he also had some bad and uninteresting takes on the whole thing. For the most part this doesn't affect the book, though, and I was able to learn a lot about where things might be headed and I feel a lot worse now so yay!
The main part of this book is a series of short chapters each highlighting some future bad thing that will happen as a result of climate change. There are a lot of chapters due to the fact that a lot of future bad things are projected to happen.
This book does not need to be read in order, so the best way to read it would probably be to skip around and choose the chapters that interest you and not the ones that don't interest you. This will be good because if you don't read all the chapters you will not have to learn about as many potential bad things. This book really is just about pointing out future bad things, so if you are looking for solutions to these bad things, probably don't look here.
There's a lot of good information in this book, and on that alone I'd recommend it. I learned a lot. The book suffers most when the author inserts his own voice, which I found kind of condescending and unlikable, and he also had some bad and uninteresting takes on the whole thing. For the most part this doesn't affect the book, though, and I was able to learn a lot about where things might be headed and I feel a lot worse now so yay!
This may be the scariest, most depressing book I've ever read in my life. In twelve mini-chapters Wallace-Wells throws out every possible horrible outcome from climate change, ranging from a huge increase in forest fires to a drastic failure of food crops to the entire equatorial region becoming too hot to sustain human life. I am literally terrified.
Wallace-Wells may be a doomsday predictor, but he's now in the solid majority with climate scientists. We know global warming is real, and that out-of-control fossil fuel emissions combined with only partly understood feedback loops are sending us into a frightening future. Even with near-immediate zero emissions we would still be facing a 2 degree increase in temperatures, which doesn't sound like much, but will change life as we know it. Without radical political action, we will face 3, 4, 5, or more degree increases, and this author tells us exactly what that would mean for the world. He warns that before 2100 there will be almost no Florida, much less Bangladesh, Venice, or Marshall Islands. "500-year storms" will happen on a regular basis, forest fires will increase more than tenfold, drought will be widespread.... Oh, and pandemics will increase.
The last third of his book takes on a very different tone. I hoped that it would perhaps become more positive, but instead Wallace-Wells puts on his philosopher's hat and talks about the ways we both think about climate change and avoid thinking about it. This part of the book was less alarming, but less interesting.
I believe in climate change, and I believe we need to do something big, and fast. I hope Wallace-Wells' alarmist predictions are overly dire, and that we - as a world - find the political will and long-sightedness to act in our collective best interest, rather than always doing what is cheapest and easiest for one country right now.
I'm glad I read the book, because it's full of important information. But I didn't like it. 3.5 stars.
*Note - two days later, and after losing sleep worrying about the Earth becoming uninhabitable, I went online to find what other climate scientists had to say about Wallace-Wells' ideas. Other readers may be relieved to find that most find his writing to be hyperbolic with a combination of every worst-case scenario. Yes, the climate is changing, and we need to do something quickly, but it's not QUITE as bad as this book warns. See https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/scientists-explain-what-new-york-magazine-article-on-the-uninhabitable-earth-gets-wrong-david-wallace-wells/?fbclid=IwAR3sx7NW8AhAI_diYsDoYY85Y6DDt7_oOy9VALujshrojGGdlYNH7TOPGZo
Wallace-Wells may be a doomsday predictor, but he's now in the solid majority with climate scientists. We know global warming is real, and that out-of-control fossil fuel emissions combined with only partly understood feedback loops are sending us into a frightening future. Even with near-immediate zero emissions we would still be facing a 2 degree increase in temperatures, which doesn't sound like much, but will change life as we know it. Without radical political action, we will face 3, 4, 5, or more degree increases, and this author tells us exactly what that would mean for the world. He warns that before 2100 there will be almost no Florida, much less Bangladesh, Venice, or Marshall Islands. "500-year storms" will happen on a regular basis, forest fires will increase more than tenfold, drought will be widespread.... Oh, and pandemics will increase.
The last third of his book takes on a very different tone. I hoped that it would perhaps become more positive, but instead Wallace-Wells puts on his philosopher's hat and talks about the ways we both think about climate change and avoid thinking about it. This part of the book was less alarming, but less interesting.
I believe in climate change, and I believe we need to do something big, and fast. I hope Wallace-Wells' alarmist predictions are overly dire, and that we - as a world - find the political will and long-sightedness to act in our collective best interest, rather than always doing what is cheapest and easiest for one country right now.
I'm glad I read the book, because it's full of important information. But I didn't like it. 3.5 stars.
*Note - two days later, and after losing sleep worrying about the Earth becoming uninhabitable, I went online to find what other climate scientists had to say about Wallace-Wells' ideas. Other readers may be relieved to find that most find his writing to be hyperbolic with a combination of every worst-case scenario. Yes, the climate is changing, and we need to do something quickly, but it's not QUITE as bad as this book warns. See https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/scientists-explain-what-new-york-magazine-article-on-the-uninhabitable-earth-gets-wrong-david-wallace-wells/?fbclid=IwAR3sx7NW8AhAI_diYsDoYY85Y6DDt7_oOy9VALujshrojGGdlYNH7TOPGZo
Powerful, scary and thought-provoking. Certainly flawed (overwrought in places, not always coherent) but still absolutely deserves to be read.
It's a terrifying read, especially if you have young children. But in order to confront the challenges of climate change, we need to know what the likely outcomes are. This isn't a book about solutions, but it does a superb job of looking into the near future based on current climate trends.
David Wallace-Wells wants us to avoid the trap of fatalism when it comes to climate change. Fatalism is a form of denialism. I get that. I appreciate it.
But man, it’s tough to come away from reading this book feeling anything but pessimistic about the future at best and nihilistic at worse.
This book is divided into two sections: the potential scientific effects in the near future due to global warming, and how we process that ethically, politically, culturally, etc. Section one is far more effective than two. I’m a layman when it comes to science so it helped break it down for me in terms that were detailed but not too much so. And it is a tough read. A grueling read. One that requires endurance. But it’s important to me. We’re facing the greatest existential threat to humanity in centuries and I have been willfully ignorant for too long. This served to inform me. And it will help you if you are in similar circumstances and want more understanding of the threat we are dealing with.
Again, part two sort of hits and misses. I feel like a lot of what Wallace-Wells presented there could have been condensed into an essay. But that doesn’t deter from the importance of the first part. I think it’s important to engage with what’s happening and what’s likely to happen. This book is a great gateway into doing so. The world is going to change, we don’t know how much. But we can still make a difference if we educate ourselves, advocate and vote.
But man, it’s tough to come away from reading this book feeling anything but pessimistic about the future at best and nihilistic at worse.
This book is divided into two sections: the potential scientific effects in the near future due to global warming, and how we process that ethically, politically, culturally, etc. Section one is far more effective than two. I’m a layman when it comes to science so it helped break it down for me in terms that were detailed but not too much so. And it is a tough read. A grueling read. One that requires endurance. But it’s important to me. We’re facing the greatest existential threat to humanity in centuries and I have been willfully ignorant for too long. This served to inform me. And it will help you if you are in similar circumstances and want more understanding of the threat we are dealing with.
Again, part two sort of hits and misses. I feel like a lot of what Wallace-Wells presented there could have been condensed into an essay. But that doesn’t deter from the importance of the first part. I think it’s important to engage with what’s happening and what’s likely to happen. This book is a great gateway into doing so. The world is going to change, we don’t know how much. But we can still make a difference if we educate ourselves, advocate and vote.
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced