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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
The End
Its time for all of us to stop playing games.
This book is a cascade of anxiety inducing, despair-magnifying horror. I had an minor anxiety attack on the thirteenth page. Even Wallace-Wells (the author) commends his readers for reaching a certain stage within his extended essays* pages.
I've managed to desensitise myself to many ecological / climate change based articles, books, and journals so that I may educate myself on the topic. I erected barriers in my mind, so that I might handle the truth scientists stare at daily when analysing the state of the planet. However, The Uninhabitable Earth utterly vaporised those barriers into a pathetic nothingness. Wallace Wells completely gives up playing around in this text: we're on our way out if we don't stop what's happening within a decade (at maximum). We have already baked enough carbon into the system that a two degree heating up of the plant is almost certain. As such, Mr. Wells lays out, simply, clearly, exactly what we can expect from that 2 degrees. If we persue it further, a three, four and five degree increase in temperature will compound our suffering immensely (words really don't do justice to carnage the earth will wreak at a stage such as this).
The result is utterly soul destroying.
The massive body of information from decades of climate research he has collected is an amalgamation of irrefutable evidence that shows if we don't act, we are in store for what can only be described as Hell on Earth.
As such, we have no choice but to take action. The environmental movement extinction rebellion is planning a huge protest of disruption on April 15th 2019 to force governments to act; I will be attending. I would advise planning local action of your own. We're out of time.
This work is the literary access we have been given to stare into the human species collective soul. I am not engaging in dramatic flare when I say this book is an initiation. Every single one of us must read this book first before EVEN SAYING A SINGLE WORD about how we plan to individually deal mentally, and physically with climate change. As far as I'm concerned, you, me, and everyone on this earth has no right to even comment on this until they actual read what we're in store for (go for other books if not this one, whatever is required; read it).
My conclusion: this book more requires action, less analysis. Our time is up.
* This book originally appeared as an essay in the New Yorker 2018.
Its time for all of us to stop playing games.
This book is a cascade of anxiety inducing, despair-magnifying horror. I had an minor anxiety attack on the thirteenth page. Even Wallace-Wells (the author) commends his readers for reaching a certain stage within his extended essays* pages.
I've managed to desensitise myself to many ecological / climate change based articles, books, and journals so that I may educate myself on the topic. I erected barriers in my mind, so that I might handle the truth scientists stare at daily when analysing the state of the planet. However, The Uninhabitable Earth utterly vaporised those barriers into a pathetic nothingness. Wallace Wells completely gives up playing around in this text: we're on our way out if we don't stop what's happening within a decade (at maximum). We have already baked enough carbon into the system that a two degree heating up of the plant is almost certain. As such, Mr. Wells lays out, simply, clearly, exactly what we can expect from that 2 degrees. If we persue it further, a three, four and five degree increase in temperature will compound our suffering immensely (words really don't do justice to carnage the earth will wreak at a stage such as this).
The result is utterly soul destroying.
The massive body of information from decades of climate research he has collected is an amalgamation of irrefutable evidence that shows if we don't act, we are in store for what can only be described as Hell on Earth.
As such, we have no choice but to take action. The environmental movement extinction rebellion is planning a huge protest of disruption on April 15th 2019 to force governments to act; I will be attending. I would advise planning local action of your own. We're out of time.
This work is the literary access we have been given to stare into the human species collective soul. I am not engaging in dramatic flare when I say this book is an initiation. Every single one of us must read this book first before EVEN SAYING A SINGLE WORD about how we plan to individually deal mentally, and physically with climate change. As far as I'm concerned, you, me, and everyone on this earth has no right to even comment on this until they actual read what we're in store for (go for other books if not this one, whatever is required; read it).
My conclusion: this book more requires action, less analysis. Our time is up.
* This book originally appeared as an essay in the New Yorker 2018.
"The last time the Earth was four degrees above the band we've been in, there were palm trees in the Arctic." Climate change is already here, with the earth having warmed 1 degree, such that we are now living in a warmer world than humans have lived in our entire history. The question is now do we consign our future to 2 degrees warmer, or 4 degrees warmer, with catastrophic consequences even at 2, but ones that pale in comparison to those at 4 degrees or even warmer.
This is a bracing, invigorating, necessary read about where we are headed, and the terror it should inspire, and extent to which uncertainty mandates action.
This is a bracing, invigorating, necessary read about where we are headed, and the terror it should inspire, and extent to which uncertainty mandates action.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Книга про то, как нам будет плохо если потепление будет продолжаться. Если интересно разобраться в проблеме глобального потепления, то эта не подойдёт — автор, видимо, считает, что читатель подготовлен и можно сразу начать с последствий.
Начинается книга с того, что автор заявляет, что он не учёный, книга не научная и поэтому у него развязаны руки (мне уже на этом месте расхотелось читать, но решил все же попробовать). Этим он и пользуется излагая вперемежку научные исследования, гипотезы, спекулятивные теории и частные мнения так, что это все выглядит как факты. При этом речь идёт о прогнозах на 2100 год, что достаточно самоуверенно независимо от предмета разговора.
Стиль изложения не очень понравился: зачастую манипулятивный, с фразами в духе «климатические вопли» и мнениями на отвлечённые темы, типа «как там все в этой вашей Калифорнии зажрались».
Резюме: понять причины потепления, увидеть различные модели развития ситуации и понять что мы могли бы сделать эта книга мне не помогла. Стоит поискать другую.
Начинается книга с того, что автор заявляет, что он не учёный, книга не научная и поэтому у него развязаны руки (мне уже на этом месте расхотелось читать, но решил все же попробовать). Этим он и пользуется излагая вперемежку научные исследования, гипотезы, спекулятивные теории и частные мнения так, что это все выглядит как факты. При этом речь идёт о прогнозах на 2100 год, что достаточно самоуверенно независимо от предмета разговора.
Стиль изложения не очень понравился: зачастую манипулятивный, с фразами в духе «климатические вопли» и мнениями на отвлечённые темы, типа «как там все в этой вашей Калифорнии зажрались».
Резюме: понять причины потепления, увидеть различные модели развития ситуации и понять что мы могли бы сделать эта книга мне не помогла. Стоит поискать другую.
Do you want to feel impotent? Add more anxiety to your life? Have your hopes and dreams taken away from you? No? Well, don’t read The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. I don’t think he was trying to send me into an existential nightmare, but he did. This book is interesting, but there are so many things that I know now that make me think, “why should I save up for retirement?” Read at your own risk.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
What prompted me to pick this up? This,
The Other Kind of Climate Denialism
I can't help but recommend it to everyone. Reading this was a mental exercise to the degree I hadn't done in a while. It made me think a lot. Changed my perspective on the domestic and international news I consume everyday. Sitting inside and devouring this book while the outside temperature stands at 95 degrees, in what was until recently the last month of winter..was sobering.
By the author's admission, this book is alarmist to the highest degree. And I believe we all need that heavy dose. Yes, the speculative science on climate might not come to be realized in its entirety. But even a 30% realization of that predicted future does not bode well for anyone. The arguments that the author uses to expose our fatalistic optimism, which is more an exercise in thoughts of future technological deliverance, while not taking any concrete actions are irrefutable. Markets have already taken over much that drives the economies of the present day world. But to hope that the same free market would deliver us from the ravages of a broken climate is downright insane. Given how dependent we are on capital flow, it is hard to imagine a world which comes together as an altruistic society for planetary overhaul.
It is hardly surprising that conflicts, tribalism and nationalism are popping up all over the world. The distance from them keeps us in a bubble. But it won't be long before they come to our doors fueled by resource crisis and the consequent unrest. This book is depressing. Yes. It really is. So much so that the author, at its mid-point, goes,
What struck me the most, is how right he is. I am not talking about the scientific evidence that he includes in his chapters. Readers may differ on how seriously they take the content. No, I am talking about how well he explains the human shortsightedness when it comes to visualizing the future and taking it seriously. Anything beyond a few decades just doesn't ping on our radar. So, it's hardly a surprise that all the climate warnings fall flat for us. Bee colonies are dying, but there is still food on the table. Oceans are rising but there are still beaches to go to in summer. Trees are falling but Instagram shows a whole new undiscovered untouched world a click away. Plastic is floating in the ocean but it hasn't yet dropped from our taps. Atleast not that we know of. Floods are coming but they have always come. Forests are burning but much is still left. It goes on and on. And when Elon Musk declares he wants a colony on Mars, we dream of getting shipped there when things go bad. Many talk derisively of religion, for people taking pointers from someone they can't see. What does it say about us all, who can't even see the Earth cooking beneath our feet and dream of colonizing a planet none have been to?
How about we Make Earth Great Again??
I didn't go into this book looking for solutions. I mean, how foolish it is to believe that the one who warns about a danger should also provide means to avert it. After all this is not a personal crisis, but a planetary one. Even this scale eludes us, like time. Saying that it all starts at home, with personal discipline in choices made, is now a practice of fooling ourselves into complacency. No. It never all relied on personal action. One of which is to elect those in power who decide for us all at the end of the day. And even this task has not seen mindful deliberation from people across nations. Forget trash sorting and energy rationing to deliver us and by extension the planet.
No one, at least none that I know of, ever stops to think about how the touch on our phone screens work. How a swipe opens up the entire world knowledge to our touch? And if one really wanted to know the answer, they would have to track down the handful of people who do know. But even they won't have the entire answer. How touch gets registered? How the underlying software knows what action is desired by that touch? How does that action get triggered? And so on. There is a long list of questions that would ultimately lead to the complete picture. But no single person to answer them all. Now if such a mundane task needs a team of experts to explain it in its entirety, how can we expect the answer to the climate problem to come from a single person let alone a team of scientists? The climate is all pervasive. It surrounds us. Our realities unfold within it. And in such a massive close system, how can we expect for a net force from a few individuals?
That's probably the real goal of this book. To make us realize that a planetary threat requires a planetary action. Not empty promises, but concrete actions. The current generation may die out before the harsh reality barges into the living rooms. But that walk into the sunset of life as we have known is no justification for the burnt out planet that our descendants will inherit. We really are living in a time of reckoning. With our past, our present and probably our future. A future that is getting narrowed down in possibilities. One of which is the end. An end that can be averted with timely actions. The question of the hour isn't "Can We?" but "Will We?".
.
.
.
.
.
.
PS.
There is a bigger narrative behind the political chaos.
Right to be alarmed.
Let's not take everything God sends.
Foolish? I don't think so.
More from the author
The Other Kind of Climate Denialism
I can't help but recommend it to everyone. Reading this was a mental exercise to the degree I hadn't done in a while. It made me think a lot. Changed my perspective on the domestic and international news I consume everyday. Sitting inside and devouring this book while the outside temperature stands at 95 degrees, in what was until recently the last month of winter..was sobering.
By the author's admission, this book is alarmist to the highest degree. And I believe we all need that heavy dose. Yes, the speculative science on climate might not come to be realized in its entirety. But even a 30% realization of that predicted future does not bode well for anyone. The arguments that the author uses to expose our fatalistic optimism, which is more an exercise in thoughts of future technological deliverance, while not taking any concrete actions are irrefutable. Markets have already taken over much that drives the economies of the present day world. But to hope that the same free market would deliver us from the ravages of a broken climate is downright insane. Given how dependent we are on capital flow, it is hard to imagine a world which comes together as an altruistic society for planetary overhaul.
It is hardly surprising that conflicts, tribalism and nationalism are popping up all over the world. The distance from them keeps us in a bubble. But it won't be long before they come to our doors fueled by resource crisis and the consequent unrest. This book is depressing. Yes. It really is. So much so that the author, at its mid-point, goes,
If you have made it this far, you are a brave reader. Any one of these twelve chapters contains, by rights, enough horror to induce a panic attack in even the most optimistic of those considering it. But you are not merely considering it; you are about to embark on living it. In many cases, in many places, we already are.
What struck me the most, is how right he is. I am not talking about the scientific evidence that he includes in his chapters. Readers may differ on how seriously they take the content. No, I am talking about how well he explains the human shortsightedness when it comes to visualizing the future and taking it seriously. Anything beyond a few decades just doesn't ping on our radar. So, it's hardly a surprise that all the climate warnings fall flat for us. Bee colonies are dying, but there is still food on the table. Oceans are rising but there are still beaches to go to in summer. Trees are falling but Instagram shows a whole new undiscovered untouched world a click away. Plastic is floating in the ocean but it hasn't yet dropped from our taps. Atleast not that we know of. Floods are coming but they have always come. Forests are burning but much is still left. It goes on and on. And when Elon Musk declares he wants a colony on Mars, we dream of getting shipped there when things go bad. Many talk derisively of religion, for people taking pointers from someone they can't see. What does it say about us all, who can't even see the Earth cooking beneath our feet and dream of colonizing a planet none have been to?
How about we Make Earth Great Again??
I didn't go into this book looking for solutions. I mean, how foolish it is to believe that the one who warns about a danger should also provide means to avert it. After all this is not a personal crisis, but a planetary one. Even this scale eludes us, like time. Saying that it all starts at home, with personal discipline in choices made, is now a practice of fooling ourselves into complacency. No. It never all relied on personal action. One of which is to elect those in power who decide for us all at the end of the day. And even this task has not seen mindful deliberation from people across nations. Forget trash sorting and energy rationing to deliver us and by extension the planet.
No one, at least none that I know of, ever stops to think about how the touch on our phone screens work. How a swipe opens up the entire world knowledge to our touch? And if one really wanted to know the answer, they would have to track down the handful of people who do know. But even they won't have the entire answer. How touch gets registered? How the underlying software knows what action is desired by that touch? How does that action get triggered? And so on. There is a long list of questions that would ultimately lead to the complete picture. But no single person to answer them all. Now if such a mundane task needs a team of experts to explain it in its entirety, how can we expect the answer to the climate problem to come from a single person let alone a team of scientists? The climate is all pervasive. It surrounds us. Our realities unfold within it. And in such a massive close system, how can we expect for a net force from a few individuals?
That's probably the real goal of this book. To make us realize that a planetary threat requires a planetary action. Not empty promises, but concrete actions. The current generation may die out before the harsh reality barges into the living rooms. But that walk into the sunset of life as we have known is no justification for the burnt out planet that our descendants will inherit. We really are living in a time of reckoning. With our past, our present and probably our future. A future that is getting narrowed down in possibilities. One of which is the end. An end that can be averted with timely actions. The question of the hour isn't "Can We?" but "Will We?".
.
.
.
.
.
.
PS.
There is a bigger narrative behind the political chaos.
Right to be alarmed.
Let's not take everything God sends.
Foolish? I don't think so.
More from the author
Chilling. Hard to read but something everyone should.
This should be humanity's required reading. Written in a clear yet surprisingly lyrical style, it pulls no punches on what we're already facing, and how much worse it's gonna get.
It ends on a slightly positive note, but after the bolero of horrible shit, I can't help but feel the author was just throwing us an existential bone. As his book shows, climate change has just begun, and we're already deep in mitigation phase, and nowhere close to caring half as much as we should. 2 degrees is devastating, and there's no doubt we're gonna get there.
3 degrees is catastrophic, a mutilation of our way of living, and we'll get there too. No use in talking about the very real possibility of surpassing that, and entering veritable apocalyptic territory. Mind you, 2 degrees is already apocalyptic for many countries. They're just a shade darker or yellower than the West, so apparently nobody cares.
Unfortunately, the people who need to read this won't.
When you have the chance, go ahead and hug a climatologist.
It ends on a slightly positive note, but after the bolero of horrible shit, I can't help but feel the author was just throwing us an existential bone. As his book shows, climate change has just begun, and we're already deep in mitigation phase, and nowhere close to caring half as much as we should. 2 degrees is devastating, and there's no doubt we're gonna get there.
3 degrees is catastrophic, a mutilation of our way of living, and we'll get there too. No use in talking about the very real possibility of surpassing that, and entering veritable apocalyptic territory. Mind you, 2 degrees is already apocalyptic for many countries. They're just a shade darker or yellower than the West, so apparently nobody cares.
Unfortunately, the people who need to read this won't.
When you have the chance, go ahead and hug a climatologist.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced