A review by samdalefox
How to Save Our Planet: The Facts by Mark A Maslin

hopeful informative medium-paced

2.75

I chose to read this as it was listed as a book that is written to be entry level accessible to people who don't know anything about the climate crisis and want to be adequately informed. I think in some ways the book acheived that aim, and in others it missed the mark. As someone who reads a lot around this subject, mostly I found it covered topics I was already familiar with so ulitamtely I was bored. However I enjoyed the utopia section, the exploration of types of denial ; Science Denial, Economic Denial, Humanitarian Denial, Political Denial, and the afterword. 

Big wins:

• Ultimately, good as an introduction to the topic of climiate change, very simple. Reminds me a little like reading a children's encyclopedia in the first couple fo chapters.
• The inclusion of tropical and temperature diseases development
• The highlighting of disparity between the global north and global south
• The advocacy of reducing consumption, circular economy, increasing community, and how to exercise power as a consumer
• Government solutions (Chapter 8). This is arguable one of our greatest weapon against climate change and it it's a good chapter for most people who align politially centre-left/centre-right to read.

Big misses:

• Omits some big players in the interconnected web of the climiate crisis, for example Maslin never mentions that the success of agriculture was due to the holocene. Without this critical information what he has stated is misleading at best and misinformation at worst.
• The advocacy of using existing structures (e.g., corporate capitalism) to effect change now. This relevant, but not our strongest tactic/weapon. Corporate positive power is a little.girl boss-y, Maslin is naive as he refuses to admit this is not in capitalism's interest therefore will naturally have limited success. And critically;
• Although Maslin openly criticises capitalism, "economics must focus on human wellbeing as the primary measure of success", he refuses to explicitly name the alternative systems i.e., socialism. 
• sloph's review - "It wasn't so much, How to save our planet as much as Why, I feel like this book spent too much time on why it is important and not enough ways to actually provide a positive impact into changing things".