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A review by shivani_maurya
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
4.0
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