gregory_glover 's review for:

The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren

4.0

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Hope Jahren writes a wide-ranging book (population, gender, ethics, consumption, emigration/migration, urbanization, economics, food production, energy use, global warming, and the like) that includes a lot of autobiographical references, heightening the personal interest in what could otherwise be a very depressing and dry narrative. Thankfully, she also writes clearly and engagingly. I enjoyed her use of puns and other wry humor to give a sharper edge to some of her points. For example, "These days it is exceptionally rare for an American to meet her meat." "Spam was invented in my home town." "At present, we are choosing ourselves over our own grandchildren three times a day...." "I hate cars more than the Devil hates Jesus." There are occasionally puzzling omissions (e.g., no reference to Fukushima in the section on nuclear energy).
Overall, it is a positive and easy-to-read contribution to the conversation about what to do to decrease and mitigate our negative impact on the planet.
My favorite chapter was "The Difference You Make," which builds in practical ways on Jahren's constant mantra about lowering our impact (electricity use, etc.) to something approximating the average of 1965 Switzerland.