This past week I finished reading In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden, which is my Classics Club Spin book and my 12th for The 20 Books of Summer. I’ll be reviewing it next weekend. I’m so glad I read it.
My other book finished this past week (#13) was nonfiction, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming by David Wallace-Wells, published in 2019. Each month Booklist magazine features round-ups of acclaimed titles on a given subject. In July the selection was climate-change fiction and climate-change nonfiction. So this starred nonfiction title mesmerized me the minute I started reading it. And yes, as reviewers will tell you, it is a terrifying read. We think we know about climate change and the dreaded events in our future that are already starting to happen. We think we do. But we don’t. Because the media, both on the left and the right, are subject to scientists’ “climate reticence.” Scientists have been so bashed by the media, so derided as being doomsday alarmists, etc., that they largely have scaled back what they will report to the media. But what they research, and what they say amongst themselves, in thousands of scientific peer-reviewed newsletters and research journals, is pretty horrifying. Go to the source! And that’s what journalist David Wallace-Wells has been doing for decades. An incredible one-third of his book is annotated footnotes and references for all of us to probe. The New York Times declared that The Uninhabitable Earth is doing for climate change what Rachel Carson did for pesticides in Silent Spring.
Wallace-Wells never says we are doomed. He keeps showing us, with facts and statistics, why we are already very late in the game, and why we must move forward immediately. It is fascinating reading, will provoke anxiety and, yes, horror, but frankly, I would rather know what scientists are thinking and researching than be ignorant about the future of the planet, which we surely are if we only watch the evening news and read the newspaper. We think we’re well-informed, and fool that I am, I thought I was (damn it!), but I was not. By the way, only 223 pages of text, not counting the scads of eye-opening footnotes. A must-read, and a quick one.
I'm adding The Uninhabitable Earth to my nonfiction list right now. Not sure why I haven't heard of it before. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Judith. It sounds like an important read.
ReplyDeleteJoAnn, when I thought of the readers of my blog who might be interested in this, you came first to mind. I shared lots of this one with Ken, which helped. It made the science more interesting to share it, and it made the future more bearable to not be totally alone with it while reading.
DeleteUnfortunately I think the media numbs us with all the reports (and often reports that seem to be made with either suspicious intent or to drive readership to make money) so we just put it out of our minds. But I must say I'm tired of the government trying to legislate change. We have to open our eyes and look around us and be that change. I wonder if climate change isn't being driven solely by the number of trees that are being cut down. Every new subdivision in my area cuts either every single tree down, or leaves a couple which usually die anyway. Then they plant a few nice controlled ornamental trees which probably do little. I'm sure this is a huge problem that's happening worldwide. And nearby we had a nice lake in a forest and the municipality levelled a large area of forest to make a parking lot and is now building a bridge out to the lake, make with treated lumber which the rain will wash the chemicals off and ruin the environment. It's ludicrous that stuff like this happens, stuff that can be changed pretty quickly but isn't. Money still trumps climate change. There are so many things we can do to make a change but I don't believe it's through government. We've been made into children who have to be told what to do all the time. It's time we started doing for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteCleo, I think you might find this a most informative read about what's really going on.
DeleteI almost missed this post Judith. I just added:The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming, to my library list. I'm gld you liked it so much and shared with us. It sounds like it would make a great discussion book as well.
ReplyDeleteDiane, I think it would make an excellent book discussion selection. Ken and I shared it, but I would have appreciated sharing it with more people.
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