Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "change"

The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change by Al Gore: New York, Random House, 2013, a New York times bestseller. As former Vice President and member of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as author of An Inconvenient Truth, a member of Apple Inc. board of directors, chairman of Generation Investment Management, chairman of the nonprofit Climate Reality Project, al Gore is no stranger to business, government or environmental concerns.

This latest book provides a treasure for anyone concerned about our current dilemmas. In unvarnished, direct language, Gore explores environmental, economic and political issues. He presents the facts, sometimes a brief history, and digs deep into the reasons behind our failure to agree on solutions that he believes, passionately, must be implemented soon. The consequences of inaction are made clear, and they are dire.

This book was in development for eight years by Gore, his research team, business associates and distinguished reviewers, including Jared Diamond, E. O. Wilson and Herman Daly. Besides 373 pages of compelling text, the book includes an invaluable eight pages of Bibliography, 144 pages of usefully titled Notes, and a detailed Index.

The credibility of Gore’s arguments are enhanced by his understanding of complex systems and a balanced approach to each topic. He makes his own views crystal clear while exploring relevant evidence without overloading the reader with data. An example is his description of Earth’s wind and water currents that are involved in the experience of climate change (pages 305-311). Gore argues that though we prohibit “...human experimentation that puts lives at risk...”, we are engaging in a deadly global “unplanned experiment” as we continue to dump CO2 into the atmosphere.

Of particular interest to me is his analysis of why we cannot agree on such important issues. He covers many. A brief look at the Index can tell you if your topic of concern is
covered. The range of possibilities for the future is huge, introduced in each section by extensive topic organizing diagrams. The concluding paragraphs “So What Do We Do Now?” (page 367) recap his most urgent tasks, if we face the fact that we humans are now “...a geologic and evolutionary force...” on Earth.

If the United State of America is to provide leadership to the global community, Gore insists that we must reform “...legislative rules that allow a small minority to halt legislation in the U. S. Senate” and “...limit the role of money in politics...”. The latter is a positive feedback loop, a recipe for disaster well known in physics and studies of complex systems.

The Honor code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York, W. W. Norton, 2010.
How are human beings motivated to discard ancient or long-term practices that do harm? In this thoroughly researched, notated, and indexed book, Princeton professor Appiah tells three compelling stories of how codes of honor gone awry were finally brought down by the one thing that could undermine their powerful, damaging hold on human society—shame.
The first story tells how dueling in defense of honor was brought down. The second story, the binding of women’s feet in China, ended for a similar reason. The war against women in Pakistan is still being fought. Here again, historical honor plays a huge role. In all cases a sociological sense of honor trumps compassion or common sense.

This brings to mind our current situation—our obsession with the need for economic growth in an overpopulated Full Earth. Can we Americans face the fact that we have used up resources at a great rate? Can we be shamed into changing our ways and cutting back—demonstrating to the world how to Not overuse the Earth?