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

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.

by Paul Gilding, New York, Bloombury Press, 2011.

Gilding’s thesis is that the bottom line is clear. In 2011 he says that a “...global crisis is no longer avoidable.” To minimize the “...loss, suffering, and conflict...in the coming decades...” we will “bring out the best” in humanity and win the war to avoid catastrophe.

The Great Disruption “...is not just debt, or inequity, or a recession, or corporate influence, or ecological damage. It’s the whole package...beyond incremental reform...We are quite capable of building: an economy that feeds, clothes and houses all. ..fulfills lives [and] treats the planet like it’s the only one we’ve got.”

In reviewing the CO2 problem, Gilding notes that climate change is a symptom of the larger problem, which is our “addiction” to growth—both biologically and in the market place. He notes all the usual clichés and outlines in detail the disruption in our businesses as usual. But when we understand that we must accept our planetary boundaries and the careful regulation that can enhance business ventures, we will gradually transition—through considerable trauma—to a prolonged steady state that enhances our lives.

Gilding is good at reviewing all the objections to sharing and localization, the difficulties with capitalism, communism and complexity. His prediction of the refugee problem we now experience is chilling, as he points out horrific details of the Disruption. When denial is no longer possible, he lands squarely on the obligatory solution, no-growth economics. A Full-Earth Economy (steady state was introduced by Herman Daly in the 1970s and is still presented and developed by the Center for the Advancement of Steady State Economy (http://steadystate.org) as the prescription for a pleasant long-term future for Earth and humanity.

TIPPING POINT FOR PLANET EARTH: How close are we to the edge? By Anthony D. Barnosky and Elizabeth A. Hadly, New York, St.Martins Press, 2015.

This is a reminder, not a review of a book that has already had a significant impact. Given recent political distractions, I’m afraid the urgency of this book’s message is getting lost. Time is running out. We need to get busy doing the most difficult work we have ever understood to be essential. Simply put: we need to act now in every way we can imagine to reduce our overuse of resources and the impact of our wastes on planet Earth.

The way forward has been described and developed over the last 50 years by many experts who assure us we can achieve an equitable steadystate. Technology can help, as can the billions its inventors have raked in. Leveling the playing field will help, but we all need to pitch in. Check out the authors’ #We Know Enough To Act.

The proof of the threatened TIPPING POINT for Earth is clearly stated in this book—the personal experience, the statistics, the current news, observations and general interactions and their complex nature seen already in “resource wars for remaining space, food, oil and water.”. We have another decade or two to get busy—all of us.

Tipping Point For Planet Earth by Anthony D. Barnosky and Elizabeth A. Hadly, St. Martin’s Press, N.Y., 2015.

Fifty percent of Earth’s land “…has been changed from forested prairies to farms and pavement.” This book gives us a laundry list of what to do. Now, five years after this book’s publication, as we dominate Earth’s global ecosystem…”we are seeing more of what the authors predicted--genocides, and scarcities of food, water and oil. As the globe’s complexity increases, irreversible “state-changes” become real, not just likely

The authors’ numbers tell the tale: Human populations have increased “threefold from 1950 to 2015, double from 1969 to 2011. Eighty percent “live below poverty levels, and nearly a billion have inadequate food and water. Drought and hot weather have “been going on since 2010, while rapid growth of the human population continues--but could be brought down fast with a promise of “education and economic betterment.”

The rest of the book focuses on “stuff” and storms, hunger and thirst, too many diseases and war--all ready to push us over the tipping point if not reduced or controlled. Five Earths are required for all the world’s population to enjoy the American lifestyle.

The needed shift in our thinking is obvious: 1)Level our percapita consumption, 2) Change economic modeling from growth to consistency, and 3) Encourage reuse, and design products that leave no environmental footprint.

On page 238 one finds the authors’ summary of ways to reverse our rush to the tipping point. Conserve water, consume less, educate women with economic opportunities and health care, recycle, buy experience not things, design products with low environmental footprints, use carbon-neutral energy sources, eat less meat and waste less in distribution, waste less water, produce energy from waste, use wind and solar, track vectors and minimize deforestation, and avoid war by lowering population growth and ensuring basic needs while recognizing the one “common theme that runs though all solutions: “There is no such thing as local any more.”

Inheritors of the Earth--How Nature is Thriving in an Age of Extinction
By Chris D. Thomas, Hatchette Public Affairs, N.Y., 2017.

Author Chris D. Thomas is a biology professor at the University of York, UK. As a “prolific writer” of “210 scientific journal articles and 29 book chapters,” we welcome his conclusion: Though we humans have “irreversibly changed” our planet home Earth, not all the news is bad. New species on Earth are being formed at the highest level ever.

In his Prologue, Thomas treats us to a summary of Earth’s “diversity of immigrant critters,” and trees and shrubs, while we humans leave our “indelible signature.” Earth’s vegetation is now 1/3 human food. Though we are responsible for the acidification of the oceans, climate change, and the loss of many species, there are others that are thriving. Since we “live in a globalized world,” we need to understand what we can do to encourage the “new hybrid plant species” and keep “as many species as possible alive on our global Ark.” We do no good with a “loss-only view.”

Thomas leaves us with the duty to “maintain robust ecosystems,” using “maximum efficiency to “fulfill all human needs” while “generating the least possible collateral damage.” While accepting inevitable change, flexibility is required while we minimize the number of species that become extinct. We could hybridize new species, even create biological diversity. Such new species may have future importance.

We can “shed self-imposed restraints” and “introduce new species” to new geographic regions, diverse landscapes, even develop new insects that eat our weeds. We can “help direct the evolutionary process.”In five million years, we could be credited with increasing Earth’s biological diversity. We could be responsible for a ‘sixth genesis.”

The author doesn’t forget to remind us that humans need to do the obvious: stabilize and then reduce the human population, minimize consumption, reduce our foot print obtaining food, recycle the water we use, and reduce greenhouse emissions. Those are the tall orders, recognized in this creatively hopeful but realistic book.