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

I just found Peter Ward’s second book Life As We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search For (and Synthesis of) Alien Life, New York and around the world, Penguin Group, 2005. In this book Ward considers life itself—what it is, where in the universe it might be, and however it might be re-invented here soon.

After I finish reading it, I might review Life... in more depth, but for now I‘m recommending it and its prequel Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe, Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, New York, Springer-Verlag, 2000. Both books give us an in-depth, open arguments that make a lot of sense to me.

1) The authors’ Rare Earth Hypothesis is based on credible astronomical and biochemical possibilities, suggesting that microbial life is easy “...to evolve from non life...and...should be found widely throughout habitable planets and moons in the cosmos, while complex animals and plants are very rare. Not only are they relatively fragile, requiring “narrow environmental conditions to survive,” they need long-term stability in habitable conditions in order to evolve.

Rare Earth was disliked by SETI and science fiction fans, who ignored the book’s emphasis on the observation that “...simple life should be common.” Ward and Brownlee argued that a long period of habitability required for the evolution of complex, large, oxygen-powered animals was made difficult by a long list of astronomical accidents and “...new information from oceanography, geology and paleontology” that has created the new science called astrobiology.

I’m looking forward to finishing Life As We Do No Know It because Peter Ward is a realist. He readily explores all the options he can muster. In Rare Earth he and Brownlee note that the huge numbers of stars and “their inevitable planets” make the existence of the “intelligent civilizations [in the universe] a near inevitability.” However, the huge distances and time considerations make any contact, even detection, between such civilizations highly unlikely. I believe Carl Sagan did us no favors with his optimism, though the continued SETI search is certainly worth doing, IF we can afford the resources it requires. A big IF as we consider our limits.

As a realist, Ward begins Life... by observing that the universe is so large and diverse, it is “...reasonable to suppose that all manners of life are possible,” but it is also possible that there “...might not be anything except carbon based life-forms, [and] DNA might not be ...just one way but the only way.” We are a sample of one, but we’ve learned enough about physics, astronomy and biochemistry in the last few decades to be realistic about both diverse universality and down-to-Earth chemical probabilities.

I look forward to finishing Ward’s consideration of what life is, here, there and soon to be reinvented. In many labs around the world, scientists are using a variety of approaches to recreate life—everything from re-inventing from scratch to imitating how selection working with self-organizing properties of matter (Some call it the hand of God.) precipitated life on Earth.
Life as We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search for (and Synthesis of) Alien Life
Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe

Fiction can provide powerful images that change minds; imprinting can result in a lifetime of believing violence is normal. I’m seriously worried about the current obsession with violence and dystopia.

Since I’m so critical, I thought I’d better get educated. My granddaughters watch and read it. They were eager to show me the “Hunger Games” movie, so I sat through the jiggling camera that is supposed to dilute the violence of the games. I was still horrified by the dystopian premise and teen blood-letting, even though the idea is to criticize current TV games.

How about some hope for Christmas? I’m shamelessly providing my award winning book The Webs of Varok to consider for your Holiday giving. It’s not just crass commercialism. Why not a fun story that includes some positive suggestions for securing a stable future? Take a look at a few excerpts below:

“...there are rumors of an Earth launch—more humans coming to Varok.”
“Rumors? Orram and Conn can continue blathering to Earth about water conservation. That doesn’t mean anything to us. But if humans do manage to get here, we must be ready to snuff them out before Conn can raise a fin.”

“Snuff them out? How?” Gitahl’s patches strained to find Mahntik’s true mind. “Let me be clear. Surely you wouldn’t use the diseases you’ve engineered on humans.”

“Why not? I’d use them to keep ahlork in line—even varoks.”

The ahlork Nidok appears on the cover of the Webs. He is one of our heroes, of sorts.
Conn the elll notes to human Tandra that female ahlork have bright blue scales.

“Better not call them birds,” Orram said. “Varok’s small avioids don’t have such a distinguished ancestry as Earth’s.”

“No dinosaurs?”

“Not enough heat or light out here. And ahlork are built differently than birds, like tanks with external hard parts.”

“Insectoids then.”

Orram’s sense of fun surfaced. “No, no, Tandra. Bad biologist.”

He waved an invitation, and with a clatter of broad, plated wings, the ahlork came toward us, swooping low over two elder varoks sitting nearby. One varok grimaced and ducked ever so lightly in revulsion. The ahlork noticed, circled, and made another pass at him.

I felt a surge of mirth. Orram warned me to stifle it, but the ahlork had already seen my wavering smile. He flapped toward me and landed on my head, then peered down into my tear-filled eyes. I burst into laughter despite the dig of his talons.

“You are nothing more than an elll, with all that shaking and grimacing, First-Human-Being-On-Varok,” the ahlork said...

The blue-plated ahlork standing on the floor spoke in a voice broken with foam. “Surely Earth be beautiful. Not this heap of ruins. Why do you come to Varok?”

One more excerpt. The Webs of Varok is a model of what it takes for humans to do long-term survival, based on the nonfiction text Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill.
The issues are challenging, good for Book Club discussion. Here’s one we can all agree on:
“I thought manufacturers are required to take responsibility for their products throughout their entire lifetime, including final disposal or recycling. So much of this cloth must be disposed of, every cycle. How do they pay the cost, with such low prices?”

“I have often wondered,” Orserah said.

“It’s as though the weavers wanted the cloth to wear out quickly—so we would buy more.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “You have just defined planned obsolescence, an old trick on Earth—one of the favorites when business ethics turned sour in the interest of profits.”

Check out http://archivesofvarok.com for more excerpts and information about the series.
Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite ResourcesRob Dietz ]

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 series is now up to date. E-books are available for the rewrite of A Place Beyond Man. It is called The View Beyond Earth, and includes a new beginning and corrections in copyediting, as well as updates on how we might actually relate to friendly aliens who live too close to ignore. Start with this one if you like backstory--who are these characters?

The award-winning book The Webs of Varok is the second book in the series. It focuses on issues portrayed on an alien planet--issues that could impact our long-term future. They do not deny our need for facing very tough choices. Falling back on old -isms won't work; we need to recognize the limit to resources.

The Alien Effect is the third book in the series. Like the others, it follows the mixed alien-human family in time, but is a standalone if you don't need extensive backstory. Set on Earth, the family faces some of our most troubling cultural issues.

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.

“Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction” by Chris D. Thomas, New York, Hatchette Book Group, 2017.

We can only hope that the author is right about what is thriving on Earth: In spite of the damage we humans have done to our home- (and most likely only) planet, we have created new homes for other life and stimulated their evolutionary creativity.

An award-winning professor of conservation biology at the University of York, UK, Chris Thomas gives us a rare glimpse of hope for Earth’s future, in spite of the excesses of technology and human over-population. Earth was once quite warm (three million years ago) and the continents’ future coming together again will change all Earth’s species’ options eventually, in spite of any human impact.

Meanwhile, ocean-going containers move species around so that “many microbes…have near-global distribution. It makes our “neophobia” and “hatred of foreign species” in our locales seem a little silly--certainly not worth a “costly control and eradication of…alien species.”

“Life is a process, not a final product, “ the author says. Therefore, maintain flexibility for future change. Humans are as normal as anything else that lives. Accept the fact that we must “..live within our planetary boundaries.”

What to do? Read pages 230 to 242, if nothing else. There the author tells us: 1) “…accept change” and prod it in a “desired direction.” 2) “…maintain flexibility for future generations,” for we cannot imagine their world. We should encourage “as many species as possible in minimizing extinction.” 3) Our evolution and presence “are natural within the Earth system…We should encourage “as many species as possible. Genes, like species, survive because they keep track of the changing world.” Specific options are suggested on page 240, following a thoughtful discussion of whether or not to resurrect those who have recently gone extinct. 4) “…create near biological success stories by whatever means” by helping “…direct the evolutionary process.”

Our Angry Earth by Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl (First Paperback Edition March 2019), Newtom Doherty Associates 1991.

There was a good reason that this 1991 book was republished in 2018. It still rings true with its 400 pages of suggestions. They’re all too familiar: carbon dioxide, CFCs, cutting down forests, rice paddies, garbage, etc. The authors saw the likelihood of an increase in violent weather and loss of water in our rivers, the breakup of Antarctic ice, the threat to island nations, more violent weather, and a “rise in sea levels.”

In all wars, it’s the environment that always loses. Species extinctions have been happening faster than ever, primarily because we humans are destroying our environment. Humans could become extinct, the authors feared in 1991, because of our “human interventions--like acid rain, the global green house warming, war, and our destruction of the environment we depend on for life” No doubt the world population is exploding alarmingly,primarily because of our “unrestrained and wasteful use of energy and resources”

Note that this quote was written before 1991, when the rate of repair was far slower than the rate at which we do damage now. Note the current effort to rid the seas of plastic extrada.

The losses are environmental at five different levels: 1) the “despoiling of national treasure,” like wild animals, plants, forests, and riversides, 2)benefits from undiscovered sources,3) pollution of benign environmental conditions, 4)greenhouse affecting warming, and 5) the extinctions of life on Earth.

In 1991 the authors blamed America for contributing “the most.problems.” Though this may no longer be true, we are still in a good, if not the best, place to do something important about the problems.”

The author lists coming problems like “sunburn, drinking water supplies, soil loss, even outer space pollution.” The last half of the book is devoted to solutions--burning waste to provide energy or using waste heat from industry, using solar power and other renewable resources
“
We would never run out of wind, waves, and subterranean heat if we depended on natural timing and power storage. Bookkeeping could help, like “imposing a carbon tax on electricity.” The biggest source of pollution is transportation, especially the car, crop rotation, and poor distribution of food. The last section of the book is dedicated to education, with hope that these kinds of suggestions will secure the future.

Lester R. BrownWorld on the Edge--How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse by Lester R. Brown, WW Norton and Co. N.Y. 2011.

Early studies have concluded that human demands on Earth’s resources exceeded its natural systems in 1980 and in 2007 exceeded Earth’s “sustainable yields by 20 percent.” In contrast, economic date of about 2010 showed a “10-fold growth in world economy since 1950. The fourfold increase in world income was celebrated.

That is good news, Lester Brown tells us in 2011, until we realized that Earth’s recent environmental declines suggest inevitable economic and social collapse following the shrinking of Earth’s forests, soils, aquifers, fisheries and high temperatures

Brown’s Plan B focused on cutting global carbon emissions, stabilizing the human population at 8 billion by 2040, eradicating poverty, and restoring forests, soil, aquifers, and fisheries. Costs, he said, were 1/8 of the 2011 world military spending.

What were we thinking? He also predicted that by 2020 up to 60 million people would migrate from Sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and Europe. CO2 emissions should be cut to 400 ppm by 2020 so we can reduce it to the 350 ppm recommended. In 2020 a worldwide carbon tax of $200 per ton could be offset by reduction in income taxes. An additional $200 billion could restore Earth’s national systems, by 2020 we should stabilize population and eradicate poverty--paid for by “updating the concept of national security. How different are questions for the world now? It’s already 2020.

Brown’s ideas could still help, if we could change our individual focus. CO2 emissions per passenger mile on high speed trains are about 1/3 those of cars and 1/4 of planes. Do we have to be slaves to saving time? We have been using more solar and building more efficient buildings, but we need to do more. The oceans are filling with plastic, People are desperate for food and safety on too many places for too many wrong reasons. In 2011 government were spending $500 billion per years to subsidize the use of fossil fuels. Simple requirements like rooftop solar, water heaters and energy efficient building.

Brown’s ideas are simple once fully realized. They could reverse the downward trend we have taken since 2011. Think wind, solar and geothermal, a tax on carbon. Raise gasoline taxes and cut income taxes. We could still do it--build a new economy--carbon free. Oystein Bahle of Exxon Norway noted that “Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the economical truth.

WW Norton and Co, New York, 2004.

When this book was published, 16 years ago!, climate change was “widely discussed,” the author wrote, but “…we are slow to grasp its full meaning…there is no normal to return to.”

Listening to the evening news makes it clear that we are still not grasping what we need to be doing. In 2004 Brazil was the “…only country with the potential to expand world cropland area measurably.” and now? What is happening in Brazil? Have we already outgrown the Earth and failed to recognize that fact?

In 2004, “falling water tables and rising temperatures” were already slowing the growth of world food production. Lester Brown’s list of “environmental fallout from overuse” goes on and on, on page 8.

Mortality and fertility of humans were “…essentially in balanced in some countries, and others were able to “reduce family size” quickly. Has it been enough? Have fisheries continued to collapse, as Brown saw.? Have the world’s range lands been overgrazed in 2020?

Earth’s productivity was increasing in 2004. What are we doing now to recycle plant nutrients, as we did when “the world was largely rural? Are we we using crop residues, animal manures, soil rebuilding, leguminous plants? Have we learned to avoid overgrazing and overplowing?

Have we confronted the fact that in 2004 “…waste tables are falling in scores of countries…”? Are we all being efficient by using drip irrigation? Are all our choices water-efficient? No more water wasting coal-fired power plants? Recycling urban water supplies?

Stabilizing water tables was urgent in 2004, and now as urgent as stabilizing global temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide. Sea levels will rise. It’s probably too late to stop that. Wind energy is being used now, but is it enough? How can we reduce our use of electricity--everywhere?

In 1991 the U.S. Dept. Of Energy concluded that three states alone could provide the entire nation’s electricity needs. As we deal with the pandemic of 2020 and plan to rebuild the future, there will be chances to rethink and reinvest more wisely the way we use Earth’s gifts. The lessons are clear in books such as this one.

Yale University Press, New Haven, 2013

Note the publication date! The author explores the pros and cons of geoengineering to “deal with carbon emissions. He asks why we should “construct an immense industrial infrastructure” to correct the carbon problem when “we could just stop burning fossil fuels.”

Professor Hamilton (Public Ethics at Charles Stuart University in Canberra) also looks at three ways of controlling solar radiation problems: “…marine cloud brightening, cirrus cloud modification, and …sulphate aerosal sprayings.” The only answer to avoid too rapid warming on Earth is to reduce the level of pollution” until CO2 can be reduced by “natural or artificial means.”

The author looks at current ideas, such as Bill Gates’s “Silver Lining” to brighten marine clouds. He also looks at the politics of geoengineering in 2013. His review of how politics has tarnished science is a scary warning, when he suggests that geoengineering is a necessary global technofix. The “strident tone of environmentalists doesn’t help. The author explores these problems in depth in his chapter “Prometheus Dreams.”

Is engineering the climate inevitable? The author suggests and may believe it is, and that the largest nations will need to act. In 2011 China gave geoengineering priority. Some people suggest that “changing peoples lifestyle” is be a better option.

The author suggests the obvious--international coordination, regulation of climate engineering, and international governing of geoengineering. Is the social change required to solve our problems of overuse ‘utopian?” Are we unwilling today (in 2020) to change the “economic, social and political structures” required for the needed “technofix?” Or is that social change “inconceivable?” Is the only answer to”buy time…to deal with an inevitable climate emergency”?

The author reminds us that the CO2 we put in the atmosphere will…alter the climate of the Earth for thousands of years.” Are we too addicted to “endless expansion?”