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

The rumors are true. I am reading Robert Fishe's "The Dimwit's Dictinary cover to cover. I'm underlining it too. What? You heard me. (Ha! I just looked up that phrase. He forgot that one.) I said, I'm underlining words and phrases that I probably would use, phrases like "express (concern)" or "attitude." Fiske lists helpful alternative words, sometimes, so I'll continue reading and underlining. I'm up to G. I'm sure his book will help me in the ongoing struggle to ramp up my verbiage to new heights. (Ooops. No, that one's not there, either.)

That said, I'm moving on. (Ha again! Neither phrase is listed, but "moving forward," is.) I'm going to express my doubts about the phrases listed in the Dimwit's Dictionary. Some are too useful; they express too precisely what I mean to say, sometimes with a tone that no alternative phrase or word captures. Take, for example, the title of Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill's excellent, concise summary of why we need to do this and that to begin the conversion to a steady state, now. "Economics for Dummies?" No! It's called "Enough Is Enough." Rob thought long and hard about using that title. A search can get 150 hits on the phrase. But it says exactly what they wanted to say, and I agree. They say why. They say how to make a steady state work for the betterment of all. It's a text that should be required reading in every school in the country, important for all of us to read before we can't stop imploding. I doubt that the title will hurt his sales. Enough Is Enough memorable and right on target. Just be sure to add the Dietz and O'Neill to your search.
Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources

In the Introduction, Gore summarizes the current trends that provide challenges for how we make choices for the future: the global economy, electronic communications, a new balance of political, economic and military power, unsustainable growth, powerful new science technologies, and the emergence of a new relationship between human civilization and Earth's ecology.

The details he provides in the first 100 pages range from new technology to internet influences and the problems with current economics and Citizens United. Looks like this will be a valuable resource for anyone writing about our prospects for the future.

I'm especially encouraged by his understanding of how complexity impacts these issues and by the extensive Bibliography, Index and Notes he provides.The Future: Six Drivers of Global ChangeAl Gore

Grasshopper Dreaming:Reflections on Killing and Loving by Jeffrey A. Lockwood, Boston, Skinner House Books, 2002.
There have been no grasshoppers in our yard since First Turkey did them all in 35 years ago. Maybe that's why this title caught my attention. Then its thoughtful consideration of our lives and their meaning caught my soul.

It’s a rare book, only 138 pages long, that becomes a treasure. I marked thirty-five of those pages because they contained quotable quotes.

Jeffrey Lockwood begins by taking us deep into the Wyoming prairie to watch grasshoppers doing nothing, just being, most of their time. Perhaps we should be called “human doings,” not “human beings,” he suggests. Then he leads us seamlessly into observations about complexity and “...what science cannot fathom, nature still manages to exploit.” Before we realize it, he has led us full circle to ask, “What is a grasshopper good for?’ and concludes with the timeless answer: “...we value our children...because of who they are,” not what they do.

As we learn the details of Lockwood’s work as an etymologist, defending farmland against hordes of grasshoppers, he illustrates his dilemma of what it means to kill. “Taking life, like giving life, can be a sacred act.” Sometimes an essential act, if we are to live.

We watch as Lockwood teaches his children about his job killing grasshoppers, while capturing and releasing insects he finds in his house. In either case, he feels that his obligation is to “...mitigate their potential pain.”

The author notes our need to control as we confront nature’s “absolute indifference” to our existence, encourages us to “...contribute to moving human society through this phase of self-destruction”, and ends with a treasure chest of quotable quotes about the complementary nature of science (how we came to be) and religion (Jeffrey A Lockwoodwhy we came to be).

René DubosThe Wooing of EarthNew York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980.

The 1970’s explosion of interest in environmental degradation was tempered in 1980 by a voice we need to hear now, in this age of dystopias that go on and on. René Dubos--the Pulitzer Prize winner for So Human An Animal and microbiologist who demonstrated that microbes could provide us with antibiotics--reminds us that we can do better. In fact, we have. The human imprint on Earth was beautifully integrated, when we respected nature’s answers and restrained our tendency to ride roughshod over its genius.

We don’t need to cut down all the trees on planet Earth—not even those in our neighborhood—just enough to keep warm or grow something to eat. It was done in the ages-old hedgerows of Europe and Great Britain, which became interesting biosystems, as well as windbreaks and fences. The examples go on and on in this book. We need the reminder of good examples, for, apparently, in much of the world, we have forgotten how to do it, or we don’t care how much we pave and tear down.

In some areas and in the past our restraint and creative talents have created new environments enhanced by cultural inventions unimagined in the beginning. Benefit has come to both humanity and nature when we realized the necessity of those benefits and were wise enough to leave them alone.

We don’t have to pave every square foot or cut down every tree to maximize profit. By leaving to themselves a decent portion of wild lives and natural phenomena, we can use our common sense to work with planet Earth to create its best and most lovely potential. Only then will we secure the future for Homo sapiens. Dubos has shown us how it used to be done.

From Frank Kaminski of resilence.org
http://www.resilience.org/stories/201...
By turns wondrous, wise, witty, tense and gripping...an auspicious new entry in this daring series that refuses to stick with easy answers or safe issues...finds just the right balance between candid political commentary and a tale...for both adult and young-adult readers. Frank Kaminski, Resilience.org

And from Douglas R. Cobb:"... a fantastic book, and my review of it is at:
http://guardianlv.com/2014/11/the-ali... ..."captivating characters and the main character, Shawne, has a noble goal she pursues, despite being met with people who do not always like the message she is trying to teach them. ...reading the first two books in the series is highly recommended, as they are both great, and will provide useful background to help understand and get into The Alien Effect quicker."

Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, New York, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishinig Company, 2007.

Written by social psychologists, this is an in depth description of how we deceive ourselves and how we can set ourselves right. It is a must-read eye-opener because the authors describe clearly and carefully how much harm self-justification does to our lives, how our memory can be warped, how science can be compromised, how our legal system has been corrupted, and how marriages fall apart.

At first it seems unbelievable that “...when directly confronted with proof that they are wrong, [people] do not change...but justify it even more tenaciously.” Even politicians might admit “error, but not responsibility. Such is the power of self-justification, “...more powerful and more dangerous than the explicit lie.”

The authors’ explanation for the source of this power is “cognitive dissonance”—the mental tension that results when “...a person holds two cognitions [beliefs or attitudes]
That contradict each other. The book is full of extensively detailed examples, including some generally accepted theories in economics and psychology that are obviously not supported by evidence or everyday experience.

Most disturbing are examples the authors describe taken from legal situations or psychotherapy, where dissonance was reduced by minimizing damage or blaming victims, as in the use of the notorious Reid Technique for gaining confessions.

The most obvious cases of cognitive dissonance are climate change deniers as they watch Arctic ice and glaciers melt and classical economists who don’t recognize the limits to Earth’s resources. But the most egregious and dangerous dissonance must reside in the minds of those who imply that the Earth can support its projected population with a reasonable standard of living.

Such denial is a trap easily sprung, for there seem to be no workable solutions. How do we reach a sustainable consensus to stabilize all human populations? How do we curb our appetites or revise the mantra that growth and fossil fuels are necessary?

We can preserve resources for the future and protect the precious diversity of life on Earth. The tasks seem overwhelming, but to allow ourselves to sink into despair or denial is to become part of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The difficult way out is quite clear: we simply can’t have our cake and eat it too. Understanding self-justification and cognitive dissonance is a good first step out of the trap.

This book is a treasure for anyone interested in growing as a responsible individual, true to both self and reality.

The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy by Lester R. Brown, New York, W.W.Norton, 2015.
The author of Plan B, called the “...best achievable road map” to the future, provides us with encouraging news—we are making the transition to wind and solar to meet energy needs. Costs of wind and solar are “...falling so rapidly that they are starting to squeeze out coal.” Unlike fossil fuels, their use “...does not reduce the amount [of energy provided] tomorrow.”

Other benefits are becoming clear, and soon pollution may trump the enormous fossil fuel subsidies by government and tax policies. Brown proposes shifting transportation to electricity. Biofuels won’t do the trick. One tank of biomass fuel for a large SUV requires growing enough grain to feed a person for one year. Wind and solar do not require the large amounts of water that fossil fuel production does.

Thanks goes to governments and billionaires who have already poured huge efforts into renewable energy. Wind provides 62% of Denmark’s electricity. Brown notes other benefits of the transition, like local control, use of rooftops, no fuel costs for installation, a viable alternative for energy companies who make the switch, and avoiding economic trauma as oil production peaks.

The current issues discussed include the use of coal and nuclear power, and the potential for geothermal and hydropower. Brown’s recommendations include a revenue on carbon to offset taxes on labor and raising a significant tax on gasoline while cutting income taxes—strategies that are also good for the economy, along with energy efficiency, which is cheaper than building “...new generating capacity.”
The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy

by Curt Stager, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 2011.

Climatologist Curt Stager speculates on the long-term prospects for Earth’s life forms, based on two scenarios—a moderate “path” if we limit CO2 levels to 600 ppm and a “Super-Greenhouse” situation if we “consume all our easily accessible coal,” reaching a peak of 2000 ppm around 2300 A. D.

Armed with a Ph. D. in biology and geology from Duke University, Stager explores the details of various life-threatening scenarios for both futures and notes that we will probably experience a warming similar to that of the early Cenozoic, 50 millions years ago. At that time “...global average temperatures were 18 to 22o F (10-12oC) or more above today’s mean for several million years. Life had moved north, as evidenced by dense Arctic forests. Many species survived the heat.

Stager introduces his detailed analysis of what might happen to polar bears and other currently familiar life forms by suggesting that our fate would be far worse if the next ice age were to make its expected (but poorly understood?) cyclical appearance on Earth. Such ice could wipe out everything in its path, a much worse scenario than what our CO2-induced long-term hot spell might inflict. We may do better if our long-term warming cancels the next ice age.

I recommend this book for general reading because the author is careful to present current findings with well-balanced, readable analyses. He presents the many facets of each complex situation that human cultures and animals will face. As a result of our current load of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, he says, “Welcome to the Anthropocene...We’ve stopped the next ice age in its tracks.” It will take tens of thousands of years for current temperature levels to return to preindustrial conditions.

By understanding the details of our options, we could avoid arguments that oversimplify or exaggerate. In any case, we need to do our best to find a safer pass for life into its warm future. Then we might have a better chance of surviving the needed move north.