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What Members Thought
Not really a book, Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway have written a historical essay from the point of view of a future Chinese historian. The history recounts the scientific, political, and social events during the years 1988 to 2093. The essay shows how, even though scientists predicted the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions on the earth's climate, politicians and corporations weaseled out of the implications, rationalizing their actions (or inactions), and shrugged off responsibility for th
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When scientists discovered the limits of planetary sinks, they also discovered market failure.
Potentially impactful for a naive reader. Couched in terms of 24C historical analysis, the documentary aspires for a neutral distance. I agree with other reviews about the detail afforded to the causes of the collapse, about the ideology which produced conspicuous consumption. We are generously treated to thumbnail portraits of Comte and Friedman. As eco-apocalypse goes, this is bloodless on the page. ...more
Potentially impactful for a naive reader. Couched in terms of 24C historical analysis, the documentary aspires for a neutral distance. I agree with other reviews about the detail afforded to the causes of the collapse, about the ideology which produced conspicuous consumption. We are generously treated to thumbnail portraits of Comte and Friedman. As eco-apocalypse goes, this is bloodless on the page. ...more
A verbal docudrama; science fiction as polemic by scientists (or historians of science). This is the length you might expect for a Kindle Single or long short story; about 20% of it comprises footnotes. Its narrator is a Chinese historian of 400 years hence.
I found it most interesting of all on philosophy of science rather than on essentially familiar environmental material.
It’s weird that I have fewer than ten ‘environment’ books on GR: other major interests of mine as a kid & teenager have end ...more
I found it most interesting of all on philosophy of science rather than on essentially familiar environmental material.
It’s weird that I have fewer than ten ‘environment’ books on GR: other major interests of mine as a kid & teenager have end ...more
Written from the standpoint of a Chinese historian a few hundred years in the future. There is also a Q. and A. at the end of the essay.
I like the subject matter, agree with most of the opinions and generally admire this author for other things she has written, but this is pretty bad. It is really just a longish essay, a polemic really, but it is badly written and the structure is messy.
These quick-fire essays/short books are one of Kindles strengths but this is a poor example.
I like the subject matter, agree with most of the opinions and generally admire this author for other things she has written, but this is pretty bad. It is really just a longish essay, a polemic really, but it is badly written and the structure is messy.
These quick-fire essays/short books are one of Kindles strengths but this is a poor example.
A rating of 4.9.
Jul 22, 2014
Aloha
marked it as to-buy
Jul 23, 2015
Emilia von Turtle
marked it as to-read
Jul 26, 2022
Hend
marked it as to-read
Dec 03, 2024
Maia Ciobanu
marked it as to-read
