{"id":656,"date":"2020-08-03T17:26:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T17:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/?p=656"},"modified":"2020-09-03T18:35:27","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T18:35:27","slug":"sustainability-book-review-the-uninhabitable-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/2020\/08\/03\/sustainability-book-review-the-uninhabitable-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability Book Review: The Uninhabitable Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a reoccurring feature on the Sustainability Roundtable blog, we will post reviews of books related to sustainability.\u00a0 Interested in submitting your own review to the blog? Contact August at aolundsmith@gmail.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming<\/em> by David Wallace-Wells<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book Review by Kacper Jarecki<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to take things for granted \u2013 and possibly the biggest thing we take for granted is planet Earth. This non-fiction book is a real eye-opener because it shows us that Earth as we know it, may not be around for much longer. During this time of the pandemic, we are already experiencing and adjusting to new realities of everyday life. However, according to David Wallace-Wells, this might just be a walk in the park compared with what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book does not pull any punches, David Wallace-Wells does not spare us one bit, starting with the title itself. In the first page he writes about the 5 mass extinctions that have already occurred on this planet. I didn\u2019t know there were that many, I only knew about the dinosaurs! A few pages later on page 6, he writes, \u201cwhole regions of Africa and Australia and the United States, parts of South America north of Patagonia, and Asia, south of Siberia would be rendered uninhabitable by direct heat, desertification, and flooding\u201d by the year 2100 if the global temperature rises by 4 degrees Celsius. That there may be 200 million climate refugees by 2050. That conflict and warfare between countries could double as countries strive to gain access to more and more limited resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Wallace-Wells writes that instead of dominating Earth, we are actually arming it through pollution, and turning it into an \u201cangry beast\u201d or even \u201cwar machine.\u201d David Wallace-Wells even debates whether it is moral to reproduce and have children in this climate where so many things can go wrong. He decides to have hope and he does have a child, named Rocca. Fortunately, we still have a small level of control over what happens. He writes on page 30, \u201cEach of us imposes some suffering on our future selves every time we flip on a light switch, buy a plane ticket, or fail to vote.\u201d He cites ways cities in the future will compete to be greener (since they will have no choice), like banning cars, and having local vertical farms so food won\u2019t have far to travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of this book describes the multiple horrible ways that global warming will affect Earth including droughts, floods, fires, new deadly virus and bacteria strains, and much more. If you are a fiction writer, this book certainly provides different worst-case scenarios you may not have imagined. The scary part is that this may be real. However, if the author can still have hope and be optimistic after writing this, then we as readers should be hopeful too, and not just hopeful, but inspired to take an active part to save Earth, not just for ourselves, but for all the creatures who call Earth home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion Questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.       Which facts in the book surprised you? For example, I didn\u2019t know about the \u201cGreat Pacific garbage patch\u201d twice the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.       Which of David Wallace-Wells\u2019s scenarios scares you the most?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.       What are some things you are doing now to help combat climate change?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.       Is there anything more you can do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.       Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of Earth? Do you think things will get better or worse, and why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a reoccurring feature on the Sustainability Roundtable blog, we will post reviews of books related to sustainability.\u00a0 Interested in submitting your own review to the blog? Contact August at aolundsmith@gmail.com. The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells Book Review by Kacper Jarecki It\u2019s easy to take things for granted \u2013 and possibly … Continue reading Sustainability Book Review: The Uninhabitable Earth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-books-etc","category-uncategorized","tag-bookreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/sustainrt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}