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Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
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Twenty years ago, in The End of Nature, Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming. Those warnings went mostly unheeded; now, he argues, we need to acknowledge that we’ve waited too long, and that massive change is not only unavoidable but already underway. Our old familiar planet is melting, drying, acidifying, flooding and burning in ways humans have never seen. We’ve created a new planet, still recognisable but fundamentally different. In Eaarth, McKibben surveys the changes already taking place and considers what they will mean for our future.
Adapting to our new home won’t be easy. It will be expensive – and the natural resources on which our economy is built have been damaged and degraded. Our survival depends, McKibben argues, on scaling back, concentrating on essentials and creating the kinds of communities that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change – fundamental change – will be our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance.
“What I have to say about this book is very simple: read it, please. Straight through to the end. Whatever else you were planning to do next, nothing could be more important.”—Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
"McKibben is the most effective environmental activist of our age. Anyone interested in making a difference to our world can learn from him."—Tim Flannery
‘Bill McKibben foresaw “the end of nature” very early on, and in this new book he blazes a path to help preserve nature’s greatest treasures.’—James Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Bill McKibben is the author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Eaarth, and Deep Economy. He is the founder of the environmental organization 350.org and was among the first to warn of the dangers of global warming.
Adapting to our new home won’t be easy. It will be expensive – and the natural resources on which our economy is built have been damaged and degraded. Our survival depends, McKibben argues, on scaling back, concentrating on essentials and creating the kinds of communities that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change – fundamental change – will be our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance.
“What I have to say about this book is very simple: read it, please. Straight through to the end. Whatever else you were planning to do next, nothing could be more important.”—Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
"McKibben is the most effective environmental activist of our age. Anyone interested in making a difference to our world can learn from him."—Tim Flannery
‘Bill McKibben foresaw “the end of nature” very early on, and in this new book he blazes a path to help preserve nature’s greatest treasures.’—James Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Bill McKibben is the author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Eaarth, and Deep Economy. He is the founder of the environmental organization 350.org and was among the first to warn of the dangers of global warming.
Azioni libro
Inizia a leggereInformazioni sul libro
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
Descrizione
Twenty years ago, in The End of Nature, Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming. Those warnings went mostly unheeded; now, he argues, we need to acknowledge that we’ve waited too long, and that massive change is not only unavoidable but already underway. Our old familiar planet is melting, drying, acidifying, flooding and burning in ways humans have never seen. We’ve created a new planet, still recognisable but fundamentally different. In Eaarth, McKibben surveys the changes already taking place and considers what they will mean for our future.
Adapting to our new home won’t be easy. It will be expensive – and the natural resources on which our economy is built have been damaged and degraded. Our survival depends, McKibben argues, on scaling back, concentrating on essentials and creating the kinds of communities that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change – fundamental change – will be our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance.
“What I have to say about this book is very simple: read it, please. Straight through to the end. Whatever else you were planning to do next, nothing could be more important.”—Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
"McKibben is the most effective environmental activist of our age. Anyone interested in making a difference to our world can learn from him."—Tim Flannery
‘Bill McKibben foresaw “the end of nature” very early on, and in this new book he blazes a path to help preserve nature’s greatest treasures.’—James Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Bill McKibben is the author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Eaarth, and Deep Economy. He is the founder of the environmental organization 350.org and was among the first to warn of the dangers of global warming.
Adapting to our new home won’t be easy. It will be expensive – and the natural resources on which our economy is built have been damaged and degraded. Our survival depends, McKibben argues, on scaling back, concentrating on essentials and creating the kinds of communities that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change – fundamental change – will be our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance.
“What I have to say about this book is very simple: read it, please. Straight through to the end. Whatever else you were planning to do next, nothing could be more important.”—Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
"McKibben is the most effective environmental activist of our age. Anyone interested in making a difference to our world can learn from him."—Tim Flannery
‘Bill McKibben foresaw “the end of nature” very early on, and in this new book he blazes a path to help preserve nature’s greatest treasures.’—James Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Bill McKibben is the author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Eaarth, and Deep Economy. He is the founder of the environmental organization 350.org and was among the first to warn of the dangers of global warming.
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About midway through reading this book, I had this weird feeling that I was reading a science fiction/ horror book. It reminded me of post-apocalyptic fiction in which an old text from right before the apocalypse is found and read by those living in the future. In the old text, the author is discussing a monster looming on the horizon which is almost completely ignored by everyone until the monster is upon them. That pretty much sums up what's happening to our planet now and only a few of us are paying attention. And it's not science fiction. I was lucky to have an opportunity to read science texts about the emerging problem of global warming/climate change back in the mid-80s. Even back then I began changing the way I live to respond to this emerging problem. Despite increasingly dire warnings from scientists in the intervening years, virtually nothing was done by our political leaders to address the problem. In fact, we have a very vocal minority who has maliciously created a a disinformation campaign so as to maintain their oil-based wealth. And we still have those misguided folks who think it's all a hoax and that God wouldn't do this to us. McKibben makes it quite clear that the climate-change process is well underway. I was distressed to learn just how far things have gone. The collapse of global agriculture is the most ominous possibility. His argument is that we now have to learn how to adapt. I'm working on that now.
We are locked into a disaster. If we halt emissions of CO2 so that we do not exceed 350 ppm then we can avoid the apocalypse. We would exceed 350 ppm by 2020 if we continue on as planned expected and demanded, IF we were to succeed in stabilizing the CO2 at 350 ppm then life on the new Eaarth might be like what this book describes,
I really enjoy reading Bill McKibben's books. Simply put, he is an excellent writer. I won't attempt to summarize the details of Eaarth here. Other reviewers have already written good reviews.The premise of the book is that humans have already changed the earth and have already passed the point of no-return. We will all have to make the necessary adjustments to this new world, voluntary or not. To paraphrase other writers, Nature does not care about our wishes.If you haven't read any other books about climate change this would be a good starting point.
The author discusses global warming and what changes we can make to try and mitigate the damage we've done and what we can do to survive (get small community-wise, food-wise, energy-wise). My takeaway - we're doomed. Water wars and much civil unrest will commence across the globe. Already have commenced actually. Pretty good read though. Follow it up with the YA dystopian novel Ship Breaker for a preview of future times. And then have a stiff drink.
What Bill McKibben tells us in Eaarth is that the planet on which we now live is no longer the planet that it formerly was due to how man has changed it. He uses the word Eaarth purposely as a metaphor to give a visual indication that our planet's change is permanent. Additionally, he says that we have no choice at this time other than to drastically modify how we live so that we and future generations can lessen our exposure to increasing food shortages and natural disasters such as drought, torrential rains, fires from increased lightening, and floods.This is the kind of book that makes me want to jump onto the bandwagon. McKibben may talk about gloom and doom, but he does so in an enjoyable, conversational tone. His statistics come forth frequently, always jaw-dropping and never boring. An example would be when McKibben states that "already the ocean is more acid than anytime in the last eight hundred thousand years, and at current rates by 2050 it will be more corrosive than anytime in the past 20 million years." Scary? You bet! Well researched, Eaarth comes complete with notes in the back which are footnotes for the main work and could also be used as a springboard for additional reading later. I’ll definitely be looking for more work by this author as I found so many of his ideas thought-provoking.In the past, I’ve heard much about global warming but not to the extent that Bill McKibben explained it. It makes more sense to me now. So, too, do the solutions that he proposed, although I feel that this area of his book could have been developed a little more. He basically promoted the local lifestyle that he himself lives in his home state of Vermont. Nevertheless, I suggest that you grab this book, read it, and then join the author and me in making a difference in this changing world.
In the first part of this book, McKibben makes the case that global climate change has now essentially passed the point of no return. The climate has already been altered, he claims, in dangerous, chaotic ways that few of us are fully aware of, and that is still only the tip of the rapidly-melting iceberg. Even measures such as emission reductions and the development of green energy technologies, he says, worthy and laudable as they are, are not remotely enough to counter the chain reaction of warming that is occurring, and the alteration of the planet into a much more hostile environment is now inevitable. I honestly have no idea whether McKibben is right about this -- although I sincerely hope he isn't -- but he does at the very least make it sound plausible. Terrifying, but plausible.In the second part, he offers up the idea that the only way to survive in this future is by paring back, choosing sustainability over growth, and shifting the emphasis of our government, agriculture, and energy production onto the local level. Again, I'm not convinced by all of it, but he makes some serious and reasonable points on the subject; we're not talking about a back-to-nature hippie pipe dream here.What I do know is that, whether McKibben is right or not, he is worth reading. If nothing else, this is an interesting and thought-provoking contribution to the current environmental discussion and debate.
This is not an easy book to read. Its central message is one we do not want to hear. Author Bill McKibben contends that global warming is not a threat; it is a reality. And he gives plenty of evidence to support that claim. We no longer live on the planet we have known as Earth. We are entering a new reality on a new planet. The change is great enough, according to McKibben, to require a new name for our planet—Eaarth. But just as you are ready to plunge into total despair about the future of humanity, McKibben gives us the obligatory hopeful ending. Though climate change is already underway, we can lessen its affects by acting now. What we need to do, says McKibben, is go small and local. The author does a fine job showing us how our intertwined global systems threaten the well-being of the planet and us. He also points to what we need to do. And there are signs that those positive changes are occurring. What has me fearful is that those in power will not have the courage and the will to do what is required for our survival. When we still have decision makers in business and government in denial about the reality of global warming or believing that we still have plenty of time to act, I am not too hopeful that we are going to be able to prevent catastrophic consequences for us and the rest of the planet’s inhabitants.I recommend McKibbin’s book. It is time we get real about what is happening on our planet. We must begin to shape a new life on a new planet. Welcome to Eaarth.
Bill McKibben in Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet argues that the world we once knew no longer exists because of global warming, which currently includes a one-degree Celsius rise in temperature and an increased amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Although the atmosphere currently contains 390 ppm of carbon dioxide, McKibben believes that the amount of carbon can brought down to 350 ppm, an amount that scientists see as the upper limits of that safe range. McKibben devotes the first chapter to accounts of how global warming has affected climate by examining not only extreme weather events, particularly stronger and more devastating rainfall, but also disappearing glaciers, losses in sea ice, and permanent shifts in climate patterns. These manifestations of global warming will only become more widespread and more destructive. Countries located in the northern hemisphere can reduce the amount of carbon used, he says, by increasing the cost of both gasoline and coal. Those developing nations will ultimately use fewer amounts of fossil fuels if those nations in the northern hemisphere offer alternatives by providing green energy—e.g., wind turbines. Unfortunately, America is too saddled with debt to make significant changes nationally. McKibben also believes that the American government has grown too large because of large nationwide projects like the construction of the interstate system. Now the federal government needs to shrink in size while individual states learn to create their own energy and their own food. This call for simplicity, while also requiring the end of consumerism and complexity on many levels, can allow people to make changes not only locally but also nationally and globally by communicating via the Internet and by working together to make the new world that we inhabit a somewhat more welcoming kind of place. McKibben has created an important book that makes radical statements and that calls for drastic actions. As Americans, the world’s largest consumers and largest users of fossil fuels, we have no choice but to change how we live on this planet.At times, particularly in the later chapters, it seems as if McKibben wrote the book in haste, perhaps because of the urgency to get the book into print and to make others aware of the topic. It was difficult at times to discern the direction of his third chapter, which is one of four chapters. Personally, I would have preferred more attribution for some of the quotes because some of them are simply dropped into the prose and accompanied with a footnote when the quote, if it deserves to be used, should be identified within the prose. Despite these criticisms, the book needs to find a wide audience so that others can learn of the severity of global warming and what we can do as a nation, as a community, and as individuals.
I'm very impressed with Bill McKibben, 350.org, and the "Do the Math" documentary film. This book makes a compelling case that we've already passed the point where we can avoid the brunt of climate change impacts, that we've created a new planet on which life will soon become much more challenging. No more limitless growth, no more readily available fuel resources to power our economies. "Too big to fail" takes on new meaning in the context of our global economy in general, the industrial fuel and food systems in particular. He points out that local, small, and resilient cultural paradigms offer us the best chance to "gracefully manage our decline" as the inevitable effects of global warming exert their influence on human societies. To say that the book was sobering, and a bit discouraging, would be an understatement. Bill makes clear that we have our work cut out for us, and we can't delay taking action any longer. Very well done!
A book that mostly has me convinced we will need to be prepared for drastic changes as climate change accelerates in the next 20 years
Eaarth is at once hopeful and devastating. Bill McKibben doesn't pull any punches about the effects of global warming on our planet. The consequences of our pursuit for fossil fuel (and its burning) have made a lasting impact which is already effecting day-to-day living. The 'natural' disasters that we've been plagued with in ever-increasing frequency are a direct result of the imbalance which is a direct result of global warming. I say 'natural' because these freak weather events would most likely not have occurred if we hadn't pumped so much poison into the air and bumped up the global temperature (and it's only been pushed up one degree at this point). However, McKibben doesn't just harp on the horrors we've inflicted on the planet and its many inhabitants. He has solid ideas for ways we can adapt to our new environment on this completely new planet we created. His advice is to rely on communities and strive for living greener lives. (I've oversimplified of course because to give away more would defeat the purpose of you reading his excellent book.) If you're interested in environmental sciences and/or you're interested in the fate of our planet and our very way of life then I recommend you read this book ASAP.
The title is not a typo. McKibben entitled this book Eaarth because he contends that we no longer live on the same planet that we once did. He backs this contention up with lots and lots of evidence. We are already above the 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide that scientists say is the safe limit for humanity. As a result, weather patterns are changing. And if we don't make significant changes, our planet will change even more drastically. This is not a problem for our grandchildren. This is a problem that is affecting our lives now. So, what to do? McKibben recommends local action. He provides specific examples that he has encouraged through his website 350.org. His recommendations focus around changing from a growth mindset to a maintenance mindset and addressing our food and energy needs in our communities. I realize that this is a political issue for many and reactions to this book will likely vary based on your viewpoint. My views happen to align fairly closely with McKibben (at least in theory - I'm not there yet in practice), so I enjoyed this book. I thrive on statistics interspersed with examples, so the style of the book worked well for me too. There were some of McKibben's recommendations that I didn't agree with completely, but other ideas really motivated me. As soon as I closed the cover, I looked up the opening dates for my local farmer's market and started researching container gardening.
McKibben doesn't pull any punches in the first two-thirds of this book. He argues that global warming isn't something that just our grandchildren will have to worry about, which is so often what is touted by politicians and people in general. Nope, he argues that the stuff that will happen in the hazy future is already beginning to happen TODAY. He fills the pages with of facts, observations, and hypotheses he draws from those facts, painting a bleak picture of humankind's future. We're pretty much doomed - we're doing virtually nothing to curb our consumption of fossil fuels and our carbon emissions, we're already past the point of no return when it comes to ppm in the air of CO2 and it's only going to get worse, and we're basically sliding head-first into a disaster that no one can avert unless we do something drastic fast - and then it might be too late anyway.And then he backs off and tones it down dramatically.After saying that we, as a species, are pretty much doomed no matter what - that our ways of generating energy, producing food, etc are horribly and irreparably damaging our planet - he pulls up short. He doesn't encourage people to go vegan, or at least vegetarian (beef production makes a HUGE impact on global warming). He doesn't tell people to stop owning cars and to instead use public transport (which isn't feasible where I live, at least currently, since there IS no public transport). Instead, he just talks about how growing locally and having neighborhood internet message boards or emails will help. This after he just went on and on about how we're not going to be able to grow as much and pests are going to become almost uncontrollable. It's as if he doesn't want people to become offended, so he waters down his suggestions until they're palatable. Disappointing.
I am going to reiterate Barbara Kingsolver's plea: Please, please read this book. As soon as you can. Sure, have dinner first. But the internet cartoons can wait.I got it at 9 last night. I finished it at 7:30 this evening. I worked several hours, slept several hours, and made a garden bed and emergency repairs to the chicken coop in between. But I kept coming back to the book.The first half is hard going. It's really, really hard going, because there's nothing in it I didn't already know, suspect, or fear. I started reading about and writing about climate change in the early '90's, and it is heartbreaking at this point... I never, never, never wanted to be able to say, "I told you so" about this one. Nobody did. But. Um. We kind of did.So, read this one. Read [Climate Wars] if you need more doom and gloom. But if you need possibilities, hope, and action, keep reading. The second half left me with a to-do list of people to call, organizations to join, farms to emulate, and so, so happy that Bill McKibben has spent the last 20 years trying to figure this out. And writing about it. I still have despair, but not quite so much as I did yesterday.
A long anticipated update to Bill McKibben's The End of Nature book, Eaarth stresses that we've waited too long to address the causes of climate change. He uses the word "Eaarth" to reflect the new planet in which we now live. Long on gloom and short on solutions, the book stresses mistakes of the past that have had a negative impact on the environment.While the book does a nice job exploring the environmental issues that have been building the past couple decades, it provides few innovative insights or suggestions. From stories about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to descriptions of the slow food movement, the book rehashes topics already covered in other publications.I was looking for a unique perspective, instead I found the standard appeal of the environmental movement for making fundamental changes in our society. This book would be a useful tool for those new to the environment movement, but as a long-time advocate for change, I was disappointed.
Bill McKibben really gets it. He gets so much of it, that part of me just wants to pass over the parts that he doesn't get. But he seems to consistently come up short on details, just as he did with "Deep Economy," which also had so much right but bungled the ending; so this is a well-written, important, but flawed book.The really important thing, and what McKibben gets right, is that the basic problem that we have is with economic growth. Dealing with climate change, not to mention peak oil, soil erosion, deforestation, and the "environment" generally, means an end to economic growth. Because virtually every political leader (at least in public) does NOT get this fundamental point, this book is important. Living on Eaarth means living without economic growth, and this means that the huge amount of debt that we have (not primarily government debt, by the way) just isn't going to be repaid, and our economy is going to come crashing to a halt. It means a completely different economic system and a completely different way of life. But McKibben does not show, while he tries, how we can feed ourselves and stay warm in the winter. There is actually some significant debate over whether organic agriculture can feed the world. This is not just a "culture war" -- even people who understand the importance of organics aren't sure. And what about soil erosion? To me this is a critical issue for the long term. He quotes Jules Pretty as saying that farmers can create a meter of soil in ten years. I'm sorry, I can't take this seriously without more evidence. That would be a rate perhaps 1000 times greater than the normal geological rate of soil formation! If it's too good to be true, it probably is. More to the point would be the insight that we have to drastically change our diet to a largely or entirely vegan diet. He does acknowledge eating less meat, but misses the point that vegetarianism / veganism has to be the starting point of a new food policy, not a throwaway line in to keep the vegans happy. Anyone who thinks we are going to keep up anything faintly resembling the current American diet on "Eaarth" is fooling themselves, and this should be the starting point, not a casual aside.Moreover, so far as staying warm in the winter goes, he advocates using wood. He acknowledges not everyone can "do" wood, but he misses the essential point: biofuels, including wood, can't begin to meet current energy needs. The vast preponderance of the needed approach lies elsewhere: like, using less energy. The one important point in the second half that I agree with is his comments about the internet. Of all the toys of industrial civilization, this is the one we will probably keep, although it's quite energy intensive and takes a lot of obscure metals. So we may be vegans employed on the organic farm living in our communal super-insulated housing and playing music for each other in the evening, but we'll still have computers and the internet. In short, I can confidently recommend the first half of the book for which I would give five stars, but when he starts getting into specifics, he starts to stumble.
The book begins with a terrifying new reality for earth, but McKibbon guides his readers through to very real and practical solutions to living on an unpredictable planet. The author of 'Weather Makers,' Tim Flannery, states, "Bill McKibben is the most effective environmental activist of our age, anyone interested in making a difference to our world can learn from him. I highly recommend this book.
Don't know what the significance of 350 ppm is? READ THIS BOOK! It's important!
Mankind has irreparably changed the Earth’s climate and weather conditions. This book gives the details, and tells how to survive on this new world.The Earth that mankind knew, and grew up on, is gone. A new planet needs a new name; hence Eaarth. It is a place of poles where the ice caps are severely reduced, or gone. It is a place where the oceans are becoming more acid, because of excess carbon absorbed into the water, not to mention the toxic chemicals and other pollutants being dumped into it. It is a place of more extreme weather patterns.The average person might not care if an entire glacier completely melts away, like the Chacaltaya Glacier in Bolivia. Those living downstream, dependent on that glacier for their water supply, will certainly care. Since 1980, the tropics have expanded worldwide by 2 degrees north and south. Over 8 million more square miles of land are now tropical, with dry subtropics pushing ahead of them. The chances of Lake Mead, which is behind Hoover Dam, running dry in the next 10 years, have reached 50 percent. The residents of an oceanside town in North Carolina are spending up to $30,000 each to place large sandbags in front of their homes to keep the ocean at bay.The times when America, or the world, can simply grow its way out of its financial problems are gone forever. Building enough nuclear power plants to get rid of even a tenth of the climate change problem will cost at least $8 trillion. According to one estimate, America needs to spend over $200 billion a year for decades, just on infrastructure, to avoid the kind of gridlock that will collapse the economy. A small village in Alaska is being evacuated, because of rising sea levels, at a cost of $400,000 per person. There is not enough money on Earth to evacuate everyone threatened by rising sea levels.What to do? Some people are taking another look at small-scale agriculture, getting away from a dependence on artificial chemicals and fertilizer. Eliminate the middlemen, like advertising and transport, and put more money in the farmer’s pocket. Along with local agriculture, consider local power generation.This is a really eye-opening book. The first half is pretty bleak, showing just how bad things have gotten. But, there is plenty of hope in the second half of the book. It is very much recommended.
This book is not an attempt to educate or persuade skeptics about the reality of climate change; there are many books that do that. McKibben takes the reality of climate change as a given – which is entirely reasonable given the strength of the scientific consensus about climate change, which is as clear and solid as anything science can produce. Instead, the book is about the consequences of climate change and what they will mean for the way we live. McKibben persuasively argues that it is to late too avoid significant impacts from global warming, which are becoming increasingly evident and will inevitably worsen in the coming decades - though we must act quickly reign in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid a global catastrophe. McKibben then makes the case that the complex, interconnected global economy of endless growth that we have grown accustomed to is no longer viable, and that a society organized around smaller, more localized economies to sustainably provide for basic human needs provides the best hope for adapting to the challenges of this new planet. McKibben may not be have all of the answers, but he is surely asking the right questions. What is clear is that our way of life will inevitably change; the endless growth of the global economy simply cannot continue indefinitely. The question is whether we will fearfully try to pretend that we can go on this way forever until society crashes into panic and chaos, or whether we will have the courage and foresight to acknowledge that it must inevitably change and fashion a simpler, more solid and sustainable way of life to take its place. We need to be thinking and talking about this now, and this book is a good place to start.
This is an important book that I hope many will read. McKibben makes it clear that global warming isn't coming, it's here. The 1st half is a bit scary, the 2nd gives some good ideas on what we will need to do to cope.
Wonderful, enlightening! It has really made me think, do something.