Book Review: The End of Nature
The End of Nature by Bill McKibben. (Amazon)
For many people Al Gore's 2006 book and film An Inconvenient Truth is a wake-up call for humanity, that it must change its ways in order to halt global warming. For others this wake-up call came 15 years ago with Bill McKibben's publication of The End of Nature. This gap illustrates not only how slow change is but how hard it is for something to be accepted before it even leads to change. For years global warming was pushed aside "for further investigation," with economic well-being taking precedence over ecological well-being. So now we are slowly coming to realize that (along with social well-being) they are not only linked but necessary to each other in our current situation. The days of ignoring the environment are over and that decision is not up to us.
Reading McKibben's book for the first time recently, I was amazed at the ease and clarity of his writing, even though he's basically presenting scientific ideas, facts, and figures. Like many great books and authors, he appeals to the general audience without dumbing anything down to the least common denominator. The end of nature that McKibben refers to is not the end of forests, or oceans, or animals, but the end of a place where humans do not have an impact. Well before his book humans had touched and affected most of the earth with their feet and hands, minus places like the deepest ocean floors. But then humans affected the atmosphere, not directly of course but via carbon output, chlorofluorocarbons, and other off-gases of industrial processes. What was once the one thing humans couldn't touch, global warming proved we had finally altered it, the weather. And if that realization is not a call to arms then I don't know what is.
For many people Al Gore's 2006 book and film An Inconvenient Truth is a wake-up call for humanity, that it must change its ways in order to halt global warming. For others this wake-up call came 15 years ago with Bill McKibben's publication of The End of Nature. This gap illustrates not only how slow change is but how hard it is for something to be accepted before it even leads to change. For years global warming was pushed aside "for further investigation," with economic well-being taking precedence over ecological well-being. So now we are slowly coming to realize that (along with social well-being) they are not only linked but necessary to each other in our current situation. The days of ignoring the environment are over and that decision is not up to us.
Reading McKibben's book for the first time recently, I was amazed at the ease and clarity of his writing, even though he's basically presenting scientific ideas, facts, and figures. Like many great books and authors, he appeals to the general audience without dumbing anything down to the least common denominator. The end of nature that McKibben refers to is not the end of forests, or oceans, or animals, but the end of a place where humans do not have an impact. Well before his book humans had touched and affected most of the earth with their feet and hands, minus places like the deepest ocean floors. But then humans affected the atmosphere, not directly of course but via carbon output, chlorofluorocarbons, and other off-gases of industrial processes. What was once the one thing humans couldn't touch, global warming proved we had finally altered it, the weather. And if that realization is not a call to arms then I don't know what is.
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