Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Kolbert
Field Notes from a Catastrophe (2006)
by Elizabeth Kolbert
210 pages - Bloomsbury
This is a book that takes an overview of the issue of Global Warming. The author visits sites and talks to people, discusses some of the history of the science around CO2 in the atmosphere, and talks about some of the political initiatives and their limited success. This book was born out of a series of magazine articles, and some of that tone still remains in what sometimes seem like odd or inappropriate comments, such as often remarking on a person's physical appearance or personal habits before letting them present what they have to say.
I suppose you could call me a sceptic in regards to the whole 'climate change' issue. Just as it's hubris to just pollute without restraint, it's also hubris to think that we really understand very much of anything about how our planet operates, and what causes things such as ice ages. Global Warming has become a sort of monster political issue that, in crossing over into popular consciousness, has really lost much of its sense of reality; the fact that we're living on a world that's constantly changing, and that humans and the environment are not some kind of isolated components, but we're actually indespensable to each other, and have each, so to speak, created the other. It's also become an issue that has steamrolled other environmental issues, be they biodiversity, air quality, toxins, waste, or anything else that contributes to quality of life.
I will say that this book helped me understand a bit more of the science of CO2, and why scientists feel we've reached a tipping point that will be hard to retreat back from. And it was a pretty quick and fairly painless read. It's not that I doubt that a lot of the ways we live have a negative effect, it's that I doubt our ability to intellectually comprehend what is happening.
by Elizabeth Kolbert
210 pages - Bloomsbury
This is a book that takes an overview of the issue of Global Warming. The author visits sites and talks to people, discusses some of the history of the science around CO2 in the atmosphere, and talks about some of the political initiatives and their limited success. This book was born out of a series of magazine articles, and some of that tone still remains in what sometimes seem like odd or inappropriate comments, such as often remarking on a person's physical appearance or personal habits before letting them present what they have to say.
I suppose you could call me a sceptic in regards to the whole 'climate change' issue. Just as it's hubris to just pollute without restraint, it's also hubris to think that we really understand very much of anything about how our planet operates, and what causes things such as ice ages. Global Warming has become a sort of monster political issue that, in crossing over into popular consciousness, has really lost much of its sense of reality; the fact that we're living on a world that's constantly changing, and that humans and the environment are not some kind of isolated components, but we're actually indespensable to each other, and have each, so to speak, created the other. It's also become an issue that has steamrolled other environmental issues, be they biodiversity, air quality, toxins, waste, or anything else that contributes to quality of life.
I will say that this book helped me understand a bit more of the science of CO2, and why scientists feel we've reached a tipping point that will be hard to retreat back from. And it was a pretty quick and fairly painless read. It's not that I doubt that a lot of the ways we live have a negative effect, it's that I doubt our ability to intellectually comprehend what is happening.