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petrichor2580's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars
This book took me about a year anda half to read, though not through any fault of the content or the writing itself. Each time I picked it up again, I was entranced - the collection of facts and figures was concise and clear, and were presented in such a way as to convey, in real life terms, what exactly they meant; where most simply stated, this book explained. That being said, the onslaught of fact after fact could become rather tiring at places and detracted from the necessity of the main messages, though the areas in the book where this was displayed were short and few.
This book took me about a year anda half to read, though not through any fault of the content or the writing itself. Each time I picked it up again, I was entranced - the collection of facts and figures was concise and clear, and were presented in such a way as to convey, in real life terms, what exactly they meant; where most simply stated, this book explained. That being said, the onslaught of fact after fact could become rather tiring at places and detracted from the necessity of the main messages, though the areas in the book where this was displayed were short and few.
tarduslectorum's review against another edition
5.0
Required reading in the year 2020. I'm not interested in climate science, but understanding what's coming for us -- and what needs to be done to stop it -- is a worthy endeavor.
crackedchelle's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.75
We all need to read this
booksaremyparadise's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Very depressing, but I guess it just shows what we're headed to. And I'm not seeing much hope here to be honest.
sams84's review against another edition
5.0
While this book does not delve into the science of climate change, or much in the way of possible solutions, it is a clear and powerful statement to all of us that we need to get a grip and start properly and fully making significant changes to address this issue. Many reviews have described this as a worst-case scenario, it really isn't. It describes the approximate path we are currently on based on the effort, or lack thereof, we, individually and collectively, are putting in to address the drivers of climate change that we have control over. The scenario does cover the 1.5 to 4 deg C of warming as that is the range we are currently looking at, depending on what we do in the coming decade. The worst-case scenario is easily doubles the top end of this.
Having depressed you with that, Wallace-Wells does hold a certain degree of optimism that we can make the necessary changes to avoid catastrophic warming (and yes, anything over 2 degrees will be pretty catastrophic, for us not just the current environment (the planet will be fine)). However, this is only true if we accept reality and stop waiting for technology to save us, or provide a quick fix that let's us carry on as we are. This is not an option as Wallace-Wells demonstrates, and this type of thinking is what has led us to such a critical juncture in our history as a species.
While I did find some of this text a little repetitive, given that the IPCC has been highlighting this very problem for nearly 4 decades, clearly it is a message that needs to be said again, and again, and again (I can sympathize with this as I have to do the same in my work, stating the same obvious thing over and over again as many people just do not care, or are too concerned about their own immediate benefits, or believe humans to be all important to the detriment of everything else, depending how cynical you wish to be). Wallace-Wells has clearly done his research and translates this into as clear a message as I have read, although I suspect for some it is still not clear enough.
Having depressed you with that, Wallace-Wells does hold a certain degree of optimism that we can make the necessary changes to avoid catastrophic warming (and yes, anything over 2 degrees will be pretty catastrophic, for us not just the current environment (the planet will be fine)). However, this is only true if we accept reality and stop waiting for technology to save us, or provide a quick fix that let's us carry on as we are. This is not an option as Wallace-Wells demonstrates, and this type of thinking is what has led us to such a critical juncture in our history as a species.
While I did find some of this text a little repetitive, given that the IPCC has been highlighting this very problem for nearly 4 decades, clearly it is a message that needs to be said again, and again, and again (I can sympathize with this as I have to do the same in my work, stating the same obvious thing over and over again as many people just do not care, or are too concerned about their own immediate benefits, or believe humans to be all important to the detriment of everything else, depending how cynical you wish to be). Wallace-Wells has clearly done his research and translates this into as clear a message as I have read, although I suspect for some it is still not clear enough.
soph_naughton's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
rosalindpoet's review against another edition
4.0
this has a lot of good data presented in a useful way but it is uhhh. very liberal in that it pretends to be impartial in some places (ie presenting the far right and the left as ideological equals, both distastefully extreme) and presents its partiality as the only legitimate way of approaching this issue in others. also some of the statistics presented did seem a bit suspect to me, I'd have to look at them but off the top of my head he was like "1/4 of wars start in extreme weather months" as though it was great evidence but like... 1/4 of months are extreme weather months so I don't really understand what you're trying to prove with that one. the last chapter tried to be all uplifting but overall this is a book that's outlining exactly why people should feel absolute despair and trying to act like liberalism will mitigate that just... isn't convincing. I can't in good conscience recommend this to anyone; it's very depressing and doesn't offer concrete solutions beyond, like, carbon taxes, instead making me feel far more nihilistic about climate change than when I first picked it up. i feel like you can get the same data from google without getting your willpower browbeaten out of you in the process.