lucyfw's review against another edition
4.0
4.5/5*
*review originally posted at https://lucywalker17181.wixsite.com/whatlucyreads/home/review-the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells*
The Uninhabitable Earth is the kind of book that can change your life; the kind of book that'll shift your world on its axis. Or at least, it should. David Wallace-Wells chronicles the dark future that lies ahead of us - and, indeed, the dangerous times we are living in right now - should we continue along our current fossil-fuel-guzzling, indiscriminately-industrialising trajectory. He takes the shifting, somewhat incomprehensible spectre of climate change that haunts so many of us, and he shows it in the stark light of day. It's impossible to read this book and not be at least slightly affected by it.
What Wallace-Wells does well is capturing the utterly gargantuan scale of the climate problem. I feel part of the issue when it comes to global warming is that a lot of us are struck with a kind of inertia. The problem we are trying to take on is so huge, so complicated, and so closely tangled up in the way human civilisation operates, that we have no idea what to do - even when we want to do something - so we simply end up doing nothing at all. Wallace-Wells takes us methodically through every (or almost every) consequence of climate change from the obvious to the implicit, and in doing so, he says, "hey, this is what's happening; this is why it's happening; and this is what we ought to be doing about it." Unlike many climate change texts that overly focus on only one aspect of the problem, Wallace-Wells' approach actually inspires action (or, should I say, it will, once you've recovered from the bout of utter hopelessness you'll feel while actually reading this book), because it puts climate change firmly in context. For the first time, I feel like I can actually begin to see the whole issue, and so maybe - just maybe - I can do something about it.
If I had a criticism of this book (and I do - that's why it dropped half a star), it's that Wallace-Wells took an almost too egalitarian view of climate change responsibility, or as he calls it, "climate change guilt." Wallace-Wells certainly acknowledges that particular countries shoulder more "guilt" than others - China being primarily at fault - but he does not seem to distinguish, beyond the national level, exactly who carries the greatest obligation to combat climate change. Indeed, it is not China's rural poor whom we ought to be looking down our noses at for their irresponsible fossil fuel consumption. Rather, it is the Chinese government and the monstrous China-based multi-national corporations that carry the vast majority of responsibility for China's massive carbon footprint. It is governments and corporations who carry the power to make the structural changes required to halt climate change, and they too are the ones causing more global warming than every individual on this planet combined. Wallace-Wells scarcely, if ever, recognises this individual/organisation distinction in The Uninhabitable World. In fact, his tone very often feels accusatory, as if it is the reader herself who ought to feel ashamed for her planet-destroying actions. And perhaps she should, but personally I don't feel half as ashamed of myself as I do of my government. As such, this was not a five-star read for me.
That said, even though Wallace-Wells seems to neglect the extremely uneven distribution of climate change responsibility, it does not feel as though he ignores it completely. Indeed, this idea does seem to run through the book as an undertone, even though Wallace-Wells doesn't give it the attention it deserves. Overall, then, I definitely recommend this book. It will haunt you, it will affect you, and hopefully - on reflection - it will inspire you. If you're looking to read more non-fiction, pick this up. Oh, and if audiobooks are your thing, I recommend The Uninhabitable Earth on audio. Wallace-Wells narrates it himself and it's great. Happy reading, and don't forget, our planet is dying and we only have a matter of years to do something about it! Yay!
*review originally posted at https://lucywalker17181.wixsite.com/whatlucyreads/home/review-the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells*
The Uninhabitable Earth is the kind of book that can change your life; the kind of book that'll shift your world on its axis. Or at least, it should. David Wallace-Wells chronicles the dark future that lies ahead of us - and, indeed, the dangerous times we are living in right now - should we continue along our current fossil-fuel-guzzling, indiscriminately-industrialising trajectory. He takes the shifting, somewhat incomprehensible spectre of climate change that haunts so many of us, and he shows it in the stark light of day. It's impossible to read this book and not be at least slightly affected by it.
What Wallace-Wells does well is capturing the utterly gargantuan scale of the climate problem. I feel part of the issue when it comes to global warming is that a lot of us are struck with a kind of inertia. The problem we are trying to take on is so huge, so complicated, and so closely tangled up in the way human civilisation operates, that we have no idea what to do - even when we want to do something - so we simply end up doing nothing at all. Wallace-Wells takes us methodically through every (or almost every) consequence of climate change from the obvious to the implicit, and in doing so, he says, "hey, this is what's happening; this is why it's happening; and this is what we ought to be doing about it." Unlike many climate change texts that overly focus on only one aspect of the problem, Wallace-Wells' approach actually inspires action (or, should I say, it will, once you've recovered from the bout of utter hopelessness you'll feel while actually reading this book), because it puts climate change firmly in context. For the first time, I feel like I can actually begin to see the whole issue, and so maybe - just maybe - I can do something about it.
If I had a criticism of this book (and I do - that's why it dropped half a star), it's that Wallace-Wells took an almost too egalitarian view of climate change responsibility, or as he calls it, "climate change guilt." Wallace-Wells certainly acknowledges that particular countries shoulder more "guilt" than others - China being primarily at fault - but he does not seem to distinguish, beyond the national level, exactly who carries the greatest obligation to combat climate change. Indeed, it is not China's rural poor whom we ought to be looking down our noses at for their irresponsible fossil fuel consumption. Rather, it is the Chinese government and the monstrous China-based multi-national corporations that carry the vast majority of responsibility for China's massive carbon footprint. It is governments and corporations who carry the power to make the structural changes required to halt climate change, and they too are the ones causing more global warming than every individual on this planet combined. Wallace-Wells scarcely, if ever, recognises this individual/organisation distinction in The Uninhabitable World. In fact, his tone very often feels accusatory, as if it is the reader herself who ought to feel ashamed for her planet-destroying actions. And perhaps she should, but personally I don't feel half as ashamed of myself as I do of my government. As such, this was not a five-star read for me.
That said, even though Wallace-Wells seems to neglect the extremely uneven distribution of climate change responsibility, it does not feel as though he ignores it completely. Indeed, this idea does seem to run through the book as an undertone, even though Wallace-Wells doesn't give it the attention it deserves. Overall, then, I definitely recommend this book. It will haunt you, it will affect you, and hopefully - on reflection - it will inspire you. If you're looking to read more non-fiction, pick this up. Oh, and if audiobooks are your thing, I recommend The Uninhabitable Earth on audio. Wallace-Wells narrates it himself and it's great. Happy reading, and don't forget, our planet is dying and we only have a matter of years to do something about it! Yay!
dixiet's review against another edition
4.0
Hard truths about where the world is heading, at breakneck speed.
avscarlett's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
alexisgarcia's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
this was very informative but it was a tough read. make sure you’re in a good head space because this is incredibly depressing.
ealish's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I’m terrified. Changed my life. 5 stars.
sebswann's review against another edition
4.0
“The devastation we are now seeing all around us is a beyond-best-case scenario for the future of warming and all the climate disasters it will bring.”
“...this means we have now done as much damage to the environment knowingly as we ever managed in ignorance.”
If you like books about climate change; Wallace-Wells details an alarmist and realistic view of what the world will look like if we continue maintain our current course of reckless actions and policy, and utter disregard for the planet’s wellbeing. A reminder of the vitalness of constant vigilance and the necessity of an immediate reimagining, remodeling, and restructuring of humans impact on the climate.
“...this means we have now done as much damage to the environment knowingly as we ever managed in ignorance.”
If you like books about climate change; Wallace-Wells details an alarmist and realistic view of what the world will look like if we continue maintain our current course of reckless actions and policy, and utter disregard for the planet’s wellbeing. A reminder of the vitalness of constant vigilance and the necessity of an immediate reimagining, remodeling, and restructuring of humans impact on the climate.
vitsa's review against another edition
3.0
I was expecting this to be a five star read and it really should have been. It is a book filled with fascinating and terrifying information about the way our climate is changing. But this was practically unreadable. It was a guide on how not to write non fiction. The author just threw facts and statistics at the reader with minimal analysis. There were so many insteresting things said and he never took the time to develop and dwell a little deeper, the let us make an emotional connection to what we was talking about. You could take any of the chapters in the first section and make a book of them. Air pollution affects cognitive function, that’s scary, give us a bit more context, something to connect too. Large swaths of the ocean are dying, that is so fascinating, why didn’t we spend a bit more time on that and what it means for the various things that lived there. rHe tried to encompass too much and the result was a dense, difficult and damn painful book to read, and I don’t mean because of how terrifying the facts of climate change are.
It improved a bit towards the end. I liked the section about where were heading in the future and all the ways humanity is trying to avoid instead of solve the problem. I am looking forward to the tv adaptation, I expect they can take this mass of information and make it a bit more suited for us the everyday consumer.
It improved a bit towards the end. I liked the section about where were heading in the future and all the ways humanity is trying to avoid instead of solve the problem. I am looking forward to the tv adaptation, I expect they can take this mass of information and make it a bit more suited for us the everyday consumer.
guinness74's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
tense
slow-paced
4.0
A terrifying read that spells out the dangers, the disastrous effects, the cataclysmic reality of global warming if we don’t start now to mitigate what we’ve done (and continue to do) to this planet. And, it’s all of us. Our dependency on this current way of life will destroy us, but we have the power and knowledge to begin to reverse the damage, we just have to have the will, both personal and political.
Content Warnings
Minor: War