Reviews with content warning for Suicide - We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast, by Jonathan Safran Foer

29 reviews

thebearlinwall's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

2.5

Not sure if I didn't like it because of the audiobook or the writing, or that I'm not the intended audience but I found it condescending, sanctimonious, and generally not a helpful perspective

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rebekahdevlin's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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texassizedreads's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

While I appreciated and agreed with the overall message of the book and what he was trying to inspire in the reader, there were several times where he made some scientifically innacurate statements. Not even about climate statistics but basic things like displacement theory. I don’t think that makes his argument any less important, but as someone with a scientific background it certainly bothered me. I could also see people using the incorrect statements as a reason to discredit the book as a whole, so I wish he would edit those things and make a new edition. I also didn’t appreciate the several instances of fatphobia.

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amelie09's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective

5.0

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srandall's review against another edition

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4.0

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laceycrean's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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marisa_n's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced

2.0

Never before have I read a book where the author makes so many good points while simultaneously coming off as completely unhinged.

I had such high hopes for this book. In the first chapter, Foer argues that our failure to address climate change is really a failure of storytelling-- arguing that climate change advocates have failed to capture the publics attention, imagination, and sense of responsibility...

... and then he proceeds to spout out every statistic about climate change he can find, has a full-blown 45 min argument with himself to give up animal products, and continually compares the threat of climate change to the holocaust. The whole thing felt bizarre, rambling, & self-indulgent.

I think some of his points were solid, including:
-The citizens of the wealthiest countries are living unsustainable lifestyles, and the citizens of LMICs will be impacted the most by climate change
- We all need to significantly reduce our meat consumption, as it's one of the biggest causes of pollution & resource consumption (ex: no animal products before dinner)
- Individuals (esp of wealthy countries) should fly less, use public transit more, have fewer children, & vote for politicians committed to addressing climate change

Despite the importance of these points, Foer really hurt his own argument with his bizarre tangents & self-centered narrative. This book is an example of all the strategies you should not use when persuading others to change their behavior.

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