mercyp's review
3.0
Despite some great passages, this book got boring quickly. I think it would have worked better as a series of short essays rather than three big chapters. I felt like there was quite a bit of repetition, but overall great insights into the realities of climate change and its place in the current literary scene.
zararah's review
informative
slow-paced
3.5
An interesting discussion of climate and climate narratives, but - this might be more about my expectations than it is about the book itself – it was less informative about climate justice issues than I was expecting, or hoping for.
erintby's review
4.0
I didn't really know what to expect from this book. I thought a book about how fiction has failed to adequately imagine a world with climate change seemed like a very specific thesis. Which it is. But it's excellently argued.
Ghosh writes that, "At exactly the time when it has become clear that global warming is in every sense a collective predicament, humanity finds itself in the thrall of a dominant culture in which the idea of the collective has been exiled in politics, economics, and literature alike."
He explores the problems with framing climate change as an individual moral issue, rather than a collective global one. If we allow climate change to be relegated to the realm of individual conscience (i.e. calling out climate activists for the number of lightbulbs in their homes), then we are accepting the neoliberal framework and committing a form of collective suicide.
I was also intrigued by one of his concluding thoughts, that the acceptance of limits and limitations is intimately related to conceptions of the sacred. This is important. There is space for and a vast need for religious organizations and movements to recognize why global collective action is expedient. We need to make more room in our faith for earth stewardship, recognizing the need for repentance and justice in our actions towards mother Earth and all of her children.
Ghosh writes that, "At exactly the time when it has become clear that global warming is in every sense a collective predicament, humanity finds itself in the thrall of a dominant culture in which the idea of the collective has been exiled in politics, economics, and literature alike."
He explores the problems with framing climate change as an individual moral issue, rather than a collective global one. If we allow climate change to be relegated to the realm of individual conscience (i.e. calling out climate activists for the number of lightbulbs in their homes), then we are accepting the neoliberal framework and committing a form of collective suicide.
I was also intrigued by one of his concluding thoughts, that the acceptance of limits and limitations is intimately related to conceptions of the sacred. This is important. There is space for and a vast need for religious organizations and movements to recognize why global collective action is expedient. We need to make more room in our faith for earth stewardship, recognizing the need for repentance and justice in our actions towards mother Earth and all of her children.
elsiebrady's review
4.0
Such an interesting approach to Climate Change. The topic is very depressing but he offers hope at the end. Hope in humanity but the grand disappointment is that since this was printed in 2016 the US president has declared Climate Change a farce and pulled out of the Paris Agreement (which wasn't perfect but at least a start). The American people are in denial but as Ghosh points out that is related to our Eurocentric egoism: the I v. Community mentality. There is no incentive for the individual in a carbon consuming country to reduce emissions. Warnings began as early as 1930 but world powers, imperialism, free market (is there really such a thing) and egocentric consumers have ignored or invalidated the scientific research suggesting our need to change. One thing of which I am certain: the earth will survive, she will just eradicate all those who have contributed to her demise and many who have not even had an opportunity to contribute but are more unjustly affected by the changes.
altayyuce's review
5.0
If you're interested in climate change, and are interested in writing and literature, you should read this book.
tillytom's review
3.0
I had to read this for school. I thought it was really great, especially as far a school books go. There are a lot of big ideas and it's a compelling look at the Anthropocene and how it has been shaped.