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A review by lillian1998
The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
5.0
This is the first climate book I was able to get through. Books about climate change faces the unique challenge of walking the thin line between hope and despair, between statistics and real life, and between the big societal picture and the individual action. This book manages to find the correct balance that draws me in, teaches me something new, puts it in perspective, and proposes possible solutions.
The Story of More provides a good overview of how far the world came in the last 50 years (the author repeats, she was born in 1969), looking at the human population, our consumption of food and energy, our creation of waste, our animal companions, the environment, and so on. Huge, unfathomable numbers (however many billion tons of who and the what now) are broken down into per capita numbers that are more relatable (the amount of garbage we generate on average, per person, relative to our own weights). Woven through the statistics are the author’s own anecdotes from childhood - how the weather has changed, how she was connected to the land as a child - and that brings forth the little changes I’ve noticed and brushed off myself.
The book ultimately takes an individual-first approach. If we all reduce consumption, the author posits, there is hope. While the individual effort is surely not futile, I struggle to see how it can be enough. Redistribution of goods may solve world hunger, but there are still a few steps, or, dare I say, *cliffs* to surmount before excess goods can be distributed equitably rather than just being turned for a profit some other way.
The Story of More tells one piece of the puzzle of climate change, that, in my opinion, ought to be supplemented with other readings, but it does a good job of telling the story it set out to tell.
The Story of More provides a good overview of how far the world came in the last 50 years (the author repeats, she was born in 1969), looking at the human population, our consumption of food and energy, our creation of waste, our animal companions, the environment, and so on. Huge, unfathomable numbers (however many billion tons of who and the what now) are broken down into per capita numbers that are more relatable (the amount of garbage we generate on average, per person, relative to our own weights). Woven through the statistics are the author’s own anecdotes from childhood - how the weather has changed, how she was connected to the land as a child - and that brings forth the little changes I’ve noticed and brushed off myself.
The book ultimately takes an individual-first approach. If we all reduce consumption, the author posits, there is hope. While the individual effort is surely not futile, I struggle to see how it can be enough. Redistribution of goods may solve world hunger, but there are still a few steps, or, dare I say, *cliffs* to surmount before excess goods can be distributed equitably rather than just being turned for a profit some other way.
The Story of More tells one piece of the puzzle of climate change, that, in my opinion, ought to be supplemented with other readings, but it does a good job of telling the story it set out to tell.