A review by marginaliant
We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer
1.0
Book thesis: Since animal-related emissions are such an enormous contributor to climate change, the most impactful thing the average first-world person can do to help is to go vegan for breakfast and lunch and eat a minimal amount of meat/animal products at dinner. Also, maybe don't drive a car, fly, or have a bunch of kids, if it's all the same to you.
Now you don't have to read this book.
This is the most insufferable writing I have experienced in many, many months. Christ almighty. Who okayed this? The first section is Foer finding infinite ways to say "We let ambulances pass, why don't we care about the climate?" "We put our lights out during World War II, why don't we care about the climate?" On repeat.
Around the mid-point of the book he comes to the conclusion that it's because the climate catastrophe is too abstract, too big, too far away, for the average first-world citizen to get invested in more than their ordinary creature comforts. Then, he falls down this weird nihilist pit and writes a dialogue back and forth with himself about how impossible it is and how nothing will change and how it's hopeless.
Here is a sample of this dialogue that will be imprinted on my mind for many weeks to come. Thanks Foer:
"-Do you know why ostriches bury their heads in the sand?
-Because they think no one can see them if they can't see anyone.
-Pretty dumb, right? Except ostriches don't bury their heads in the sand--they bury their eggs for warmth and protection, and occasionally submerge their heads to turn them. Humans look at ostriches caring for their offspring and mistake it for stupidity. But we are the animals who assume that the world goes dark when we close our eyes."
Next Foer will be telling me that we live in a society.
This book adds less than nothing to any kind of dialogue about climate change. I am baffled by its existence.
Now you don't have to read this book.
This is the most insufferable writing I have experienced in many, many months. Christ almighty. Who okayed this? The first section is Foer finding infinite ways to say "We let ambulances pass, why don't we care about the climate?" "We put our lights out during World War II, why don't we care about the climate?" On repeat.
Around the mid-point of the book he comes to the conclusion that it's because the climate catastrophe is too abstract, too big, too far away, for the average first-world citizen to get invested in more than their ordinary creature comforts. Then, he falls down this weird nihilist pit and writes a dialogue back and forth with himself about how impossible it is and how nothing will change and how it's hopeless.
Here is a sample of this dialogue that will be imprinted on my mind for many weeks to come. Thanks Foer:
"-Do you know why ostriches bury their heads in the sand?
-Because they think no one can see them if they can't see anyone.
-Pretty dumb, right? Except ostriches don't bury their heads in the sand--they bury their eggs for warmth and protection, and occasionally submerge their heads to turn them. Humans look at ostriches caring for their offspring and mistake it for stupidity. But we are the animals who assume that the world goes dark when we close our eyes."
Next Foer will be telling me that we live in a society.
This book adds less than nothing to any kind of dialogue about climate change. I am baffled by its existence.