A review by detailsandtales
Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet by Mark Lynas

4.0

I read this book as research for a novel I thought I was about to write. By the time I finished reading it, I had already figured out that this November would be dedicated to writing a different novel instead. By that point, however, I'd gotten pretty far into the book and determined that it was a detailed, readable description of all of the terrible things that will happen to our planet if we don't change our energy consumption habits. It's a depressing, scary picture, and one I can't quite wrap my head around as being true, but it was presented in a clear, memorable way with concrete examples from the past and specific descriptions of how we might or will be impacted in the future. Oddly, the biggest thing that bothered me is no fault of the author - it's that the book is 8 years old, and I know that so much might have changed in the intervening years. How far along the path are we now compared to then? What would he say about Superstorm Sandy's impact on New York City and its surroundings? Was that the kind of storm he was talking about in one of his earlier chapters? I wonder what Lynas would have to add if he were writing an updated version of the book today.