PDF Losing Earth A Recent History Nathaniel Rich 9780374191337 Books
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By 1979, we knew nearly everything we understand today about climate change―including how to stop it. Over the next decade, a handful of scientists, politicians, and strategists, led by two unlikely heroes, risked their careers in a desperate, escalating campaign to convince the world to act before it was too late. Losing Earth is their story, and ours.
The New York Times Magazine devoted an entire issue to Nathaniel Rich’s groundbreaking chronicle of that decade, which became an instant journalistic phenomenon―the subject of news coverage, editorials, and conversations all over the world. In its emphasis on the lives of the people who grappled with the great existential threat of our age, it made vivid the moral dimensions of our shared plight.
Now expanded into book form, Losing Earth tells the human story of climate change in even richer, more intimate terms. It reveals, in previously unreported detail, the birth of climate denialism and the genesis of the fossil fuel industry’s coordinated effort to thwart climate policy through misinformation propaganda and political influence. The book carries the story into the present day, wrestling with the long shadow of our past failures and asking crucial questions about how we make sense of our past, our future, and ourselves.
Like John Hersey’s Hiroshima and Jonathan Schell’s The Fate of the Earth, Losing Earth is the rarest of achievements a riveting work of dramatic history that articulates a moral framework for understanding how we got here, and how we must go forward.
PDF Losing Earth A Recent History Nathaniel Rich 9780374191337 Books
"In 1979, scientists learned everything we needed to know about Earth's changing climate and the human factors that have led to it. Not much has changed, scientifically, in the intervening years. Our predictive models have gotten better, and, if anything, we've learned that the original estimates offered by scientists regarding warming trends were too generous.
Nathaniel Rich explores the decade of 1979-1989, when global warming first came into the public purview and scientists and some politicians attempted to begin curbing carbon emissions and atmospheric pollution contributing to the rise of greenhouse gases that will, inarguably, have severe effects on human survival and extreme weather effects upon the Earth. It's also the decade that, despite George Herbert Walker Bush running on a pro-environmental campaign, that the GOP became the party of science denialism.
Narrating all this is Matt Godfrey, whose narration is crisp and even-keel. Rich writes in a highly accessible manner, avoiding technical and scientific jargon, and Godfrey's narration follows a similar For Everyone approach. It's not highly dramatized, but simple and to the point. It's very well done.
It's a chilling account, and also one that is deeply disheartening. The scientific consensus on the validity of climate change is there -- 97% of all the world's scientific community agrees that it is real and that humans are the cause), regardless of what right-wing politicians, conservative commentators, and businesses that have grown fat and rich off the production of fossil fuels would have you believe. One of the arching themes of LOSING EARTH surrounds the economy of climate change, and whether or not humanity as a collective will allow itself to suffer short-term pains in order to ensure long-term benefits. Sadly, the answer, as is obvious to anybody that's been paying attention, is no, we will not. Humanity simply doesn't care enough about its long-term survival. We are too greedy to care about the world we leave behind for future generations. Greed rules all. Greed will, ultimately, destroy us. With 2018 the fourth hottest year on record, the science is clear. We are on the brink. Maybe -- maybe -- scientific advancements might come along to help us, but it's hardly a guarantee. We had our chance to save ourselves, and we squandered it."
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Losing Earth A Recent History Nathaniel Rich 9780374191337 Books Reviews :
Losing Earth A Recent History Nathaniel Rich 9780374191337 Books Reviews
- It's hugely discouraging to look around at the enormous problems humanity is facing, and see so many powerful people flatly refusing to work toward solutions. How can it be that we as a species are not better at learning from history by now? Books like this one are an opportunity for a way forward. Reading Nathaniel Rich helps me regain the energy to continue working every day to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
Anybody who's come back from failure knows how important to future success it is to look at that failure with open eyes. Let's hope humanity is paying attention to this book. - The author points out the steps taken by the Reagan Administration to knee-cap all environmental regulations and turn the country over to the fossil fuel industry. Mr. Trump seems to be following the same playbook - literally.
I remember when Watt was named Secretary of Interior, it was like naming Charles Manson Secretary of Mental Health. We made it through that time, but we didn't have the likes of Fox News or social media trolls spreading their conspiracy theories back then. I'm even more terrified that this time we may already be too late. - In 1979, scientists learned everything we needed to know about Earth's changing climate and the human factors that have led to it. Not much has changed, scientifically, in the intervening years. Our predictive models have gotten better, and, if anything, we've learned that the original estimates offered by scientists regarding warming trends were too generous.
Nathaniel Rich explores the decade of 1979-1989, when global warming first came into the public purview and scientists and some politicians attempted to begin curbing carbon emissions and atmospheric pollution contributing to the rise of greenhouse gases that will, inarguably, have severe effects on human survival and extreme weather effects upon the Earth. It's also the decade that, despite George Herbert Walker Bush running on a pro-environmental campaign, that the GOP became the party of science denialism.
Narrating all this is Matt Godfrey, whose narration is crisp and even-keel. Rich writes in a highly accessible manner, avoiding technical and scientific jargon, and Godfrey's narration follows a similar For Everyone approach. It's not highly dramatized, but simple and to the point. It's very well done.
It's a chilling account, and also one that is deeply disheartening. The scientific consensus on the validity of climate change is there -- 97% of all the world's scientific community agrees that it is real and that humans are the cause), regardless of what right-wing politicians, conservative commentators, and businesses that have grown fat and rich off the production of fossil fuels would have you believe. One of the arching themes of LOSING EARTH surrounds the economy of climate change, and whether or not humanity as a collective will allow itself to suffer short-term pains in order to ensure long-term benefits. Sadly, the answer, as is obvious to anybody that's been paying attention, is no, we will not. Humanity simply doesn't care enough about its long-term survival. We are too greedy to care about the world we leave behind for future generations. Greed rules all. Greed will, ultimately, destroy us. With 2018 the fourth hottest year on record, the science is clear. We are on the brink. Maybe -- maybe -- scientific advancements might come along to help us, but it's hardly a guarantee. We had our chance to save ourselves, and we squandered it. - Losing Earth is a precise, concise study of the last forty years of waffling over and denial of important environmental truths that we as Americans have simply refused to look at, or to do anything about. Global warming is not a simple problem, but it is one that could be addressed and handled in a timely manner if cooler heads prevailed in government. That was at least true forty years ago. We are fast approaching that point of no return. Do we really want to watch humans disappear from the Earth when adapting our lifestyle to preserve our homeland is simple? I guess so. Please read this book. And VOTE! Every chance you get.
I received a free electronic copy of this study on our environmental problems from Netgalley, Nathaniel Rich, and MCD Publishers. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read and reviewed this book of my own volition. This review reflects my honest opinion of this work.
