Climate Wars
Gwynne Dyer, 2008
Random House Canada
Under a Green Sky
Peter D. Ward PhD, 2007
Smithsonian Books
Harper Collins Publishers Inc., N.Y.
Much of Earth's life has been spent with a green sky of hydrogen sulfide and a purple soup of bacteria over the seas. We are forcing the climate toward that direction now. In Bill Cosby's skit on Noah, he complains about building an Ark. God replies, "How long can you tread water?" The question arising now would be, How long can you breathe hydrogen sulfide?
EXTINCTION
Evolution and the End of Man
Michael Boulter, 2002
Fourth Estate, London
A Division of Harper Collins
www.4thestate.co.uk
Michael Boulter is Professor of Palaeobiology at University of East London, Secretary and Editor for the International Organization of Palaeobiology and head of a team analysing Fossil Record 2.
From page 176:
"Since Nevil Shute's novel about a nuclear holocaust, On the Beach, written in the 1950s, there have been countless tales of the end of man on this planet. Now, it seems, the joke is that we are doing very well on our own, just with our use of fossil fuels. There is no need for nuclear weapons or the inventions of science fiction writers. It is our own aggressive selfishness that has led to our lifestyle, and this has evolved its own political system to maintain the status quo. Now it's too late to change and we cannot organize ourselves to stop. I speculate that our system is in free fall, out of control."
Peak Everything
Waking Up to the Century of Declines
Richard Heinberg, 2007
New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, B.C.
www.newsociety.com
Remember, this book was written in early 2007:
From page 171:
"But there was never broad public discussion of the real issue that will impact our lives in the next few years - the generation that grew up expecting always more will soon be faced with less. The nation, now halucinating uncontrollably from toxic exposure to Fox News, is in debt to the point that no conceivable decision made today will prevent a devastating implosion of the US economy, especially in view of the impending oil and gas peaks."
"It may seem cynical to some if I say that it is too late to save America's political system, its economy, its suburban way of life; that it is even to late to contemplate an easy and peaceful transition to a different socio-ecological reality. But as far as I can tell, these are the facts. That possibility probably died in 1980. As they say these days, get over it."
.../...
"We Boomers have stolen much from the future generations; the main question remaining is, can we now give them back at least the possibility that they might build the world we once dreamed of?"
From page 26:
"We have enjoyed an unprecedented party, but the privilege of having a place at this greatest banquet in history implies an enormous responsibility to future generations."
From page 8:
"The only real question is whether societies will contract and simplify intelligently or in an uncontrolled, chaotic fashion."
The End of the Line
How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat
Charles Clover, 2006
The New Press, New York, London
www.thenewpress.com
Charles Clover has been environment editor for the Daily Telegraph for 18 years.
This is the ultimate book on how humans have destroyed the biodiversity of the oceans, with no end in sight, just continue plundering, exhaust an entire species, then move on to the remaining ones. Actually, the same process that humans have applied to the land, the rivers and the atmosphere.
Sea Sick
The Global Ocean in Crisis
Alanna Mitchell, 2009
McClelland and Stewart, Toronto
www.mcclelland.com
This book makes a fatal research error in not having noticed these extremely important books on this exact topic: Under a Green Sky and The End of the Line. The author picked this topic, therefore she should do the appropriate research. Perhaps just too much time was spend jetting around the world on at least a dozen junkets to hob-nob with ocean researchers in person, rather than by a more environmentally sensitive means. It's a rather shallow book, but if it gets her social class on board with recognizing the threat to the ocean (which means a threat to all life on the planet), then just maybe it was all worth it.
On page 137, referring to the work of Boris Worm (a German researcher):
"Worm takes the synoptic view. It took humans roughly 50,000 years to deplete the planet's large land animals, 5000 years to exhaust most of the planet's coastal environments, 500 years to fish out the continental shelf, 50 years to impoverish the open ocean and about 5 years to run through the creatures of the deep ocean.
`We don't realise how absolutely exceptional this time is. We are reaching the carrying capacity of the planet's natural resources,' he says, adding `We are at the stage of losing the ability of things to come back on their own.' He pauses, then says carefully, looking me straight in the eyes, `That would represent a threshold.'"
With Speed and Violence
Why scientists fear tipping points in climate change
Fred Pearce, 2007
Beacon Press, Boston
www.beacon.org
A MUST READ!
Urban Meltdown
Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual
Clive Doucet, 2007
New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, B.C.
www.newsociety.com
This is possibly the most important book on civilisation since The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon in 1909.
Mr. Doucet describes, among other things, how we lost the civil war of the 1960's. He says that the answers to the climate change problem lie in correcting the deficiencies in the political systems. He says: "I am astonished that Al Gore, who understands climate change as well as anyone, at the end of his film talks about changing light bulbs and driving smaller cars in order to combat climate change. He didn't have one recommendation to address the democratic deficit which caused the theft of his own run for the presidency and resulted in the most ecologically destructive American administration ever to plague the planet."
When Rivers Run Dry
Journeys into the heart of the world's water crisis.
Fred Pearce, 2006
Key Porter Books Ltd.
Toronto, Canada
www.keyporter.com
Think that "modern agriculture" can keep providing more and more food for an increasing population? Try again - many rivers no longer flow to their deltas, irrigation systems are failing, soils are being water-logged and salinated and crop production is failing, due to massive misuse of water worldwide. Yet planners contemplate further dams and hydrological megaprojects, resulting in the ruination of more and more rivers and ecosystems. When will they ever learn?
Climate Cover-up
The Crusade to Deny Global Warming
James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore, 2009
Greystone Books, D&M Publishers, Inc. Vancouver, Toronto, Berkeley
www.greystonebooks.com
Herein the Denier industry is dragged into full public view, and it is an ugly, writhing, wretched creature conceived by Big Business. This is a must-read for anyone trying to figure out why the media appears to be biased towards the Deniers, and what you can do about this terrible situation, before our little spaceship Earth crashes. The author only lets you down once, by attributing acts of green to two environmental criminals (Gordon Campbell of BC and the "Governator" of CA).
One with Nineveh
Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future
Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich 2004
Island Press / Shearwater Books
Suite 300, 1718 Connecticut Ave S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
October 2009 - I just read this book, and five years have gone by since it was published, and six since it was written, and unfortunately, not the tiniest bit of progress has been made on any of the issues raised in this book, which mirrors (but predates) everything that is on my web page on environmental issues. Day by day more of this planet is being destroyed by humans yet "we" do not even begin the discussion about what to do. This book clearly states the problems and the remedies needed, a complete change of course in human behaviour and governance, before it is too late. This is a must-read, you cannot find the direction for the rest of your life until you have read it. One slight weakness to this work is the couching of too many arguments in terms of nature's "instrumental value" (the value of what nature can provide for "us") and less emphasis on the intrinsic value (the value of nature for its own sake, see page 280) perhaps because the authors are primarily addressing the leagues of climate-change deniers. However, the outlook of the whole book is that earth's life systems have value on their own as a functioning system and that if we don't alter our collision course with nature then the entire global civilization will be lost. Remember that this book was written six years ago and not one word of public discussion on these topics has yet occurred.