Ebook Losing Earth A Recent History Nathaniel Rich
Download As PDF : Losing Earth A Recent History Nathaniel Rich
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.
Ebook Losing Earth A Recent History Nathaniel Rich
"This book reads like a novel. Perhaps that's because its author is a novelist. But make no mistake: it is entirely factual, and very well researched -- down to the decor of the hotels in which the various conferences it documents were held.
It is the grim tale of a lost decade in the fight for concrete action to rein in human-caused climate change: the decade from 1979 through 1989, when the seriousness of the problem first came to the attention of politicians and the American public. The decade began with growing acceptance of the scientific evidence, even by fossil-fuel companies and politicians. But then the smoke squads entered the battle. Nicholas Rich is not afraid to name the heroes, the villains, and the victims -- nor is he afraid to show us that deciding who is a villain is not always so clear-cut.
It is a vital contribution to climate-change history, and a quick read. I found only one error of grammar. Its main defect is that it lacks endnotes and an index."
Product details
|
Tags : Losing Earth A Recent History - edition by Nathaniel Rich. Download it once and read it on your device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Losing Earth A Recent History.,ebook,Nathaniel Rich,Losing Earth A Recent History,MCD,011501 MCD HC,Carbon dioxide - Environmental aspects,Carbon dioxide;Environmental aspects.,General Adult,Global environmental change - History,Global environmental change;History.,Global warming - History,Global warming;History.,History,History/Modern - 20th Century,Modern / 20th Century,Non-Fiction,Petroleum industry and trade - History,SCI/TECH,SCIENCE / Global Warming Climate Change,SCIENCE / History,Science/Environmental Science (see also Chemistry - Environmental),Science/History,Science/Math,United States,global warming; climate change; ecological catastrophe; Anthropocene; science writing; popular science; New York Times Magazine article; journalism; journalists; investigative journalism; fossil fuel industry; greenhouse gases; climate policy; political science books; current events; current affairs; science history; us politics; american politics; environmental movements; natural science; greenhouse effect; sustainability; conservation; environmentalism; ethics; natural history; philosophical books; nature writing; late stage capitalism,History,History/Modern - 20th Century,Modern / 20th Century,SCIENCE / Global Warming Climate Change,SCIENCE / History,Science/Environmental Science (see also Chemistry - Environmental),Science/History
Losing Earth A Recent History Nathaniel Rich Reviews :
Losing Earth A Recent History Nathaniel Rich 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. - This book reads like a novel. Perhaps that's because its author is a novelist. But make no mistake it is entirely factual, and very well researched -- down to the decor of the hotels in which the various conferences it documents were held.
It is the grim tale of a lost decade in the fight for concrete action to rein in human-caused climate change the decade from 1979 through 1989, when the seriousness of the problem first came to the attention of politicians and the American public. The decade began with growing acceptance of the scientific evidence, even by fossil-fuel companies and politicians. But then the smoke squads entered the battle. Nicholas Rich is not afraid to name the heroes, the villains, and the victims -- nor is he afraid to show us that deciding who is a villain is not always so clear-cut.
It is a vital contribution to climate-change history, and a quick read. I found only one error of grammar. Its main defect is that it lacks endnotes and an index. - Like many people worried about climate change, I have long laid the blame for our inaction on the massive PR effort by oil and gas companies to convince us the the science wasn't real or wasn't confirmed and to co-opt so many of our politicians. And those things did happen starting in about 1989 and have cost us decades in time to act, but the real lost opportunity was earlier. As Rich makes so heart-breakingly clear, the urgent threat and the science behind it were totally accepted throughout the 60s and 70s and were a top priority for government and trumpeted by mainstream media. Fully 68% of Americans (and most of the rest of the world) were very worried and wanted action to be taken. I was born in 1956 and vividly remember the 'greenhouse effect' being covered in my 4th grade science textbook.
Why no one acted in those crucial decades is the subject of Rich's short, powerful book. It makes clear that the fundamental flaws in ourselves and in our government are just as much to blame as anything the oil companies did. When the trials for the ultimate crimes against humanity begin, we'll all have to get in line. As Bill McKibben discusses in his excellent new book Falter, maybe humanity was never up to the task. - 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.
