Despite what it looks like, I read this book very quickly. That is, I read the first half very quickly and then had to set aside the book: even as a person who reads environmental news headlines, essays, and books nearly every day since the early nineties, I was shocked at the sobering statistics the renowned McKibben presents in the book. More than shocked: I was terrified, and went through a brief dark phase in the height of summer when I was convinced there was nothing any of us could do, and that very shortly we would be plunged into doom.
So I had to take a long break before starting the second half of the book, which I shouldn't have done: in the second half, McKibben provides by example the very real, small-scale things people all over the world have been doing in order to counteract the enormous scale in which a small group of money-obsessed corporations in largely one country (ahem, US) have largely damaged beyond the point of return the planet earth.
Which is where the title comes in: McKibben proves through his statistics that we've already changed this planet we call Earth. Hence, a new name for this planet: Eaarth. That's where the positivity in the book really shines, on ways in which we all can participate in managing the maintenance of this changed planet.
I'm lucky: my liberal family can sit down and have a rational conversation about how very much things have changed since my grandparents were young, and my own youth. As many people the world over are doing: if you are observant, and paying attention, this should be fairly obvious. However, there are way too many people with their heads in the sands, and that is who should be reading this book, not the choir (ie, me). The more people who find this book in their hands the better.
And hopefully, they'll read it a lot quicker than me.
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