The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
Written by David Wallace-Wells
Narrated by David Wallace-Wells
4.5/5
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Currently unavailable
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About this audiobook
It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible. In California, wildfires now rage year-round, destroying thousands of homes. Across the US, “500-year” storms pummel communities month after month, and floods displace tens of millions annually.
This is only a preview of the changes to come — and they are coming fast. Without a revolution in how billions of humans conduct their lives, parts of the earth could become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century.
In his travelogue of our near future, David Wallace-Wells brings into stark relief the climate troubles that await — food shortages, refugee emergencies, and other crises that will reshape the globe. But the world will be remade by warming in more profound ways as well, transforming our politics, our culture, our relationship to technology, and our sense of history. It will be all-encompassing, shaping and distorting nearly every aspect of human life as it is lived today.
Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring before it, The Uninhabitable Earth is both a meditation on the devastation we have brought upon ourselves and an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation.
Editor's Note
Alarming…
Journalist David Wallace-Wells assures us that “no matter how well-informed you are [about climate change], you are surely not alarmed enough.” Read about the devastating destruction projected for the planet and our economies if we don’t take drastic action soon.
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Reviews for The Uninhabitable Earth
104 ratings15 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I hope people read/listen to this book and it scares the bejesus INTO them.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the best climate change and perhaps the best book of any kind I’ve EVER read or listened to.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book that everyone should read and recommend, with one caveat. Do not start this book unless you intend to finish it! It is intense and requires the deft and thoughtfully-conceived ending.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For sure the most important book of this century
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very informative and insightful albeit a little shocking. This book at the very least has inspired me to reevaluate my priorities.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fear based communication of climate change. One that is likely needed to show the urgency of this issue. I just wished more focus was on the many individual actions that in turn can also push for systemic and governmental change. For example, going vegan is a huge step that should have been shown as a major solution.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sober, fact-based analysis of where we are and where we might go. Also, a great bibliography scattered throughout the text. I wish it were an Appendix!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing scope and bracing outlook regarding the greatest challenge in world history. We are living in fascinating times!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a hard, but thoughtful book. It veers between hopelessness and a call to action to create a more hopeful future.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Terrifying and important. Gives a full picture of current projections.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I am become death, destroyer of worlds. Essential for humanity.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's true. We're doomed. The time for action was 30 years ago. At this point we are merely collectively marching toward suicide while trying to enjoy the party for as long as it lasts.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a clear yet breathtaking examination of climate change and the myriad ways our lives are dealing (or not) with it. Complex ideas are presented so that anyone can understand the importance of this subject. This is a fine book. Thanks D. W. Wells!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well written and researched book that contextualizes climate change and covers an enormous scope of factors.
How just a minor Celsius increase in global temperature will affect
-resources (food supply, habitable land, water and other scarcity)
-physical and mental health
-politics (social and economic policy, warfare)
-forced migration and immigration
-cost of infrastructure and effects on GDP
It covers what led us to this point, goes over almost every possible contributor, solution, etc. I enjoyed learning about the realities of personal lifestyle/consumer choices and how much they actually matter, or how little.
Also this is just an an aside in the book. But it was great to learn about Teens taking clever legal action in the US concerning Climate Change (Juliana v. United States) using the argument that the government is violating their rights by failing to provide the same equal protections and best interests to this young generation that was provided to those of their parents and grandparents by following policy that has contributed to the climate problems faced today!!
An all encompassing global problem that we need to come together to solve. Feeling optimistic?2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The most important book I have read this year and next year!
1 person found this helpful