We Are the Weather Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer

We Are the Weather Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast Reviews

• 
  Chris LaTray

  This is one of those books the vast majority of the Western world should read even though in many ways it really isn't a particularly good read The first couple sections are fine we're destroying life on our irreplaceable planet and it will take a massive and collective effort—not unprecedented as he shows us—to overcome what we're doing Okay I'm in The best first necessary step is to move away from an animal products based diet Yes I'm totally on board Aaaaand that's really it Foer makes these points early on and at least the last third of the book is tedious and repetitive So read We Are the Weather—please please read it—but don't be ashamed if you bail at the section where he starts interviewing himself From that point on it really isn't a very good book and if you haven't gotten what you need from it by then you aren't going to
• 
  Emma

  As important as this subject is this is not a book which will bring you any form of enlightenment Unless of course you want to discover what Jonathan Safran Foer thinks about well pretty much everything Interspersed with the occasional relevant fact is a meandering erratic piece of writing that leapt from mini story to anecdote to rant from one moment to the next I'm not sure whether Foer was aiming for some kind of connection to the common man here but it comes across as a self serving and exculpatory diatribe about his personal failures He is so much in this book that there's practically no room for the issues Even when he manages to stay on topic it's full of tangentially linked stories that negate any flow or possibility of having a real discussionThe whole premise of the book is about making better choices ones that will benefit society now and in the future 'we cannot go about our lives as if they were only ours' Yet here we have a man who after writing so convincingly about the horrors of the meat industry in Eating Animals is admitting that he still ate animal products because he liked them Way to set yourself up as someone a reader can trust Yet he still feels like he can act the preacher throughout this book?? No thanks Even worse than that the book reads like some kind of self indulgent personal diary full of apparently significant musings on whatever subject happened to come to mind or one of those 'and I'll tell you another thing' conversations you have with drunk people who love to overshare I'm not sure he's done the cause any favours hereThe message is essential but he's not the one to tell it ARC via Netgalley
• 
  Mario the lone bookwolf

  A Cascade effect excessive meat consumption vast pasturages monocultures oil to keep the machine running environmental degradation climate change It's not just eating the meat Only the health disadvantages and ethical aspects That heavily processed red meat is now being compared to asbestos by the WHO The unfortunate chain ends in the stomach of a carnivore but it begins elsewhere It is beyond uestion how despicable factory farming is Just the topics relating to huge stables antibiotic resistance environmental contamination spillovers are worrying Concerning climate change cow farts are the smaller problem Rather the amount of CO2 that is released during the entire meat processing process From breeding farms to slaughterhouses the food industry distribution logistics and electricity for the refrigerated counters To fatten all the tormented souls one needs the largest monocultures of all time No matter where be it in increasingly compressed over fertilized for desertification and desertification predestined areas or in the rainforest And the food has to be transported by fleets of huge ships These ships must be built and maintained which consumes raw materials And they drink oil much of it From politically unstable regions which are instrumentalized and even destabilized Or from oil and tar sands depletion maybe soon from the drilling of the untapped spouters at the poles It is virtually impossible to eat meat without potentiating this process Even if one reduces meat consumption and practices self deceit with the schizophrenic argument of killing only very few animals to calm one's conscience It is unrealistic that people exercise such self control Much worse the West has no legitimacy to criticize the coming explosion of meat consumption in other countries That would be the same bigotry as with emissions And as and people consume and dead animals globally through cheaper and cheaper meat it will be no longer hundreds of millions of people consuming meat But billions with corresponding CO2 footprint A silver lining is the progress made in the production of artificial meat Be it by breeding it in the laboratory or making life like replicas with the same consistency so that one feels no difference while chewing it There is also immense potential in insects And if one has the moral issue between consuming intelligent mammals and critters the answer should not be Yuck I'm not eating mealworms That would be too infantile to stay stubborn with a mentality of just eating what one knows Not to forget the irony of all the chemicals and food ingredients that are consumed without any protest And a few little friendly grasshoppers won´t be such a big deal for model adults Eat your maggots kids or you won´t get dessert If it would be that drastic ok but one even doesn´t recognize the difference cause it´s in the food Foer's emotional and stirring style portrays the subject on a personal level This methodology already made his novel Eating Animals a memorable experience PS It's just about the influence of food And alone this footprint is so immense Things like consumerism energy waste and generally unsustainable economic models are even worse by dimensions The masses of literature showing alternatives make hope and motivate to get activeA wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this yuck ugh boo completely overrated real life outside books
• 
  Henk

  A thought provoking personal and humane meditation on climate change and what we as individuals can do right now Too often the feeling of making a difference doesn't correspond to the difference made worse an inflated sense of accomplishment can relieve the burden of doing what actually needs to be doneGeneralWe Are the Weather Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast is a book on climate change and why we as humans who on a conceptual level know what we could do to reduce our impact on the climate don’t seem to be able to really change Already very early in the book Foer notes Intellectually accepting the truth isn't virtuous in and of itselfDespite 45 pages of notes and links to articles the main message of the book is that we should move from striving for perfection beating ourselves up and in some aspects the book feels self help like than anything else Most of all it's about how important it is that we move past emotions and hoping governments will save us and that we as individuals have power and options to curve emissions Acts speak louder than words and no one will change if we ourselves on an individual level don’t change and start a wave Most people have been into one during a concert or a football match but still we know very little people who started a wave It's like a hopeful version of No one motorist can cause a traffic jam But no traffic jam can exist without individual motorists We are stuck in traffic because we are the trafficJonathan Safran Foer again makes a compelling case that eating less animal products is fundamental to achieve less greenhouse gas emissions and one of the most impactful things we can do as individuals Also he weaves into the book a powerful personal perspective related to the passing of his grandmother as in Eating Animals that was coupled to the birth of his son which made the impact of the book in my view greaterThemes and interconnectionsFoer contrast the efforts reuired to win the Second World War with our current inaction against climate change As an example he lists the following During the war industrial productivity rose by 96 percent Liberty ships that took eight months to construct at the start of the war were completed in weeks The SS Robert E Perry a liberty ship composed of 250000 parts weighing fourteen million pounds was assembled in four and a half daysAlso the following speech of Roosevelt felt highly connected to our current world issues As I told Congress yesterday sacrifice is not exactly the proper word with which to describe this program of self denial When at the end of this great struggle we shall have saved our free way of life we shall have made no sacrificeFoer reflects on what sets people in action both looking at the flight of his grandmother from a sjetl that's on the brink of being invaded by the Nazi's and how Jan Karski a Polish resistance fighter was received by a supreme court judge Felix Frankfurter when he told the story of the holocaust Morality plays a large part in this is it better to flee and take action than to stay and try to convince as many people as possible? What is the difference between people who fled and those that having the same set of facts could not act on the future marching in? Can we believe something truly when our feelings don't want to accept something that is deeply uncomfortable?Also he looks at what allegedly is the oldest suicide note a dispute of the soul wherein a Egyptian is arguing whether it is worth to live on And how our interpretation of the text might be faulty because we don't know the outcome of the dispute and if live or death prevailedHopeful or not?Finally he reflects on hypocrisy how he still craves and eats meat but how any action is still a step that can compounded by the power of habit Basically there is a difference between progress and perfection and perfection should not paralyze us to to at least try to do somethingAll in all this made me still feel We Are the Weather is a hopeful book However much of the final chapters linger and presses in the face of the reader how we have already changed the world And how there is 95% change based on current scenario's that we go over 2 celsius global warming in 2100 How coral reefs will almost certainly die even if the 2 degrees would be met Some say that battling climate change would cost three times as much GDP as World War II However Foer also remind us in this book how humanity moved from first flying to getting on the moon in less than 70 years and what achievements in productiovity occured during World War II If we transform awareness to action and just start the change through simple habits everyday I believe we can make a change and a better world Kudos to Jonathan Safran Foer for instilling this feeling in me and I hope the book manage to touch and change a lot of readers
• 
  Elyse Walters

  Audiobook read by Jonathan Safran Foer“Climate change is possibly the most boring subject the science world has ever examined”Ha well this urgent serious non fiction book is definitely not as adventurous as “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” or laugh out loud comic tragic as “Here I Am” two books I liked ‘lots’ by Foerbut it’s at least worth skimmingI say skimming because while listening to the Audiobook my mind automatically checked out at times a brain skim natural ‘zone out’I couldn’t contain all the information presented I could have judged myself for being a turd but I didn’t feel like beating myself up Here’s the thing I respect Jonathan Safran Foer love his ex wife’s books a little than his but I like Foer And I took away value from his words “If we except the reality about climate change and that it’s ruining our planet but don’t do anything about it we are no better than people who don’t believe in climate change” I get it I’m NO BETTER about saving our planet than our birds Phil and Lil But I can still do my part and do better Believingdaydreaming imaginingJonathan included himself ‘with us’ We all have beliefsWe all daydreamWe all imagineWe all have hopes dreams memories loss and love in our lives We all share this planet together 🌍 This book felt like a dialogue conversation presented as an opening for discussions I felt compassion empathy and admiration for the ‘emotional’ worries that Jonathan lives with about our planetI DO care about our planet the historical crisis we are creating for those not born yet etcbut I feel very small to the task reuired to personally make a major difference I don’t loose sleep over climate change I bet Foer does Gotta admire a person like that I loose sleep from reading too much in bed or from eating chocolate before falling asleep or from personal worries but it’s not easy to generate an ‘emotional’ gut worry about climate change Yet I admit Foer pierced deeper to my psyche I already do ‘some’ helpful gesturesI drive little yet I fly a few times a year I recycle I feed our three large trays worms our old veggies fruits I turn lights off I try to re use possessions rather than throw them out I don’t cook meat at home but occasionally I cherish a yummy hamburger with fries at ‘Opa’ our local watering hole restaurant I re use tea bags feed them to our worms tooI wear little makeupBut I don’t ‘seriously’ do any research about polio or smoking or study the history on health care habits and how they have affected our climate change Teens against polio was a historical social change factor that I found interesting in this book I get itEVERYONE should try to do better I’m willing to try to improveLuckily I’m not a fan of bacon and eggs it’s not a breakfast I chooseI don’t eat pork or shellfish I don’t like steak so I don’t eat it I do eat ice cream dairy and cheese but not humongous portions and or every day If I was allowed my Opa Burger only 3 times a year rather than maybe 6 times a year and knew I’d be a ‘save the planet’ contributor by doing thatI’d gladly cut that consumption in half So this book ‘was’ empowering As hard as it was for me to understand all that Foer does I felt sad in partsespecially his personal family sharinga little frightened and overwhelmed about the condition we find ourselves inButby the time I finished this audiobookI was left pretty darn movedIn 2020 I promise to be ‘’ conscientious about doing my part I have a passionate husband who is diligent about climate change He’d love me to up my game Paul won’t even use a napkin during eating our meals at home His t shirt works wonders I still use a napkin but maybe??? I could ‘consider’ a re usable cloth to wipe my mouth and fingers 5 starsfor Foer’s call for action book I’m upping my consciousness with the intention do better thanks to Foer’s leadership and skillful ability to write and influence meus as well as he doesI just hope Foer hasn’t given up writing fiction stories too
• 
  Sadie

  ETA Dieses Buch haben wir auch im Papierstau Podcast besprochen Folge 84 #TeamGreta ETA Watch my high hopes expectations and anticipation regarding this book crumble with every chapter The book's general idea is so important and needs to be adressed often and louder It is in a nutshell the idea of everybody going vegan or at least 23 vegan no animal products before dinner in order to gain a collectively large change for the better on all things climate Yes sure there's emmissions from cars and industry and flights and politicians who refuse to act or even believe and what not but these things aren't the topic of this book This book adresses people who say But what does it matter what I the singular person can do? Does it matter at all? It's only me And maybe you're already recycling Maybe you've cut your car drives by half or switched to public transport completely Maybe you're only buying wooden toys for your child And while all this is well and filled with good intentions it only helps so much Plus Not everybody can ditch their car completely Changing the diet as suggested on the other hand would make a great impact Plus everybody can theoretically do it That's basically what this book is about Only it fails to fully show why It scratches on the surface but it doesn't bring its intended message acrossAnd I love Foer's general argument I longed for it I was even ready to embrace this book with open arms because I also often miss the ecological factors when veganism is discussed Don't get me wrong ethical reasons for going vegan are all fair and legit and also important no doubt And yet the economical side gets overlooked way too often and given the way this planet is headed we can't afford neglecting it So here I was ready for Foer to preach to the choir aka me And it started out great only to end in something akin to insignificance Here's what happenedPart 1 Foer takes his time with presenting his general idea to his readers The first part is long very essay like and serves as a very excessive opening statement I loved it Foer uses all kinds of different examples of individuals working together for a greater good and overcoming serious situations thanks to not only but also these community efforts He also gives examples on his spin of knowing vs believing and that in the end it doesn't only matter if you know something or not it's believing in things that put you to action The examples range from historical to very personal from overview to introspective he switches back and forth and builds up his argument slowly Like a painter putting several seemingly unconnected dots onto a blank canvas you watch him work see things coming together and in the end have a full picture Only shortly before the end Foer brings all his strands together to present his real intention of this book I liked how he did that and enjoyed that first part very muchPart 2 A few pages with hard facts 3 5 facts per page thematically grouped dealing with climate change and livestock andor how one infuences the other Not much new in here for me personally but I liked the stark contrast between the rather philosphical long part 1 and the in your face presentation in part 2 I was ready to get moving Bring it onPart 3 This is where things went off track for me Part 3 was very much like part 1 style wise many of the examples recurred Only this part had a different angle it was a call to action sort of text Only it was too tame for that Also repeating the style from part 1 lessened the effect and made part 1 look less special in retrospectPart 4 Is a long interview of Foer with himselfhis soul He's playing Devil's Advocate with himself This is where he lost me See Foer's big trouble is that he's having a hard time going vegan completely which obviously would be the best solution But he can't do that his creavings for meat and dairy every now and then are too big So he indulges in burgers and such Not often but he does And every so often in his book he writes about his own troubles with this well sort of hypocrisy tries to explain it to justify it Part 4 is mostly about this inner conflict And while this is all very honest and open it also weakens his own part as author and gives room for critics such as who is he to teach me if he's having such a hard time living by his own doctrine? I missed motivation I missed optimism at least in that regard seeing as the general outlooks are pessimistic enough Instead I felt like the author confessing his sins and lust to me but who am I to give him absolution and why? I was really at a loss herePart 5 Final part but instead of wrapping things up I got another chapter like a mix of parts 1 and 3 same style same examples family matters including a personal letter to Foer's children asking them for absolution too? and then the book just ended No closing stament No conclusionThere's a huge appendix with sources and bibliography but it isn't easy to navigate since the text itself offers no footnotes Readers have to find the source for themselves in the appendix It's manageable but rather uncomfortable and I'd wished for better reader service here Before the actual sources there's another longer appendix dealing with facts on climate change and dietlivestock and that's where the input is That's what I missed in the actual book and even there imho Foer focusses too much on why certain studies are different than on the actual numbersAnother current book on climate change is The Uninhabitable Earth Life After Warming by David Wallace Wells it was written after a New Yorker's essay of the same name became hugely popular Foer uotes from that essay and I somehow feel that he tried to do what David Wallace Wells did Write a powerful essay and add a book dwelling on that essay's theme And well if Foer's book had been the essay only part 1 with maybe the short fact based part 2 added it would've worked perfectly as such A powerful moving capturing essay As a repetitive book that offers not much insight that the opening statement it sadly sadly sadly felt flat for me I'm not even sure Foer helped the movement be it to help fight climate change to spread veganism conscious consumption of animal products or a combination of both Finally Foer often refers to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth movie He praises the general message of the movie but critises it for two points First leaving the whole fooddietmass farmingnutrition factor out of the euotation Foer's book got that covered well in parts But he also critisises the movie's ending the calls for action being too soft too uninspired too less Talk to your parents or Writer to your governor or what not these actions might make you feel good as if you've done something but they hardly change anything And what can I say? In a way that's pretty much how I felt about Foer's book I'm really at a loss and baffled by how little it inspired me It's still an okay read 2 stars but in the end I can't recommend it wholeheartedly And oh how I wish I could Since this a review and I'm no Foer so I won't get into technical details here but since I'm also no Foer I'll give you at least two sources for further reading via footnote right away here or here
• 
  Diane S ☔

  The book is written in essay form some personal some informative Its purpose is to highlight the changing climate there are pages of facts and figures Also if you read his previous book one would know he advocates not eating animals nor their by products Something by the way which he admits having trouble doing and his subseuent guilt after so doing Anyone who believes in climate change can see how it is already affecting the weather in different parts of the world Most agree something must be done scientists telling us this matter is urgent and we have very few years left to change the horrible scenarios they are predicting I found the strongest arguement he makes is that if doesn't directly impact someone personally they are unwilling to act Is there anything narcissistic than believing the choices you make affect everyone? Only one thing believing the choices you make affect no oneHe makes many valid points but at times it became repetitive That he believes strongly is without doubt we all should I though think we need our government and corporations to take the lead guide us change the way they are doing business I eat meat once a meat Are the six days I don't going to make a big difference? No I don't think so I think we've passed the point of little things making a difference we now need big things big actions Unfortunately I don't see this happening anytime soonARC from Netgalley
• 
  Jenna

  Jonathan Safran Foer who in his book Eating Animals spoke about the horrific treatment of animals in factory farms now informs us how our consumption of meat dairy and eggs is killing the planet He makes a case for why we should all be vegan for the planet though he himself is not and hems around making excuses for that but without being preachy and with an understanding of how difficult this is for many people I personally don't understand that Why isn't it easy when we know how animals are treated and even when we also know what eating them and their products do to our bodies and our planet? I try to understand why everyone is not vegan but it's difficult for me Why is my enjoyment of a food important than an animal suffering and the destruction of our planet? How is it possible that anyone wants to eat animals? OK stepping down off my soap box; I'm not here to preach and neither is Mr Foer He points out some of the top issues for our planet and climate due to animal agriculture and makes the case that we should all be eating a plant based lifestyle That said he is understanding than I am probably because he himself hasn't been able to do know what he says we should all do and simply encourages everyone to not eat any animal products before dinner That would be a terrific improvement both for our health and for the health of the planet and much less suffering for animals Perhaps it is realistic to encourage people to eat less meat dairy and eggs than to expect everyone to switch to a plant based diet even if that is optimum  So why exactly is animal agriculture destroying our planet? Here are a couple of the things Mr Foer points out•Animal agriculture is responsible for 91 percent of ian deforestation•Livestock are the leading source of methane emissions•Methane has 34 times the global warming potential GWP—the ability to trap heat—as CO2Simply put there is no way we can save the planet without significantly reducing our consumption of animal products We need to globally move to all renewable energy but that will take a lot of time and trillions of dollars and that's IF we ever get all governments on board However we each of us can start helping the environment right now today by how we eat This was unfortunately not the best book even though its message is important There is much repetition and and at least as much information about the author's personal life and family history as about animal agriculture's impact on climate I could have done with just the facts but some readers might find the book interesting because of the personal element I can't say I learned anything new from this book because it's all very basic; however others might find it informative if this is a subject you know little aboutIt is crucial that we cut back on animal agriculture sooner rather than later That starts with you me and everyone else on the planet Even if you think you could never give up steak or cheese or eggs try switching to vegan options for at least 2 of your daily meals There are many incredible plant based versions of your favourite foods and many wonderful new foods and dishes you will discover and enjoy Try it You might just be surprisedI leave you with this sentence from the book as something to think about the next time you want to eat a burgerAccording to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change if cows were a country they would rank third in greenhouse gas emissions after China and the United States Third in greenhouse emissions And that's ONLY COWS It does not include chickens and pigs and turkeys and farmed fish and all the others If you want to do something to help the planet think before you eat
• 
  Meike

  It's not that Foer's main message wasn't important and correct of course we should save the planet but this book is just a simplistic self centered pamphlet full of platitudes and absurd analogies badly structured and repetitive It reads like the great JSF spent about three weeks working on this but before I write myself into a full fledged rant let me try to make some pointsJSF tells us again and again and again that we have to fight climate change and I mean he literally states it over and over and over and over again We know dude tell us your ideas how to do that damn it It's not that climate deniers will pick up the book and change their minds anyways because the whole thing is short on facts but loooooong on emotions and anecdotes Yes we get lots of little stories about all kinds of things that are not really related to climate change but Foer makes emotional connections and compares human behavior in different contexts Which brings us to my next issue Climate change is not like the holocaust It's not Really It's not Those analogies and comparisons are absurd and before you now say But the author is Jewish and lost family members in the holocaust yes I know that but climate change is still not like the holocaust because absolutely nothing is like the holocaust I know that these things are discussed differently abroad hello Lost Children Archive but let me re assure you that not only me but large parts of the German press were shaking their heads about the passages comparing the Nazis to climate change Die Zeit called it ridiculous pompous tasteless eg needless to say it also works against a stringent and complex analysis And while Foer's argument that all of us have to contribute to the fight against climate change that we all have to give up bad habits and make sacrifices is crucial for saving the planet I would have wished that this author who has always argued against the atomization of society and radical self centeredness would also talk about communal efforts about ways to organize and change policies this book reads like Foer has given up on politics entirely but to generate results we have to use the democratic process and build up pressure Public opinion changes slowly but it does change if activists keep at it together So all in all this book tells me too much about the author's personal sensitivities and moral challenges but instead of being relatable it comes across as vain rather shallow and apolitical 2 stars because I support his goals and he isn't wrong about his aims but seriously JSF you could have written a much better book about such an important topic
• 
  Rebecca

  25 I’ve read all of Jonathan Safran Foer’s major releases from Everything Is Illuminated onwards and his 2009 work Eating Animals had a major impact on me I included it on a 2017 list of “Books that Should Have Literally Changed My Life” It’s an exposé of factory farming that concludes meat eating is unconscionable and while I haven’t gone all the way back to vegetarianism in the years since I read it I eat meat extremely rarely usually only when a guest at others’ houses and my husband and I often eat vegan meals at homeWhen I heard that Foer’s new book would revisit the ethics of eating meat I worried it might feel redundant but still wanted to give it a try Here he examines the issue through the lens of climate change arguing that slashing meat consumption by two thirds or by eating vegan until dinner ie for two meals a day is the easiest way for individuals to decrease their carbon footprint I don’t disagree with this proposal It would be churlish to fault a reasonable suggestion that gives ordinary folk something concrete to do while waiting in vain? for governments to actMy issues then are not with the book’s message but with its methods and structure Initially Foer successfully makes use of historical parallels like World War II and the civil rights movement He rightly observes that we are at a crucial turning point and it will take self denial and joining in with a radical social movement to protect a whole way of life Don’t think of living a greener lifestyle as a sacrifice or a superhuman feat Foer advises; think of it as an opportunity for bravery and for living out the convictions you confess to holdAs the book goes on however the same reference points come up again and again It’s an attempt to build on what’s already been discussed but just ends up sounding repetitive Meanwhile the central topic is brought in as a Trojan horse not until page 64 of 224 in the main text does Foer lay his cards on the table and admit “This is a book about the impacts of animal agriculture on the environment” Why be so coy when the book has been marketed as being about food choices? The subtitle and blurb make the topic clear “Our planet is a farm” Foer declares with animal agriculture the top source of deforestation and methane emissionsFair enough but as I heard a UK climate expert explain the other week at a local green fair you can’t boil down our response to the climate crisis to ONE strategy Every adjustment has to work in tandem So while Foer has chosen meat eating as the most practical thing to change right now the other main sources of emissions barely get a mention He admits that car use number of children and flights are additional areas where personal choices make a difference but makes no attempt to influence attitudes in these areas So diet is up for discussion but not family planning commuting or vacations? This struck me as a lack of imagination or of courage Separating Americans from their vehicles may be even tougher than getting them to put down the burgers But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth tryingPart II is a bullet pointed set of facts and statistics reminiscent of the “Tell the Truth” section in the Extinction Rebellion handbook It’s an effective strategy for setting things out briefly yet sits oddly between narrative sections of analogies and anecdotes My favorite bits of the book were about visits to his dying grandmother back at the family home in Washington DC It took him many years to realize that his grandfather who lost everything in Poland and began again with a new wife in America committed suicide This family history nestled within the canon of Jewish stories like Noah’s Ark Masada and the Holocaust dramatizes the conflict between resistance and self destruction – the very battle we face nowPart IV Foer’s “Dispute with the Soul” is a philosophical dialogue in the tradition of Talmudic study while the book closes with a letter to his sons Individually many of these segments are powerful in the way they confront hypocrisy and hopelessness with honesty But together in the same book they feel like a jumble Although it was noble of Foer to tackle the subject of climate change I’m not convinced he was the right person to write this book especially when we’ve already had recent works like The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace Wells Arriving at a rating has been very difficult for me because I support the book’s aims but often found it a frustrating reading experience Still if it wakes up even a handful of readers to the emergency we face it will have been worthwhileA favorite passage “Climate change is not a jigsaw puzzle on the coffee table which can be returned to when the schedule allows and the feeling inspires It is a house on fire”Originally published on my blog Bookish Beck