Compelling, though takes a different tack than Boiling Point. Less
constructive on solutions. Writing is serviceable but a bit gray--I
don't know how many times Kolbert introduces a character with a
summary description of merely his/her eye and hair color. Probably
the most useful, and which Gelbspan didn't really characterize so
succinctly, was the idea of what it means to upset the climate
equilibrium that our civilization has enjoyed since its birth.
Kolbert adduces the beginnings of evidence that, yes, the earth will
always find climate equilibrium according to the laws of physics, but
that we shouldn't confuse that with the equilibrium that happens to
work for us. An expert metaphor she applied to this was that off
rocking the boat. You rock it one way, then another, it always sort
of settles back, but eventually the rocking will cause it to tip, and
the new state is equilibrium is the boat overturned. No one really
knows what overturning the boat will mean for us, but plenty of
evidence points to the fact that rocking has begun.
"A man's intelligence is his soil." - WS "A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent" - WB "Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd" -WB "The Sun must bear no name, gold flourisher, but be in the difficulty that it is to be." - WS
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Book: Field Notes from a Catastrophe
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if I'm only motivated to act by adrenaline, by the sense of a deadline, or perhaps the ultimate deadline, which is death, and that simpl...
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Don't a be a hyena. A snickering wound licking scampering opinionator.
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