A plea and plan for a new planet

After finishing Bill McKibben’s latest, Eaarth, I felt the way I often do after reading a book of his: scared, inspired and a little, I’m not afraid to admit, teary. He is a good human being who has done good research on the good science of a very bad thing: global warming. He has the full, terrible story of what not only is going to happen, but what has already happened, what we’ve already put into motion. Now. But he also has solutions, real world solutions.

So, I implore you to read this book. Or I’ll let someone more important implore you, Barbara Kingsolver, from the front cover:

“What I have to say about this book is very simple: Read it, please. Straight through to the end. Whatever else you were planning to do next, nothing could be more important.”

McKibben’s main message as I see it is that for many years we’ve been enamored of expansion, of growth, and of burning oil. And now we’re in a big mess where the world doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, where we put carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to warm the planet while cutting down rainforests to warm the planet and have accomplished one thing: a warm planet, a new planet, a difficult planet. So expansion is no longer the answer, just as coal and oil are no longer the answer. The solutions lie in things like local organic farming, local communities, local energy (e.g. solar for Los Angeles and wind for Dayton), neighborhoods that work, and even stuff like CFLs and that beautiful thing none of us could part with: the internet.

If you read the book, please tell us what you think in the comments, and how it made you feel or act.

And check out 350.org , which is both included in and the inspiration for Eaarth, to find out how to be part of the shift.

Photos courtesy of Indiebound and Wonderlust

Tags: 350.org, Bill McKibben, Eaarth, global warming, global warming books, McKibben books, new environmental books, planet earth