The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells: A review

For someone who normally does not read a lot of nonfiction, it seems like I've already more than met my quota for 2019. And yet here I am with another one.

 This one has gotten quite a lot of notice and it is still in the top ten of best sellers in the country. But what a depressing read! It is certainly not what one would want to be reading when one isn't feeling on top of the world, but I had already started it at the time I became ill recently and I persevered and finally completed it on the day I was released from the hospital. Two reasons to rejoice.

 I don't mean to imply that it is a bad book; quite the contrary. It is very well written and obviously well researched. I was surprised in reading the book on my Kindle to find that I completed the main narrative at 60% of the book; the other 40% was made up of notes which served as the author's bibliography. All the references were well-documented.

 The narrative brings together the latest information and research regarding climate change, its effects on our planet, and likely outcomes if we continue on our current path or if we actually acknowledge the problem and make an effort to counteract it. It was information that I was familiar with from doing my weekly review of environmental news for my blog, but it was more than a little daunting to see it all collected and connected in one tome.

 David Wallace-Wells has done a large service to the cause of educating the public - at least those who read books - by collating this information and presenting it in a readable, understandable form. The popularity of the book is well-deserved and I hope it continues to receive the attention of a wide audience. Unfortunately, I fear many of the people who need to receive its message will never bother. They appear to disdain the whole idea of books.

 My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

Comments

  1. CarmenApril 9, 2019 at 4:01 PM

    It's good to have you back, Dorothy! I was not aware of this tome. It's timely and right up your alley because of the topic. I suppose I would like it as well, but despite having quite a library in electronic format in nonfiction titles, I don't gravitate towards that genre often because I tend to read, re-read, and then re-read again (for review purposes) the same book before I'm done with it. Not very effective as you can imagine. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dorothy BordersApril 9, 2019 at 4:50 PM

      The book is available in paper form for folks who prefer it.

      Delete
  2. Judy KruegerApril 11, 2019 at 11:31 AM

    Putting this one on the list! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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