Save the planet
Save the planet – borrow a library book or e-book
Climate change is happening, and in some cases, much faster than climate scientists had predicted. Fred Pearce reports on various perspectives and theories regarding climate change in his book, “The Last generation: how nature will take her revenge for climate change.” These dramatic changes prompted Bill McKibben to give our planet a new name in his book, “Eaarth: making a life on a tough new planet,” to signify that the world may well look very different in the not so distant future.
Ebooks are a great way to go – save some trees from being cut down for paper. They can be downloaded to your home computer and to some portable ebook readers. Plus, you don’t have to worry about returning them to the library on time!
Some other books you might want to check out on this topic include “The Legacy: an elder’s vision for our sustainable future,” by David Suzuki, “Pandora’s seed: the unforeseen costs of civilization,” by Spencer Wells, and “Heatstroke: nature in an age of global warming,” by Anthony Barnosky.
4 thoughts on “Save the planet”
You wrote: “Climate change is happening, and in some cases, much faster than climate scientists had predicted.”
If ‘Climate Change’ is happening, then the climate is changing. There’s only one climate, so there can’t be different cases of it.
By the way, the science of climate change is by no means settled, as any real scientist not in the tank for certain political interests will tell you. In fact, whenever anyone tells you ‘the science is settled’, run away from that person, even if it’s Leo DiCaprio.
By the way, in any case, the planet we call earth is going to be fine. We might be in trouble, but the rock will sluff us off like fleas.
We had a great talk about this at the Seniors Group at Barbara Frum yesterday, as part of our discussion on a controversial topic.
I don’t think any scientist will dispute that there has been a recent spike in the average global temperature. The controversy arises with the varying interpretations of this statistically “sudden” change.
Some arguments that were raised yesterday include one where earth’s natural climatic changes, i.e., our sun’s solar cycles, volcanism, plate-tectonic shifts and so forth are the core contributors to climate change. The opposing viewpoint is that increased production and emissions in conjunction with resource exploitation (i.e, deforestation) is causing increases in average global temperatures.
So is recent increase in the average global temperature a result of ongoing natural processes, human activity or both? Let the debate begin!
And if anyone would like to suggest a title (or two) supporting an opposing viewpoint, I’d like to hear them! I’m open to hearing both sides of the story.
Check out Bjorn Lomborg. He is heavily referenced as a skeptic of environmentalism and the ‘global warming’ phenomenon (i.e., human activity is influencing higher average global temperatures).
Here are two of his books,
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming. Access it here: http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM238009&R=238009
The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. Access it here: http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp?advancedSearch=true&Ntt=The+Skeptical+Environmentalist%3A+Measuring+the+Real+State+of+the+World+
Also, searching “climate change” instead of “global warming” in the subject field will give you a more neutral set of results.