Book Review
You must read this book! In it, the founder of the environmental group 350.org delivers the bad news that global warming has already altered earth’s climate in ways that cannot be reversed, and that drastic action is necessary to adapt our way of life to be able to survive on a changed planet. The good news is that we can lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the current 392 parts per million to a safe 350 parts per million by mid-century. (350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.) But to return to 350 ppm, we must immediately stop taking fossil fuels out of the earth and burning them, and instead rely on energy sources such as solar and wind power. We also must change our methods of agriculture so we don’t rely on gigantic industrial farms powered by fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Instead the book advocates returning to smaller farms producing for a local market, and that our society must learn to live on a smaller, more local scale. The richer countries must be willing to subsidize the poorer countries so they can convert their growing economies from coal and oil to renewable forms of energy.
But this is a very tall order which will require a massive social movement which can force the political changes that can overcome the power of the energy corporations. The book also contains many good organizing ideas, and resources to use to organize protests. It describes how they organized several mass demonstrations around climate change. In 2007 they sent out emails asking people to organize local rallies on April 14, and as a result there were 1400 rallies all over the world – the largest environmental protest since the original Earth day in 1970. What was the result? Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who were then running for president, signed the pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Then Obama was elected and he not only broke his promise, but went over to pushing the XL pipeline, fracking, and adopting the “drill, baby drill” mantra of the Republicans. This shows the power of the energy corporations in government.
Even though the book was written in 2009, and the author still held out hope that the new Democratic administration would pitch in to save the environment, I’m sure he would now agree that our only hope is to get behind a political party that is independent of the energy corporations —like the Green Party. The changes demanded by this environmental crisis are huge. We must begin to unite now around the changes that are necessary in order to make them happen in time. As he says in the book, we do not have to stop global warming for our grandchildren, we need to do it for our parents! To learn more please go to 350.org.
