A book analysis of ‘The Uninhabitable Earth Life after warming’ by David Wallace –Wells

A book analysis of ‘The Uninhabitable Earth Life after warming’ by David Wallace –Wells

Introduction

For more than 30 years, scientists have been raising the issue about anthropological climate change, a warning that has candidly been overlooked. The book is an expansion of an article title “the uninhabitable earth written by Wallace Wells and was published in 2017 in New York. It frightened most of those who read it, and he wrote it at length, more remorseless on what the future holds for us. The book is made up of 12 brutal but short chapters with every one forecasting our dark future. The titles of the chapters are quite scary; Dying Oceans, Heat Death, Unbreathable air, economic collapse, Hunger, Disasters no longer Natural, Wildfire, Drowning, Freshwater drain, systems, and climate conflict. David Wallace aims at telling the condition as he puts in his first line of the book, “worse, and much worse than you think.”

David Wallace starts by explaining the first five significant tragic mass extinction instances, which were all caused by climate change. The 10 degree Celsius warming that led to the death of 96% of all life on the planet as well as the end of Permian mass extinction, which happened 252 million years ago (Wallace-Wells,89). This was the worst of all catastrophic events given that other worse catastrophe like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs failing to make it to the list. Today, people are struggling to limit anthropogenic warming to 3-4 degrees Celsius that lacks a real agreement on whether there will be an agreement on a cohesive course of action on the globe.

There is a significant problem for humanity since we do not understand critical topics. People compartmentalize issues leading them to be blind to the ever-changing world. Wallace Wells uses such a force to compel people out of their cognitive dissonance that it can lead others into hopelessness. A simple increase in half a degree Celsius can lead to colossal destruction; by increasing the likelihood of massive wildlife extinctions, a drop in GDP, and more armed conflict (Wallace-Wells, 57). An increase of four degrees could lead to more conflict between 80% and 160%, with reduced biodiversity and wealth. It is interesting to note that the rise in greenhouse gas emission has happened 20 years, long after scientists have offered severe warnings (Wallace-Wells, 8). Public awareness campaigns had also been done like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

When dealing with climate change, it is clear that people can choose to focus on denialism and the primary concern of the work. However, Wallace Wells points out the higher number of people who accept and understand the accurate scale of the problem but do not act in any way to save the condition. He argues climate problems denialism is a US phenomenon, basically, a Republican Party phenomenon. He shows that the US has contributed 15% of the emissions in the world (Wallace-Wells, 133). He states that it is easier for people to overlook the ugliness of global warming like wildfires, hurricanes, and floods and accept it as the nature of things.

The uninhabitable earth, a relatively short work, focuses on a significant part of the cursed earth- floods, political instability, drought, wildfires, the collapse of the progress myth and economic crisis. Reading the work can feel like going through the hellfire of the future planet. It does not kill all hope, since talking about it means there is something people can do about it. Wallace- Wells indicates we have all the tools necessary for overcoming the worst shortly including new agricultural practices, a carbon tax, a shift from dairy and beef diet in the globe, political agencies doing away with dirty energy, carbon capture and public investments in green energy (Brooks, Ron, 67). Despite having a straightforward path to follow out of the possible dull future does not mean that it will not be challenging.

One can call the book alarmist because it is less concerned about solutions as opposed to the clarification of the scale of the problem and its horrific effects. However, reading “The Uninhabitable Earth” one can consider the severe damage done to the environment in addition to understanding the collapse of the distinction between alarmist and realism (Rhodes, Christopher, 281). Failure to be alarmed is a failure to think about the problem while failing to think about the challenge is to drain all hope of the solution.

More than half of the work, David Wallace addresses the reader directly and comments anyone who has seen this far for being a brave person. After all, the previous chapters of the book have shown in terrifying and meticulous details the possible future that awaits the planet should we fail to arrest global warming and add carbon to the atmosphere. However, Wallace is optimistic, and he gains consolation through peering into abyss and entertains the worst-case scenario for 6 to 8 degree Celsius of warming. He states the possibility of walking out of the mess is an “encouraging future” (Wallace-Wells, 36).  He foretells the world in which climate change is pervasive, dramatic and ubiquitous. He states that the path we are taking should terrify all people, and nothing will be the same. There will be nothing the same. There will be fires, choked by toxic air, we will be flooded, we will be deprived of water and that climatic changes will cause the economic meltdown. Nature will be like an enemy and not a friend. People will be overwhelmed by economic wars.

“Fear can motivate” Wallace- Wells indicates. He knows the individuals who denounce the climate change push as “climate porn”; however, he came to his ecological awakening through fear. He had started collecting “gripping, terrifying and uncanny descriptions” on climate change (Wallace-Wells, 13). He describes himself to be a non-recycling city dweller, Bit-coin buying person who dislikes camping. He was scared so hard when he learnt the hard truth.

The Uninhabitable Earth uses a brutally honest tone, utilizing scientific back up about the events that will result in increased Earth temperature. Some chapters’ names like Dying oceans, Unbreathable air and Heat death give a sense of coming horrors. He also comforts people “that we know global warming is our doing” that should provide us with comfort as opposed to fear (Wallace-Wells, 36)

People also do not seem to care because they are overwhelmed by many other things. For instance, if you are reading the book through the privileged western vantage, it’s easy to overlook how bad things have got. It is easy to accept the heatstroke and hurricanes deaths as only the unfortunate natural way of things (Wallace-Wells, 14). Wallace points out at the possibility that we would accept the baseline and the acceptable human suffering.

Conclusion

While other scientists will welcome Wallace-Wells clear explanation of the current state of affairs, others will warn that some of the solutions he offers are potentially dangerous and naïve. He mentions methods like injecting sulphur to the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the earth, geoengineering a method that causes severe and unintended consequences. Others will criticize it for using alarmist ideology, focusing on the worst prediction effects. However, the situation Wallace indicates will become a reality if the global temperature continues rising without taking the necessary measures. In this kind of situation, perhaps we all need to be a bit more pessimistic.

Works Cited

Wallace-Wells, David. The uninhabitable earth: Life after warming. Tim Duggan Books, 2019.

Rhodes, Christopher J. “Book Review: David Wallace-Wells, The uninhabitable earth.” (2019): 280-283.

Brooks, Ron. “The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming” by David Wallace-Wells, 2019.[book review].” The Canadian Field-Naturalist 133.1 (2019): 66-68.