A useful handbook for reducing one’s carbon footprint and encouraging neighbors and communities to do the same.
The chair of the Global Carbon Project looks at the hard—but not impossible—work needed to curb climate change.
At first glance, the figures are discouraging: Global emissions of greenhouse gases continue apace, and while some wealthy nations are moving in the right direction, the aspiring ones have good reason to wonder why they can’t have a slice of the wealth fossil fuels can generate. Stanford environmental scientist Jackson has a simple answer followed by a much more complex program: “The cheapest, safest, and only sure path to a safe climate starts with slashing emissions.” In this, he demonstrates, each of us can do our part. For instance, methane is a neglected part of the emissions portfolio, so to speak. “Restoring methane to preindustrial levels would save 0.5°C of warming and could happen in your lifetime—and mine,” writes Jackson. The trick there is to eat fewer hamburgers and steaks, for cows are major methane emitters on their own, and cows also consume huge amounts of water, more than half the flow of the endangered Colorado River. The author also suggests that we replace gas appliances with electrical ones, which are more environmentally friendly; bike or take the bus instead of driving to work; and make better choices about food. Many readers already know this information, but Jackson takes his lucid argument further, examining advances in such things as carbon-neutral steel and livestock feed that inhibits the production of methane. At the governmental level, he points out Canada’s requirement of zero-emission water heaters in new construction, legislation that, south of the border, red American states have blocked. Every advance may be incremental, but, as one interlocutor tells Jackson, “incrementally better is still better.”
A useful handbook for reducing one’s carbon footprint and encouraging neighbors and communities to do the same.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668023266
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A philosophically rich critique of state violence and mass apathy.
An Egyptian Canadian journalist writes searchingly of this time of war.
“Rules, conventions, morals, reality itself: all exist so long as their existence is convenient to the preservation of power.” So writes El Akkad, who goes on to state that one of the demands of modern power is that those subject to it must imagine that some group of people somewhere are not fully human. El Akkad’s pointed example is Gaza, the current destruction of which, he writes, is causing millions of people around the world to examine the supposedly rules-governed, democratic West and declare, “I want nothing to do with this.” El Akkad, author of the novel American War (2017), discerns hypocrisy and racism in the West’s defense of Ukraine and what he views as indifference toward the Palestinian people. No stranger to war zones himself—El Akkad was a correspondent in Afghanistan and Iraq—he writes with grim matter-of-factness about murdered children, famine, and the deliberate targeting of civilians. With no love for Zionism lost, he offers an equally harsh critique of Hamas, yet another one of the “entities obsessed with violence as an ethos, brutal in their treatment of minority groups who in their view should not exist, and self-decreed to be the true protectors of an entire religion.” Taking a global view, El Akkad, who lives in the U.S., finds almost every government and society wanting, and not least those, he says, that turn away and pretend not to know, behavior that we’ve seen before and that, in the spirit of his title, will one day be explained away until, in the end, it comes down to “a quiet unheard reckoning in the winter of life between the one who said nothing, did nothing, and their own soul.”
A philosophically rich critique of state violence and mass apathy.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593804148
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.
The third volume in the Elephant Whisperer series.
In this follow-up to An Elephant in My Kitchen, Malby-Anthony continues her loving portrait of the Thula Thula wildlife reserve, which she co-founded in 1998 with her late husband, South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, who published the first book in the series, The Elephant Whisperer, in 2009. Following his death in 2012, Malby-Anthony sought to honor his legacy by continuing his vision “to create a massive conservancy in Zululand, incorporating our land and other small farms and community land into one great big game park.” At the same time, the elephants gave her “a sense of purpose and direction.” In the Zulu language, thula means quiet, and though the author consistently seeks to provide that calm to her charges, peace and tranquility are not always easy to come by at Thula Thula. In this installment, Malby-Anthony discusses many of the challenges faced by her and her staff, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. These included an aggressive, 2-ton rhino named Thabo; the profound loss felt by all upon the death of their elephant matriarch, Frankie; difficulty obtaining permits and the related risk of having to relocate or cull some of their animals; the fear of looting and fire due to civil unrest in the region; and the ongoing and potentially deadly struggles with poachers. Throughout, the author also shares many warm, lighthearted moments, demonstrating the deep bond felt among the humans and animals at the reserve and the powerful effects of the kindness of strangers. “We are all working in unity for the greater good, for the betterment of Thula Thula and all our wildlife….We are humbled by the generosity and love, both from our guests and friends, and from strangers all around the world,” writes the author. “People’s open-hearted support kept us alive in the darkest times.”
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284259
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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