eaarth - Bill McKibben

I must say that after reading most of eaarth by Bill McKibben I am feeling a bit more gloomy about the current state of our civilization. I guess I may have been one of those people that Mr. McKibben talks about who thought of global warming as a problem for "tomorrow" or a problem that our grandchildren will have to deal with. I knew the situation was getting bad and that global warming was happening today, but I guess I didn't really realize the full effects of what could happen in my lifetime and what has already happened in the last couple decades.

Something that caught my eye was in the chapter "High Tide" when Mckibben is talking about making the transition away from fossil fuels. He states that "Almost every environmentalist around the world is working to raise the cost of fossil fuel, in the hope that higher prices will accelerate the switch". When I first read this I was a little bit confused and maybe a little frustrated. Almost everyone in our country uses these fossil fuels every day to get to school, work, and to heat our homes and they are trying to RAISE the cost?! I guess it's one of those things where everyone wants a better cleaner environment just as long as it doesn't negatively effect them in some way. This is sort of the "not in my back yard" mentality that is common in our society. I don't think I really thought about that the best way to make the transition to a new source of energy was by making the current source too expensive to use, but it is quite obvious when you think about it. For example the sale of electric vehicles and natural gas vehicles has started to really take off now that oil prices are consistently high. The technology has been there for a while, it just wasn't economically feasible to build and use such vehicles when oil was so cheap.

Later in "High Tide" Mckibben is talking about the effects of a rising ocean and a study by the U.S. department of Transportation. He mentions that a small rise in ocean levels would increase the potential for flooding in Manhattan and other parts of New York. This jumped out at me because of the major flooding that just happened in the New York area. The study was so far pretty correct in that regard, although I don't think even Bill McKibben himself would have thought it would happen so soon.

I have only glanced through the chapters past the first two, but they look a bit less gloomy than the first couple chapters. I've been really intrigued by McKibbens writing so far and find it very easy to read so i'm looking forward to finishing the book in the near future.