The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption

This is one of the scariest books I've ever read. Especially (1) the predicted level of sea rise and (2) the permafrost that is thawing under Arctic waters and releasing methane to the atmosphere. Not in the future, but now.

PROS: I like that he didn't end the book with the usual: "But there's still time!" Because there isn't. His talk about grief was very helpful. Anyone who's paying attention is in grief. Thanks, Dahr, for addressing it.

CONS: The author climbs mountains and glaciers. I have no interest in mountain climbing, especially in the cold. It seems stupid and dangerous. Once he nearly died. I don't like reading about it. Yes, he reported on the receding glaciers, but an aerial photo would work as well and then he won't die.

I show more agree with the author that our time has run out. However, I still make every effort to reduce my carbon footprint, more than most do in the U.S. Why? Because I can. And because I don't what else to do.

There's no hope because of tipping points. Because of climate change deniers and their politicians. And because, in the midst of all this obvious climate disruption of late, U.S. airports are breaking all records. Americans are some of the highest carbon emitters and their carbon consumption is not even slowing down. The human population is at 8 billion and still rising. We're well into the Sixth Extinction and there's no stopping it.

Okay, I digress from the book.

This book is recommended to the brave and the curious. But don't expect to be uplifted. show less

Jamail travels to various locales - the top of glaciers, the Great Barrier Reef, forests and coastal villages- to assess the effect of global warming on glaciers, trees, sea life, animals, and humans. His findings and those of the scientists he interviews indicate that the sixth extinction is well underway. And humans will be one of the species that is lost - and soon.
Eye opening and frightening.

Here was my initial review of this book:

"Sobering but refreshing read. Grieve and bear witness, that’s all that’s left to do."

It is easy to see that and imagine how one might be led down the path to an existential crisis. And that is *exactly* what happened. Between this book and "The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace Wells, I did just that, lapsed into a crisis. Why bother to keep on living? Why care about the environment? It's all going to end with an uninhabitable planet, so recycling aluminum cans and plastic just seems like a big waste.

I'm not kidding when I say that it caused me to think of life as a complete waste of time, and that it was perfectly acceptable to just end it all.

Fortunately that did not happen. My general show more underlying positive viewpoint fought back. I did not want to see my beautiful wife lapse into this "we have ruined the planet and humans deserve to die off" mindset. I kept reading. And I found a couple of books that saved my sanity.

One was The End of Doom by Ronald Bailey.

The other was Apocalypse Never by Michael Shellenberger.

Those books literally saved my life.

This isn't about being a so-called 'climate change denier' or whatever label you want to sling out. This is about approaching science with a bit of healthy skepticism, about rejecting the concept of consensus as it has *no place* anywhere near the idea of science. It is about regaining hope. It is about learning to care for the earth and our legacy on this planet. show less