The God Species

September 15, 2011

A serious view of humans' negative environmental impact on Earth and the steps needed to correct these issues.

"Nature no longer runs the Earth. We do. It is our choice what happens from here. So writes Lynas (Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, 2008, etc.) in his introduction to this sobering, sometimes depressing look at the planet. With the world population at close to 7 billion people, humans now have the power to destroy the Earth's bio-geochemical cycles, dooming our own species to mass extinction. Dividing the world's problems into nine separate issues, including CO2 emissions, nitrogen fertilizer usage, freshwater consumption and the acidification of the oceans, the author takes a thorough look at the economic, political and social impact of each predicament. Using hard scientific data to back his theories, Lynas calls on humans to consciously manage the planet by setting "planetary boundaries" for each issue. Maintaining these boundaries could involve a variety of solutions, including an increase in solar and wind power, a small tax whose funds would directly support ecosystem and habitat restoration and an increase in urbanization. Other, possibly objectionable, ideas include a worldwide increase in nuclear power (despite Chernobyl and Fukushima) to bring CO2 emissions below the 350 ppm "tipping point," using more genetically engineered crops, the deregulation and privatization of water and the disuse of biofuels. Regardless of the solution, the question remains—are we "rebel organisms destined to destroy the biosphere or divine apes sent to manage it intelligently and so save it from ourselves"? Lynas believes humans are the latter, capable of identifying and correcting the problems we've created while steadily increasing human prosperity—but only if we attack the issues with full force starting now.

An accurate portrayal of the state of the planet and a call to action using all means possible before boundaries are crossed with irreversible results.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 15, 2011
In British journalist Lynas' previous work, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet (2008), he envisions how the earth might change during each of six successive degrees of anticipated global temperature warming. In continuing his theme of examining man's Godlike influence on earth ecology, Lynas now looks at nine planetary boundaries, which, if surpassed, will have catastrophic effects on both human and animal life. Aside from the most critical boundary, climate change, the biodiversity boundarywhere plant and animal life extinctions are upsetting the food chaincomes in a close second. The destruction of fish habitats alone, for instance, is already having a devastating impact on ocean life. Others include the interrelated boundaries of toxins and freshwater (an increasingly dwindling commodity), land use (involving disappearing wild lands), nitrogen (an overload from industrial farming), and aerosols (thankfully, improving). For readers just getting used to the grim outlook on global warming provided by environmental scientists, this nine-sided overview of potential environmental disasters may be especially unsettling. Yet Lynas' sobering treatise should not be overlooked, particularly by readers interested in governmental policy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2011

A serious view of humans' negative environmental impact on Earth and the steps needed to correct these issues.

"Nature no longer runs the Earth. We do. It is our choice what happens from here. So writes Lynas (Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, 2008, etc.) in his introduction to this sobering, sometimes depressing look at the planet. With the world population at close to 7 billion people, humans now have the power to destroy the Earth's bio-geochemical cycles, dooming our own species to mass extinction. Dividing the world's problems into nine separate issues, including CO2 emissions, nitrogen fertilizer usage, freshwater consumption and the acidification of the oceans, the author takes a thorough look at the economic, political and social impact of each predicament. Using hard scientific data to back his theories, Lynas calls on humans to consciously manage the planet by setting "planetary boundaries" for each issue. Maintaining these boundaries could involve a variety of solutions, including an increase in solar and wind power, a small tax whose funds would directly support ecosystem and habitat restoration and an increase in urbanization. Other, possibly objectionable, ideas include a worldwide increase in nuclear power (despite Chernobyl and Fukushima) to bring CO2 emissions below the 350 ppm "tipping point," using more genetically engineered crops, the deregulation and privatization of water and the disuse of biofuels. Regardless of the solution, the question remains--are we "rebel organisms destined to destroy the biosphere or divine apes sent to manage it intelligently and so save it from ourselves"? Lynas believes humans are the latter, capable of identifying and correcting the problems we've created while steadily increasing human prosperity--but only if we attack the issues with full force starting now.

An accurate portrayal of the state of the planet and a call to action using all means possible before boundaries are crossed with irreversible results.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)