Sanctuary |Review
The Uninhabitable
Earth: A Story of
The Future
by David Wallace-Wells
Published by Tim Duggan
Hardcover, 320 pages,
Price: Rs. 799/-“It is worse, much worse than
you think.”
This is the fi rst line of The
Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of
The Future.
If our concerns about climate
change revolve around untimely
rain, ruinous and consecutive
cyclones or hurricanes, sea level
rise and heatwaves; then we are
barely scratching the surface of
what horrors are possible 15 years
from today.
Scientists understood the
greenhouse eff ect, and school
children understood that the way
we produce carbon is by burning
wood, coal and oil and that this
could turn the climate into a
hothouse and disequilibrate every
life supporting system we know.
However, it is the scope that is incomprehensible. Discussing
threats can feel distant and also come on as an abstract
idea to many; that is until a quantifi cation of the impending
damage is initiated.
The book’s basis stems from a viral 2017 New York
Magazine article penned by Wallace-Wells as a sort of trailer
for the hell that awaits us if we don’t alter our current
manner of living.
Split into four sections, the fi rst one is aptly titled
‘Cascades’, laying the groundwork for an exploration into what
appear to be all worst-case climate scenarios. The section
peers at what the planet could be like at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8
degrees increase in global temperatures above pre-industrial
levels, respectively. The world is currently at 1.1 degrees,
witnessing extreme climate events. As of October 2018, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notifi ed
and advised global leaders to facilitate a situation that
keeps the climate no higher than 1.5 degrees and defi nitely
lower than 2 degrees. Our current trajectory is on track for
4 degrees within this century, which would produce river
damages as much as twenty-fold in India, and put Europe
through a permanent drought while creating losses that are
upwards of $600 trillion.
The second section discusses the ‘elements of chaos’.
No chapter in this section paints a pretty picture of thefuture. Like dominoes on
stand-by – heat, death, hunger,
drowning, wildfi res, dying oceans,
unbreathable air, plagues,
economic breakdown and
ultimately, climate confl ict and
systems collapse are scanned with
the help of research data from
scientists, climate writers, activists,
economists and people who have
now become the fi rst victims of
this vortex. This section is heavy
and frightening to get through
and Wallace-Wells commends “if
you have made it this far, you are
a brave reader.”
The book spins into the
climate kaleidoscope, which
looks into storytelling about
the end of the world in art and
culture. It is pointed out that
on-screen climate devastation
is everywhere you look, yet
nowhere in focus; perhaps
out of hope? Technological
advancements are questioned,
whether they can avert the
fast-arriving – for if we don’t act
quickly – most problems set in
motion now will be irreversible.
The politics of consumption are examined calling
attention to the structure of a political and economic order
that not only permits the disparity amongst people and
countries, but profi ts from it. Consumer choices are not
a substitute for political action – something that is much
needed to change the world. How widespread alarm will
share our ethical impulses toward one another and politics
steaming from these impulses is one of the profound
questions the climate asks of people.
The fi nal section sinks its teeth into the anthropic
principle, and puts the Fermi paradox, the great fi lter and
zoo hypothesis into the climate change ribcage. Are we
the only ones here? Are we cosmically special? And if
we assume for a second that we are – what are we – the
special superiors doing to the planet?
Many scientists have disagreed with the tone of the book;
that it is an ‘overly bleak’ (Michael Mann) worst case scenario
for future warming but if there’s one thrust that the book
delivers is that it is within our power to change this course.
The Uninhabitable Earth delivers value in fear, for being
scared about the future of our planet can shake people out
of complacency and motivate us all into action. Reviewed by Sara MahdiBook Review