The Uninhabitable Earth

by David Wallace-Wells 2019

Book Review by Ray Herrmann

This is a Great book for building an awareness of the messes our actions are making. Worsening events will drive changes in behavior, both radical from both ends and sensible towards the middle. And this awareness is growing now, so we had best be informed

Consider what might happen when:

• Persistent droughts and the related crop failures drive millions of refugees from entire regions into better-off nations.
• Flooding and shrinking coastlines drive vast populations inland worldwide and immerse countries like Bangladesh. Where will these people live?
• Wildfires destroy millions of acres of carbon-absorbing forests, including many areas in the Amazon Rain Forest (Peatland fires in Indonesia in 1997 released up to 3.6 billion tons of carbon, 40% of the annual global average).
• Continual population growth requires ever more land, potable water, agricultural food (meats too!) and fish.
• Half the world's population depends on snow-melt for water, but melt sources are decreasing
• Nutrients are diminished when, as CO2 levels rise, crops produce more sugars and less proteins and vitamins.
• Heat spells, humid and over ~130ºF, threaten to suddenly kill most all life in certain regions, especially in the Middle East and India. A wet-bulb temperature over 95ºF is deadly because then our bodies can't cool by sweating. Where will the survivors live?
• Imagine the public's reaction to about 100 times as many immigrants as there has been recently from the Middle East into Northern Europe. This coming at a time when we are also dealing with all the pressures stated above. Note that the general response to the recent immigrations has been an increase in Nationalism, which could likely lead to wars.
• Amid all this chaos, how will we "unite" to fight off future pandemics (which have been getting more frequent and more threatening as world population grows).

So far, we have only had a 1.2ºC Global Temperature rise since the dawn of industrialization. Even if all current Paris Agreement Global Warming promises are met, the Global Temperature is predicted to rise about 3.4ºC by year 2100!

Most Global Warming effects come as gradually accumulating features, but they are relentless. Yet equilibrium from just today's pollutions will not be reached for 100 years. And Nature will take thousands of years to make a dent in what we have already done. Full atmospheric recovery may take the Earth 100,000 years, as the earth's rocks erode, trapping carbon from mountain runoff (the normal mechanism). So, unless we find a way to remove CO2 from our air, our children and generations to follow will have to deal with the world we left them!

The sooner we change our behavior the less damaging will be our children's (and all life's) future, if they even have a long future. Yet we seem to be moving toward crypto currency even though each Bitcoin transaction consumes 1,173 kilowatt hours of electricity. That's the volume of energy that could power the typical American home for six weeks!

I end with a quote by David Wallace-Wells, the author, as a reply to a quote Enrico Fermi made in 1950, during a discussion with friends about Alien life: "Where is everybody?"
"In a universe that is many billions of years old, with star systems separated as much by time as by space, civilizations might emerge and develop and then burn themselves up simply too fast to ever find one another."