The Uninhabitable Earth is a book by David Wallace-Wells and was published Tim Duggan Books (Random House) in 2019/2020 (#1 New York Times best seller). David is a journalist by profession and is a columnist and deputy editor of the New York magazine. This is the second book I have reviewed on Climate Change, the first being written by Bill Gates. The two books are remarkably different in content and approach with Gates being solution oriented and more data driven. That I am not surprised, as all his life Gates has focussed on problem solving and has valued a data centric approach.
The question arises is how is The Uninhabitable Earth different and what's my honest take on the book. For starters, this book is unlikely to provide the reader with any specific carbon reducing / altering strategies. This is not what the reader should expect. I shall briefly state here that green house gas emissions (chiefly carbon), are the prime drivers of climate change and this is what leaders, environmentalists, business chiefs, and all of us should be concerned about.
The book has been split into four key chapters. I recommend reading this book largely because of chapter II, Elements of Chaos. This is the key chapter of the book as it will provide an excellent perspective on the issues of Climate Change. More importantly, it will expose the reader to a concept of feedback loops and inter dependency that will demonstrate the catastrophic impacts of a warming planet which is beyond just rising average temperatures.
Elements of Chaos starts with the impact of heat on humans which is a natural extension of a warming planet. As temperatures rise across the world, living conditions will become harsher in most regions. Yet, the impact of a warmer planet is more than the impact of warmer temperatures on humans. Plants and crops are impacted, with yields dropping and in some cases regions becoming inhospitable to certain plant species entirely. There is also the risk of rising sea levels and its impact on coastal regions, where a large percentage of the world's population resides. Continuing with water, as climate and precipitation patterns change, it will impact the availability of fresh drinking water and cause a drop in the oxygen levels in oceans (impacting marine life). There is also the wide spread impact of a drying planet - wild fires - which hits prosperous regions like Australia and California with increasing intensity year on year.
As we are still in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic, the impact on the spread of pathogens and plagues is vital. A warming / altering climate with expose humans to different pathogens. Some of these pathogens have been buried deep inside the Arctic Permafrost. As this Permafrost melts, pathogens will surface. An excellent read on this is 'The Zombie Diseases of Climate Change' published by the Atlantic in Nov. 2017. Besides just the melting of the Permafrost, a warming climate will alter the natural habitat of mosquitoes (a deadly enemy of human kind). [I shall write a separate book review on the Mosquito by Timothy Winegard - a very interesting read indeed]. As food scarcity increases, more deforestation takes place especially in poorer countries which results in further upsetting the ecology and promotes the spread of newer pathogens. Recent outbreaks of Ebola and Zika come to mind immediately.
'Climate Conflict' is a term we need to become increasingly more familiar with. Yemen is a good case in point. For many of us, we would view the civil war in Yemen as an ideological war or proxy war between Saudi and Iran. But its noteworthy to point out around 40% of Yemen's population has experienced the effects of a 30 year drought. That number climbs to c. 60% for Afghanistan and settles at around 30% for Somalia (ISciences 2018). When you couple these statistics with the fact that c. 80% of Somalians are engaged in farming and agriculture you immediately understand the challenges people in these countries face. Now you add weak / non existent political systems, burgeoning populations (Somalia 6.07 births / woman in 2018; Sudan is 4.41 and Yemen is 3.79), severe water shortages and decreasing agricultural yields, its not hard to determine why conflict occurs there and why these regions have become hot spot recruiting grounds for terror groups. I have shared two good links on Yemen & the water crisis.
https://geographical.co.uk/places/cities/item/753-will-yemen-run-out-of-water
https://science.time.com/2010/12/14/what-if-yemen-is-first-country-to-run-out-of-water/#:~:text=In%20Sana'a%2C%20which%20could,lot%20of%20water%20to%20grow.
For a good visual, look at the two graphs below. Monthly temperatures of Somalia from 1901-1930 and a second one from 1991 - 2020 (World Bank Data). The graphs are self explanatory and show a steepening of average temperatures for Somalia which has happened over a span of a generation or two. Do remember, that even small sustained changes in temperature has a massive impact on humans.
There are also wide spread economic impacts on both the developed and developing world we need to consider from a climate that is rapidly altering. For instance, coastal cities will definitely be impacted from rising sea levels. Many of the world's richest and poorest live around the coast. For the poor, it could mean accelerated migration inwards which causes societal disruptions. For the rich it could be mean precipitous drops in property values, higher costs to combat floods & rising sea levels and rising insurance premiums.
Returning to the other chapters of the book, I did not enjoy reading Chapter III - The Climate Kaleidoscope and Chapter IV The Anthropic Principle. Discussions around political systems, haves v/s have nots, role of capitalism, technology etc are important but in my view were not well described in these chapters. We all know the issue of Climate Change is a prickly one. Long term solutions may disenfranchise a small minority. But that small minority could be vocal and could cost politicians electoral votes. Additionally, there are large corporate and economic interests, problems of a free rider society and discussions of carbon emissions on a per capita basis v/s absolute emissions per country . These are complex topics and deserve books in their own right. This coupled with the absence of concrete solutions are what disengaged me from Chapters III and IV.
To me the key takeaways from the book are well described just via Chapter II. In a succinct but systematic manner, the author has laid out the issues that arise from a warming planet for the reader. One should note that each of the sub-chapters of Chapter II has books, journals and research devoted as they are complex topics on a standalone basis. But the overarching importance is around feedback loops and negative spirals that can take place and that makes it a compelling read for any person that wishes to get a good grasp of the challenges we face on this front.
The book is available in many book stores and on Amazon. I got mine delivered via Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Uninhabitable-Earth-Life-After-Warming/dp/0525576703
