Falter by Bill McKibben

Falter is a book written by Bill McKibben and published in 2019 by Holt Publications. Bill lives in Vermont, and works at Middlebury College. Bill has been one of the early advocates of the perils of climate change and the environmental impacts humans have created and has written books about it including the End of Nature. 

What is this book about? 

Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Apparently, that is the question this book intends to examine and answer. The book is a NY Times best seller and top ten read by the Washington Post. To me, I am not sure exactly why its a top ten read but I am not here to question their judgement. 

Falter is a book about us 'humans' and the impact we have had, are having and intend to have on the planet, its ecosystem, other living organisms, and on humans as well. A lot of concepts, all rolled into one paperback book of around 300 odd pages. Some of the big issues that Bill writes about are (a) climate change (b) technology and AI (c) humans playing with humankind and in the process creating a super human i.e. CRISPR / germline alteration. The book has a distinct alarmist tone across most topics.  

I would read the book for a few chapters around climate change and thats it. To me, a book that races from climate change, to society, love and emotions, non violent protest, CRISPR, AI & Robotics, the quest for immortality, global inequality, Exxon bashing, space exploration etc is not focussing on one core issue as a start. 

The first few chapters under the topic 'Size of the Board' are worth reading. Although, if you want a more systematic approach to understand the dire impacts of climate change, I suggest reading chapters from Uninhabitable Earth by David Wells. David has analysed the key threats from climate change in a succinct, focussed manner with supporting data in most instances. That is more impactful and provides the reader with the necessary focus on this looming problem. Importantly, when you do witness carnage from a climate related event (e.g. a forest fire) you can go back to the specific chapter to refresh and gain a deeper insight into that issue. Falter also tries to highlight these issues but they are scattered across chapters hence I prefer the approach adopted by David. 

The book then leaps into the impacts of corporate America, Koch Brothers, Exxon, Ann Rand, politicians (Bush, Trump, Obama etc), protest, voting related issues etc. These are all topics by themselves and a few pages in a paperback won'd do any justice to these complex issues. 

Chapters on AI, robotics, machine learning and the future of machines again touch on very complex issues, perhaps even more than climate change. There is a near global consensus (you don't need to highlight Trump here) on the problems associated with climate change. Divergence is around how to tackle this problem and who pays for the pivot to a more sustainable world. In contrast, topics like AI, the scene is still evolving, arguments for and against are still being formulated and the canvas rapidly changing. Of course, all new technology is highly disruptive and will impact society and humans, in some cases disproportionately. But it is just too early to tell what that will be. Nonetheless, devoting a few pages on a evolving issue can do no justice at all.

Up next is CRISPR. That's a recent acronym but with immense potential that can be good, bad and ugly for all of us. Once again, a highly complex topic where a few pages can do little to educate the reader beyond alarmism. If you are keen to know more about CRISPR, read Code Breakers by Walter Isascson. Its got detail and chronicles all the key events that led to this immense scientific / biological breakthrough.

The standout chapter in the book is chapter 20. Definitely read that one and it can be read in isolation to the rest of the book which is good news. This chapter narrates the marvel of power and electricity, what it can do in remote places in Africa by uplifting societies and how it can be done sustainably without damaging the environment (solar power). The latter part of Chapter 22 is superb and it highlights the work of Nicole Poindexter in Africa. For more on Nicole, visit http://energicitycorp.com/nicole-poindexter-ceo-and-founder/. 

Unusually for a book, but for this one I do suggest; go through the references / notes section. A lot of links provided to articles that are available to read on the internet and will complement what you have read in the book. Finally, the acknowledgements section where you will get the names of some thought leaders especially in the area of climate change worthy of following.  

Overall, this is not an outstanding book as the NYTimes or Washington Post suggest it is. If you are keen to know more about the climate and environment, do pick it up and read selectively but bear in mind that whilst a lot of problems and issues are listed, not many concrete solutions will emerge from the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Falter-Human-Game-Begun-Itself/dp/1250178266

  

The Mosquito by Timothy C. Winegard

The Mosquito is the title of the book written by Timothy Winegard and is published by the Penguin group first in 2019. Timothy Winegard is an assistant professor of history and political science at the Colorado Mesa University and has written three other books besides this one. 

This book was on my reading list for a few reasons. Firstly, we are in the midst of a pandemic, so health related topics are interesting reads per se. Plus, I live in a tropical country (Singapore) where the preponderance of mosquitoes is definitely a problem. Thankfully, Singapore takes the threat from mosquitoes very seriously & is ruthlessly efficient in combating them! Finally, around ten years back, when I had just moved to Singapore from London, I had to rush back to Bombay as my mother had contracted Malaria and was hospitalised. This is how The Mosquito by Winegard arrived on my reading radar screen.  

Keeping the COVID 19 virus aside (this is a rare global pandemic event), mosquitoes are by far the single largest animal / insect group that's deadliest to humans. They have been occupying the pole position as the cause of human deaths (not counting chronic diseases like cardiac arrests and strokes etc) year after year; followed sadly by humans themselves. For instance, Malaria, transmitted via mosquitoes, is one of the leading causes of child mortality accounting for around 10% of child deaths. Geographically, Africa bears the brunt of the impact of most of the diseases transmitted via mosquitoes but has also made the most progress as well. 

Chapter 1 - Toxic Twins is an excellent chapter to read. If you have little time, I suggest just read this chapter. The chapter tells you everything in a nutshell about this deadly creature. As a start, mosquitoes are the root cause of Malaria but also Dengue, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya, Zika, West Nile etc. By now you should get the drift that this is a serious topic that you should know a bit more about. 

Next, this is a creature that is wired to survive so forget about quick fixes here. Scientists claim that the mosquito has been around for around 190 million years or so; humans less than a million just to set the context. Clearly they, 'the mosquitoes', know how to live, prosper and navigate on Earth. This is also a creature that has perfected her art of attacking humans (yes 'her' because the female species is the deadly one). The link below, is a short documentary that the author recommends to watch. In just over 3 mins, this video will demonstrate, just how utterly sophisticated the  mosquito is. After reading that chapter & watching this video you will be convinced this is a very deadly, sophisticated killing machine that has honed its skills over centuries and claimed many lives in the process. 

"How Mosquitoes Use Six Needles to Suck Your Blood | Deep Look"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD8SmacBUcU

Winegard says mosquitoes have killed around half of humanity since inception in various ways so we must pay respect to this creature. [Note this is his estimate not mine]. However, I have cross-checked this claim and Nature, corroborates this view via their article Portrait of a SerialKiller.  https://www.nature.com/articles/news021001-6

Given its deadly impact, it would interesting to list a few prominent people that have been afflicted with disease or died because of the mosquito. These include Alexander the Great (one potential cause of death Malaria), Julius Caesar (contracted Malaria), Christopher Columbus, Oliver Cromwell, Charles V, Vasco De Gama, Byron, Lincoln and Kennedy just to name a few. [Note: given that Malaria's modern scientific diagnosis and attribution to mosquitoes as a carrier vector is only very recent, thanks to work of Ronald Ross in the late 1800s, historians have to triangulate people's affliction to Malaria and other diseases through anecdotal evidence].   

For many years before Ronald Ross, the world was unable to link mosquitoes to malaria and the causes for the fevers, chills and deaths were attributed to bad air, miasma. But not all were searching in the wrong places. 

Winegard states that the Indian physician Sushruta as early as in the 6 C BCE was not only linking water as a key cause to the spread of malaria but also mosquitoes. In his detailed compendium, he singled out five mosquito species & their bites as deadly causes for fevers, chills, vomiting, diarrhoea, shivering etc. Sushruta was right about his research and observations but sadly as Winegard writes "Dr. Sushruta's astute reasoning and keen observations went unheeded for millennia".  

Its not that humans have not fought back against the mosquito. They have; through the slow process of evolution as a start. People with sickle cell traits possess a degree of immunity to certain strains of malaria and its not surprising that African Americans and Africans suffer from this sickle cell mutation which confers a degree of immunity to the malarial parasite.  Then came quinine that comes from the bark of the Cinchona tree. It's tremendously bitter and hence it's mixed with other drinks to mask its bitterness. The prevalence of Gin & Tonic especially with British officers combating Malaria in India is attributed to this reason. The importance of quinine was also felt in the American Cvil War when Northern troops had a steady supply of quinine compared to the Southern armies.  

As the scientific age dawned, more measures were taken to combat the menace especially after the work of Ronald Ross and Robert Koch. Mosquito nets, DDT, vaccines etc all played a role and started making an impact in controlling the spread of mosquitoes. But the diseases carried by the mosquitos have also fought back. They have mutated, evolved and become drug resistant making it an ongoing battle between us and them. Most notable in this regard, is Zika which made its re-appearance in a more potent form and in locations that were not endemic to Zika in the past including places like Brazil and Singapore. 

Climate Change is also a key accelerator for the spread of these diseases. Mosquitoes live in warmer climates so areas that are cooler were spared from this deadly killer. But now, Mosquitoes and Malaria are being found in temperate highlands as well as temperatures have begun to rise. Further, as forests are cleared and humans occupy these space, the natural habitat of mosquitoes is being disrupted causing them to infect more people that invade their homes.    

The book also chronicles the impact mosquitoes and their diseases on key global events; perhaps in a detail more than I expected and enjoyed. The author argues that mosquitoes have played decisive roles in battles and military engagements in the past as armies have been defeated through the spread of diseases like Malaria. For the author, the mosquito has played a pivotal role across all major events and has actively shaped the arc of history. To me, whilst the impact of disease on historical events cannot be underplayed they are rarely the sole cause of how things turned out the way they did. An allied book on this concept to read is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. 

Overall it's an informative book that provides the reader with a very unique perspective. It is also a topic which has not been written extensively about so when a book is dedicated to this creature it becomes a worthy read in my view. My gripe with the book is a lot of emphasis and details went into the historical events stretching back to the Greeks and ending in modern times. I would have liked to have balanced the historical impact with more scientific inputs & knowledge around mosquitoes and the diseases they carry. 

https://ourworldindata.org/malaria [useful data on malaria via graphs]

 

https://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Human-History-Deadliest-Predator/dp/1524743410

The Ends of the World

The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen is a book about mass extinctions that have occured in our Earth's history. The book was published by One World Publications in 2017. Peter is an award winning journalist who resides in Boston and has published articles in the New York Times, Atlantic, Washington Post and the Guardian to name a few. 

Before I would get into the review of the book, it would be good to distinguish between Mass Extinctions and Evolution. Evolution is what we associate with Darwin & Alfred Wallace and the often quoted expression 'survival of the fittest'. This is a slow, evolutionary process whereby species evolve, change and some go extinct over time. 

That comes to the point of extinction then. A sobering fact, according to the National Geographic more than 99% of all organisms that have ever lived on planet Earth are extinct. Whilst evolution and the changing ecology have slowly contributed towards species going extinct, there have been sporadic events in the history of the Earth where c. 75% to 90% of all species on Earth have gone extinct in a relatively short time span (short from a geological perspective). That is what is referred to as Mass Extinctions which is the subject of Peter Brannen's book. 

The book is not an easy read for those like myself who are not familiar with geological terms and events. So take your time and do some additional reading / research to supplement the book. Why? Because understanding time, periods, eras, rocks and geology is one the best ways to understand the history of the Earth especially as we shall look back into time. If the book drags in a few sections, persist or even re-read a chapter or two. It will be a very enlightening and enriching experience at the end. 

Firstly, time periods. Humans who read and explore history like to talk in terms of years, centuries or millennia. To appreciate these events we need to completely rescale our definition of time. All of human history is around 150,000 - 200,000 years at maximum (kindly discount some nation creating myths...) but that is considered extremely recent from a geological perspective. Scientists estimate the age of the Earth to be 4.5 billions years old, yes it has celebrated many birthdays! And for around 90% of that time, the planet has been desolate wasteland, quiet and devoid of any life. So one does need to recalibrate their definition of time and history when we look at Mass Extinction Events. 

Since the birth of the Earth, we fast forward many billions of years and come to one of the most defining moments for the planet. Around 540 million years ago (yes that far back), we had a mega event called the Cambrian Explosion. An explosion of life form on the planet. An incredible amount of diverse life-forms came into being. The seas and not land is where all this new life form activity was taking place, land continued to remained barren for a while. This was driven by falling CO2 levels in the sea and rising oxygen levels in the sea which promoted diverse life forms. All the landmass was concentrated in the Southern Hemisphere which is different to today and the Northern Hemisphere was largely water. 

Since the Cambrian, the Earth has witnessed five Mass Extinction Events. What is common to these events is the role of CO2 and the climate. When the CO2 balance alters, the climate changes violently, oxygen levels drop in the atmosphere & oceans and life-form takes a massive hit. Most of the events are caused due to earthly events and less due to extra terrestrial factors like radiation, asteroids etc. The Earth ultimately heals and new set of life forms emerge and come to dominate the Earth. Minnows of the previous eras become masters of the new. Its also rare that there is one single event that is the cause of Mass Extinction. It tends to be a chain of events that operate like a negative spiral / loop. In some cases its just a coincidence of bad luck events. The book reminds us of this well, via a coin toss analogy. The Earth is old; millions of years old. If you toss a coin many millions of times, there could be a day when a 100 tosses all come up tails. When that happens we have such events! 

The first was the End Ordovician Event which occured around 445 million years ago and would be the second worst by impact. All life-forms were in the sea so the event was impacted conditions in the seas. And the seas were dominated by invertebrates (multi cellular, some with eyes, segmented body parts) rather than vertebrates (fish) that we currently associate with sea & ocean life. What brought about this event was a change in the carbon - silicate cycle caused by volcanic rocks pushing upwards, weathering of rock, reduction in CO2 levels etc. That reduced temperatures and continental ice sheets began to form. Water that rained over land (helped by a massive single landmass in the Southern Hemisphere) became ice and did not find its way back into the sea and sea levels dropped. As most of life form existed in shallow seas, there was no where to go as sea levels kept falling.

After 5 million years the planet began to recover. Peter then steps up to his next chapter the Late Devonian Mass Extinction that took place around 374-359 million years ago. Unlike the other mass extinctions, this played out over a long duration of 20-30 million years. This was also the period when life form (plants) began to grow on land. And with this, caused a change in the earth's climate (more a change in the composition of oceans) that led to the second mass extinction. Plants and trees also suck a considerable amount of CO2 which again impacts the climate. Those that survived this event had one essential skill, they could make the move from shallow waters to land. This comes through possessing primitive breathing apparatus commonly called 'lungs' and primitive appendages called legs .

That brings us to the end Permian Mass Extinction around 250 million years ago. The Permian is the time when the Earth is more recognisable in form to us. Trees grew abundantly, animals were able to make a move onto land. Continents fused to form a giant continent called Pangea.  

There are two critical events in Earth's history (nothing to do with humans) (a) the great Cambrian Explosion and (b) the End Permian Mass Extinction where more than 85% of life went extinct - so this was the Big One!! The prime cause was too much CO2 & other GHG's pumped into the atmosphere. Likely reason - Siberian Traps, Continental Flood Basalts. The amount of lava rock ejected would have covered the entire USA with half a mile deep of lava. Temperatures shot up. With such intense heat, heat differentials across the Earth dropped and water circulation patterns in the Oceans stopped. With high CO2 levels, acid rain caused intense rock weathering that amplified ocean anoxia losing their store of oxygen. With that came the deaths of many species. 

Around 200 million years ago, it was devastation time once again with end Triassic Mass Extinction. This was a time that was dominated by the ancestors of modern day crocodiles. And they suffered at the end of the Triassic. Again the main cause of this event - high CO2 levels in the atmosphere, volcanic activity, continental plate movements (split of the mega continent Pangea) and ocean anoxification. It seems like a bad story that keeps repeating but spaced by millions of years. 

Then comes the most interesting chapter of the book. The end Cretaceous period that occurred around 66 million years ago. This is the most interesting event to read about. Thanks to Jurassic Park, we have all become familiar and mesmerised with the world of dinosaurs. These magnificent and fascinating reptiles ruled the Earth for millions of years! And the theory holds they vanished very suddenly. This is one extinction event that was triggered externally - an asteroid impact. The impact of this was quick & sudden and devastation immediate. Additional theories link the massive impact of the asteroid to immense earthquakes (11 on the Richter Scale!) which then triggered massive volcanic activity. The Deccan Traps were already spewing volcanic matter and this was the smoking gun. The Deccan Traps went into over drive thereafter upsetting the entire ecology of the world. The book describes all this is great detail. The end Cretaceous is one of the most highly researched geological events and for good reason. 

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/208/4448/1095
This is one of the most celebrated research papers published in Science in geology; that outlined the asteroid theory as the prime cause for the extinction of dinosaurs. Walter Alvarez was the lead geologist and worked with his father Luis Alvarez (Nobel laureate in Physics) on this paper. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOFq11f3wAI
National Geographic Documentary on the extinction of dinosaurs, a good one to watch.

As dinosaurs died, the minnows of the Cretaceous period mammals began to dominate life on Earth.   

Since then the Earth has periodically been faced with an adverse climate including ice ages. But the effects have not been as devastating as the five events above. A lot of people have been talking about the sixth extinction as on on going event, the era that we are in. As humans have come to dominate the planet, the industrial revolution in particular has been injecting large amounts of CO2 and other GHG into the atmosphere. From reading the above events, we know by now what happens when the CO2 concentrations rise, the climate becomes hostile! 

This book was not an easy read. It talks about life on planet Earth a long long way back in time. But its an interesting read if you persist and it will definitely enhance your knowledge about the climate, ecology, CO2 cycles and Mass Extinction Events.  

https://www.amazon.com/Ends-World-Apocalypses-Understand-Extinctions/dp/0062364804