“The voices in this world which have the most power belong to those who are destroying it”, writes Greta Thunberg in the outro of her spectacular new book.
It is a sentence which encapsulates the skill with which she can speak the blatant truths our society can scarcely acknowledge, but it is also a damning conclusion and part of a revolutionary call to arms.
Her zero-tolerance level for bulls*** is the beacon which has not only won her acclaim, but also lights the way through this collection of essays, evidence and potential solutions written by an astonishing list of experts, scientists, activists and authors.
The book replicates Thunberg’s career to date – highly adept at pulling out the most salient facts explaining precisely what they mean, and the steps which must be taken to remedy the problems – with no compromises.
But unlike her short sharp speeches to world leaders, the scope of this work is planetary in scale.
It is a massive undertaking in which she calls on the best people possible, to help her make sense of the rapid trashing of the natural world and the ecosystems life depends on.
At this point in her career – aged 19 – instead of writing any kind of self-aggrandising book heavy on her triumphs, this work instead elevates the voices of others – showcasing in its very substance the way forward in tackling crises.
Though of course in this instance, Thunberg plays inspiring leader under a banner of global revolution for those under the yoke of nefarious power.
Each section of the book contains an essay by Thunberg herself, introducing and synthesising what she has learned, drawing down the extraordinary quantity of information and channelling it into a form of urgent momentum towards change.
Most contributors are academics and scientists, but there are some famous names too. Margaret Atwood, George Monbiot, Naomi Klein and Thomas Piketty all make significant contributions.
We start with the emergence of life on our planet – the magic and fragility of the carbon cycle, and how it has shaped evolution. Every single mass extinction event is associated with huge disruptions to the carbon cycle. And we are seeing another disruption right now.
The emergence of homo sapiens and our unique position of power means we have become “the evolutionary force that will decide the fate of every species, as well as the habitats in which those species live,” writes the University of California’s Beth Shapiro.
But our real problems began very recently.
In the Civilisation and Extinction section, Pulitzer prize-winning economist Elizabeth Colbert highlights how “between 1945 and 2000 the number of people in the world tripled. During the same period water use quadrupled, the marine fish catch increased sevenfold and fertiliser consumption rose tenfold. Most of the population growth occurred in the Global South. Most of the consumption was driven by the US and Europe.”
We are, Thunberg says “sawing off the branch we’re living on”.
The book catalogues incredible levels of human disgrace and our abuse of the planet, but also makes detailed attempts to understand why, so we can learn and move on.
We are given a crash course in the complex and highly alarming science of environmental tipping points, grapple with the psychology of mindless consumerism, learn about the water cycle, the jet stream, ocean currents, extreme weather, and much more.
Paulo Ceppi from the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London tells us why we need to learn more about clouds and our influence on them – they both shade us, and insulate us depending on their height in the atmosphere and the type of cloud, but they are fragile. Screw too much with the clouds and they will screw us up.
In a moving essay titled “Insects”, the University of Sussex’s Dave Goulson writes about the joy of collecting yellow and black caterpillars as a young child and the delight in watching them transform into striking black and red cinnabar moths – one experience which put him on a path to becoming an expert on insects, particularly bees. His life’s work has been done in the shadow of an insect apocalypse, he explains, wiping the creatures to which he has devoted his career from the face of the planet.
