Bill McKibbon is a well-known environmental activist and a Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College (Vermont, USA). His most recent book, Falter, sheds a rather gloomy outlook on our planet’s development over the coming decades. This assessment might contrast with more optimistic world outlooks described recently by two influential authors, Steven Pinker (Enlightenment Now) and Hans Rosling (Factfulness) (Note: Both of these books have previously been reviewed here on the Lorange Network). However, even Pinker and Rosling have expressed their concerns about adverse climatic and other environmental developments. McKibbon picks up on this very issue, leaving little room for disagreement among the three authors. All three offer the stark warning to us all that we can all take a responsible stand.
McKibbon calls for a dramatically increased emphasis on the climate change issue, given how out of control the world’s climate has developed. His arguments are as follows:
A) The effects of climate change are increasingly impacting us. This growing pressure derives from the increased accumulation of CO2 not only in the Earth’s atmosphere, but also in its oceans. The results from the consequent climate change will be devastating:
We can expect more and stronger heatwaves, to the extent that it will become increasingly difficult—if not impossible—for humans to continue to live in many traditionally inhabited areas of the world.
The world’s oceans will warm, leading to accelerated melting of ice in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. As a result, water levels will rise, threatening the very existence of many of our world’s leading cities (London, Shanghai, Boston, New York, Miami, and Calcutta, to name only a few) and leading to the disappearance of several island nations (e.g., Seychelles and Mauritius) and low-lying regions (e.g., large parts of Florida and Holland). Thus, the space available for humans to live will shrink. McKibbon calls this a lessening of the size of the board. It will also lead to major population displacements and geopolitical tensions.
B) Climate change will lead to the plight of the major oil- and coal-producing companies. McKibbon argues forcefully that the continued intensive burning of fossil fuel—primarily coal and oil—is the main cause of all of climate change. The author further argues that short-term economic gains might lead to a suppression of these facts among leading oil and coal producers. McKibbon calls this “the leverage argument” (i.e., the burning of fossil fuel is of such a critical short-term importance to the world’s economy that not much may be done to curtail the use of fossil fuels).
C) Several major societal developments might have an effect on this course of events. However, McKibbon reaches a fundamentally pessimistic conclusion: The world’s course will not be corrected. This section of his book covers the following areas:
A discussion of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, as well as that of other leading laissez-faire thinkers, which seems to underscore that, in their opinion, governmental intervention would be largely inappropriate.
The short-term returns of most political activities. How can politicians, facing short-term reelection pressures, be realistically expected to act on these long-term climate change issues?
Artificial intelligence is clearly here to stay, but McKibbon does not see how this realistically might help to address the climate change challenges.
Gene manipulation has questionable value. Here, too, McKibbon does not foresee much help.
D) Humanity nevertheless has an outside chance of averting catastrophe. Above all, McKibbon sees the emergence of more effective solar power technology as key. In his opinion, this development might lead to a realistic optimism that climate change might eventually be curtailed. He also sees the emergence of a nonviolent protest movement as critical. In this respect, it is perhaps worthwhile to highlight the emergence of the so-called Sunrise Movement, which seems to be very successful indeed.
In a brief epilogue, the author draws an analogy with the impressive advances that mankind has made when it comes to space exploration and concludes that some hope might exist after all. So, could we offset climate change? Is there still time?
This is an important book. Its core message is clear: The gravity of the climate change threat is high. A call to action is critically important! As a final comment, this reviewer was struck by the fact that McKibbon seems to largely ignore other leading writers on this topic, such as David Wallace-Wells. Perhaps this omission might signal in itself that leading proponents of climate control may still not be pulling together and are thus, in effect, weakening their argumentation. Are supporters of climate control too fragmented? Assuredly, the divergence of points of view from leading thinkers with a more optimistic outlook such as Pinker or Rosling gives credence to such a conclusion.
The books by all of the authors mentioned here have been reviewed for the Lorange Network.
Wallace-Wells, D. (2019). The Uninhabitable Earth.
Pinker, S. (2017). Enlightenment Now.
Rosling, H. (2018). Factfulness.
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