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Club Events 2008 : 2008-04-08 : CCC - Dinner and a Book Club (The Revenge of Gaia @ Marathon Ethiopian)

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Read The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock and discuss it over dinner at Marathon Ethiopian. While economists, politicians and some scientists are still debating whether global warming is being caused by human activity (nevermind whether global warming is even happening at all), James Lovelock treats it as a foregone conclusion, and all that is left to debate/decide is what, if anything, we can and should do about it. He says: - Neither faith in God nor trust in business as usual, nor even commitment to sustainable development, acknoledges our true dependence; if we fail to take care of the Earth, it surely will take care of itself by making us no longer welcome. - To expect sustainable development or a trust in business as usual to be viable policies is like expecting a lung cancer victim to be cured by stopping smoking; both measures deny the existence of the Earth's disease, the fever brought on by a plague of people. - We will not sustain civilization by abandoning technology. We have instead to use it wisely, with the health of the Earth, not the health of people, in mind. This is why it is much too late for sustainable development; what we need is a sustainable retreat. All informed opinions will be welcome. Personal attacks and soap-boxing will not.
We pretty much unanimously agreed that this was not one of our favorite books. For a scientific writer, the data evidence to back up some of his claims were not provided, even in a scanty fashion. He calls for drastic changes in human activity on a global scale but leaves absolutely no "to dos" for individuals or states on how to make anything happen. Writing a book to scare people without offering any action items is completely ineffective. I liked how one critic put is: "Would anyone dare to put on a rock concert with the slogan 'Make poverty the future'?" Some great conversation came out of it, though, and most agreed they were glad to have read the book even if they didn't stand behind it. And the dinner, well, Marathon is always good, and we did enjoy it although it seemed a bit bland compared to its usual spicy goodness. -- Rhonda

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Read The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock and discuss it over dinner at Marathon Ethiopian.

While economists, politicians and some scientists are still debating whether global warming is being caused by human activity (nevermind whether global warming is even happening at all), James Lovelock treats it as a foregone conclusion, and all that is left to debate/decide is what, if anything, we can and should do about it. He says:
- Neither faith in God nor trust in business as usual, nor even commitment to sustainable development, acknoledges our true dependence; if we fail to take care of the Earth, it surely will take care of itself by making us no longer welcome.
- To expect sustainable development or a trust in business as usual to be viable policies is like expecting a lung cancer victim to be cured by stopping smoking; both measures deny the existence of the Earth's disease, the fever brought on by a plague of people.
- We will not sustain civilization by abandoning technology. We have instead to use it wisely, with the health of the Earth, not the health of people, in mind. This is why it is much too late for sustainable development; what we need is a sustainable retreat.

All informed opinions will be welcome. Personal attacks and soap-boxing will not.

We pretty much unanimously agreed that this was not one of our favorite books. For a scientific writer, the data evidence to back up some of his claims were not provided, even in a scanty fashion. He calls for drastic changes in human activity on a global scale but leaves absolutely no "to dos" for individuals or states on how to make anything happen. Writing a book to scare people without offering any action items is completely ineffective. I liked how one critic put is: "Would anyone dare to put on a rock concert with the slogan 'Make poverty the future'?"

Some great conversation came out of it, though, and most agreed they were glad to have read the book even if they didn't stand behind it. And the dinner, well, Marathon is always good, and we did enjoy it although it seemed a bit bland compared to its usual spicy goodness.

-- Rhonda

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