The Collapse of Western Civilization - Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway

The Collapse of Western Civilization

By Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway

  • Release Date: 2014-07-01
  • Genre: Science & Nature
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 24 Ratings

Description

The year is 2393, and the world is almost unrecognizable. Clear warnings of climate catastrophe went ignored for decades, leading to soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, widespread drought and—finally—the disaster now known as the Great Collapse of 2093, when the disintegration of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet led to mass migration and a complete reshuffling of the global order. Writing from the Second People's Republic of China on the 300th anniversary of the Great Collapse, a senior scholar presents a gripping and deeply disturbing account of how the children of the Enlightenment—the political and economic elites of the so-called advanced industrial societies—failed to act, and so brought about the collapse of Western civilization.

In this haunting, provocative work of science-based fiction, Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway imagine a world devastated by climate change. Dramatizing the science in ways traditional nonfiction cannot, the book reasserts the importance of scientists and the work they do and reveals the self-serving interests of the so called "carbon combustion complex" that have turned the practice of science into political fodder. Based on sound scholarship and yet unafraid to speak boldly, this book provides a welcome moment of clarity amid the cacophony of climate change literature.

Reviews

  • Fascinating and frightening

    4
    By Zinguy
    Actually more of a Syfy thesis rather than a book but far from a quick read. If you buy this in electronic format and I recommend that you do, you’ll find yourself following links to the factual information that supports the authors views from the future. Before reading this I would have told you I was a Climate Change Agnostic somewhere between the extremes of Climate Change Deniers and Climate Change Alarmist. I am now a believer and keenly concerned for a future that, at my age, I am unlikely to see. No matter where you think you stand on the issue of Climate Change, I’d highly recommend this book before you engage in even one more conversation on the topic.