Just finished reading Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe. Interestingly, I found out about it by way of a Mexico City banker, and the day after going to see the Al Gore movie, "An Inconvenient Truth". Splendidly written and deeply researched, Kolbert's book grew out of a series of articles for the New Yorker. What I found most compelling and suprising was the first chapter, on the nature and consequences of the ongoing melting of the permafrost. Kolbert concludes the book: "It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing." But I don't think the right word is "we." Not everyone is suffering from cognitive dissonance. God help us all.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Field Notes from a Catastrophe
Just finished reading Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe. Interestingly, I found out about it by way of a Mexico City banker, and the day after going to see the Al Gore movie, "An Inconvenient Truth". Splendidly written and deeply researched, Kolbert's book grew out of a series of articles for the New Yorker. What I found most compelling and suprising was the first chapter, on the nature and consequences of the ongoing melting of the permafrost. Kolbert concludes the book: "It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing." But I don't think the right word is "we." Not everyone is suffering from cognitive dissonance. God help us all.
