Bill McKibben’s End of Nature was “the first book for a
general audience about global warming.”
It was only after I began reading the book that I became aware of its
publication date. 1989. It was quite the unpleasant shock when I realized that
individuals like McKibben were already spreading warnings of climate change before I was even born, and yet it is still
a prominent environmental issue, exasperatingly viewed as “indeterminate” by
the general public.
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| Yep. This is science. |
I’m both mortified and incensed that
my earliest “education” of climate change was media-hyped blockbusters like The Day After Tomorrow. I feel as though
my community and society have failed me. 1989! And yet it was only after
entering college—20 years after The End of Nature—that I was finally offered
serious discussion about a global issue that will most assuredly impact the
rest of my life (especially according to Bill McKibben).
My copy of The End of Nature was reprinted in 2006, which is once again almost
20 years after the original publishing date. The fact that this book could be
successfully reprinted only supports the frustrating admission that climate
change remains to be a relevant, escalating issue that has been—and continues
to be—exceedingly neglected.
“Despite a few international
conferences and grand declarations, we’ve done next to nothing to stem the flow
of carbon dioxide that fuels global warming.”
