Enter your email Address

ENTROPY
  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Echoes of Infertility and Stifled Grief

      April 20, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Birds: Lost and Found

      April 14, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Birds: Elegy for a Tree

      April 12, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Coursing

      April 9, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: Little Bird

      April 1, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

      March 23, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Finding My Voice

      March 9, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: 24 Hour Relief

      April 21, 2021

      Fiction

      BLACKCACKLE: Fragment One

      April 14, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: To Fly Among the Birds

      April 9, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: Another Red Ribbon – a nonbinary tale of absented love

      April 5, 2021

      Fiction

      Survivor’s Club

      March 24, 2021

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      A Cure for Loneliness: Review of Monica Fambrough’s Softcover

      April 21, 2021

      Review

      an Orphic escape-hatch from the Hades of Literalization — Review of John Olson’s Dada Budapest

      April 19, 2021

      Review

      Claiming Space in Muriel Leung’s “Imagine Us, The Swarm”

      April 15, 2021

      Review

      Review: Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz

      April 12, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      F*%K IF I KNOW//BOOKS

      April 13, 2021

      Small Press

      Tolsun Books

      March 16, 2021

      Small Press

      Inside the Castle

      March 9, 2021

      Small Press

      OOMPH! Press

      February 24, 2021

      Small Press

      Dynamo Verlag

      February 17, 2021

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch

ENTROPY

  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Echoes of Infertility and Stifled Grief

      April 20, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Birds: Lost and Found

      April 14, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Birds: Elegy for a Tree

      April 12, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Coursing

      April 9, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: Little Bird

      April 1, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

      March 23, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Finding My Voice

      March 9, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Individuation

      February 27, 2021

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: 24 Hour Relief

      April 21, 2021

      Fiction

      BLACKCACKLE: Fragment One

      April 14, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: To Fly Among the Birds

      April 9, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: Another Red Ribbon – a nonbinary tale of absented love

      April 5, 2021

      Fiction

      Survivor’s Club

      March 24, 2021

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      A Cure for Loneliness: Review of Monica Fambrough’s Softcover

      April 21, 2021

      Review

      an Orphic escape-hatch from the Hades of Literalization — Review of John Olson’s Dada Budapest

      April 19, 2021

      Review

      Claiming Space in Muriel Leung’s “Imagine Us, The Swarm”

      April 15, 2021

      Review

      Review: Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz

      April 12, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      F*%K IF I KNOW//BOOKS

      April 13, 2021

      Small Press

      Tolsun Books

      March 16, 2021

      Small Press

      Inside the Castle

      March 9, 2021

      Small Press

      OOMPH! Press

      February 24, 2021

      Small Press

      Dynamo Verlag

      February 17, 2021

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch
LiteratureReviewScience/Technology

Is This the Way the World Ends?

written by Guest Contributor January 17, 2015

This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
Simon & Schuster, September 2014
576 pages – Amazon

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Henry Holt and Co., February 2014
336 pages – Amazon

 

Naomi Klein and Elizabeth Kolbert are, in a sense, both on the same team. They both write about climate change and humans’ devastating impact on our fragile planet.  They start from the premise that there is no doubt about what is happening. The evidence is all around us. Where Klein and Kolbert differ lies in what they focus on. Although she is concerned about the future of humanity, Kolbert is more taken with the effects that we, “the weedy species,” she calls us, are having on the rest of the animals inhabiting the Earth. Humans, she says, are like an invasive species and we’re currently contributing to and witnessing mass extinctions of species like the Brazilian frog, as well as bats, rhinos, all large mammals, etc. Klein focuses on climate change and how, although it presents us with terrible effects now and tremendous dangers in the future, it also offers us an opportunity to create a better world.

Klein is an optimist while Kolbert is not. Naomi Klein wrote an earlier book entitled The Shock Doctrine in which she discusses our leaders’ propensities for taking a crisis and using it to advance a certain agenda. New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina and the authorities used that catastrophe to replace all the public schools with charter schools. The Bush Administration reacted to the destruction of the World Trade Center by 19 Islamic radicals, 17 of whom were Saudi Arabian, by using the tragic event as a reason to invade Iraq—a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.  Neo-cons advanced the idea of the United States straightening out the Middle East. Cheney and friends decided this was the time to disregard all those silly laws about habeas corpus and fair trials and the Geneva Conventions. “It’s time to take the gloves off,” Wolfowitz said. You get the idea. It’s like Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. When there’s a crisis, there’s an opportunity.

In her new book, Klein turns this idea around and says, couldn’t we use a crisis to improve our lives rather than just ceding more power to the government or vested interests? Couldn’t we seize control and change our fate? Kolbert is not so sanguine. She would also like to see us take steps to slow the rate of climate change but she sees us in the throes of what she and a number of scientists refer to as The Sixth Extinction. “Right now, in the amazing moment that to us counts as the present, we are deciding, without quite meaning to, which evolutionary pathways will remain open and which will forever be closed,” Kolbert writes. There have been five other extinction events in the history of the earth. The last one is the one we are all familiar with: 66 million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped out when, most scientists now agree, an asteroid smashed into the earth filing the atmosphere with dust leading to a massive die off. But there were four other mass extinctions that paleontologists now know of and Kolbert refers to these in her book as a pretext for pointing out that extinction can and is happening right now.

One of the interesting notions that one takes away from The Sixth Extinction is expressed by a number of the scientists Kolbert talks to. When you look at this long history of life on earth that stretches back 450 million years with these mass extinctions, you begin to get the idea that it’s obvious we humans are not going to be around forever and, in fact, we may be gone soon. Once an extinction begins, it seems to proceed rather quickly. We’re witnessing a number of species disappearing right now, in our lifetime–from frogs in South America to polar bears in the Arctic.

Naomi Klein gives numerous examples from around the world of how people are responding locally to the challenges of climate change. The Dutch have created massive dams and gates to hold back water, the Germans derive more and more energy from wind farms and solar power.  The Chinese have agreed to stop building coal plants eventually. The United States is finally getting onboard with more fuel-efficient cars and so on. Klein proposes that we all scale back our energy use and live a more community oriented lifestyle and participate in “the unfinished business of liberation.” Whether you think more along the lines of Naomi Klein or Elizabeth Kolbert might come down to how optimistic you are about our future. Reading and listening to these two (they’ve both been on Moyers and have talks available on YouTube), it does, however, seem like Kolbert is the grown-up in the room.

Experts from a number of different fields have identified our problem. E.O. Wilson says we aren’t a super-organism. Contrast humans and ants. Ants are like some utopian communist society where everyone has a role and they all work together for the common good.  Stephen Pinker says our problem is we identify strongly with groups—our group. This is great for sports, not so great for government. Peter Singer says we take care of our circle of family and friends but are not so concerned about people on the other side of the country, never mind the other side of the globe.  Here’s another problem: we’re good at thinking short term (as in quarters), not so good at thinking long term (as in the next fifty years).

Fitzgerald has a famous line about intelligence being the capacity to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. On the one hand, the country may seem as if it’s falling apart; on the other hand, there are some people working hard to improve our lives and whatever we think, we still have to keep on trying. So it is with climate change and the sixth extinction. It doesn’t look good, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to do something about it. Reading these two illuminating books is a start.


008Ed Meek: Freelance writer and poet. Spy Pond (poems) coming out this spring with Prolific Press. Twitter @emeek. Blog: letsrethink.org. Live in Somerville, MA.

Is This the Way the World Ends? was last modified: January 17th, 2015 by Guest Contributor
BookElizabeth KolbertEnvironmentEnvironmental PoliticsHenry Holt and Co.MacmillanNaomi Kleinnon-fictionscienceSimon & Schuster
0 comment
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Avatar
Guest Contributor

Entropy posts are often submitted to us by our fantastic readers & guest contributors. We'd love to receive a contribution from you too. Submission Guidelines.

previous post
3 Chapbooks Dripping with Sincerity
next post
Entropy’s EP of the Week: Goodbye Tomorrow EP

You may also like

Review: The Low Passions: Poems by Anders Carlson-Wee

July 6, 2020

Review: American Herstory by celeste doaks

October 24, 2019

Obsessive, Recursive Violence and Concentration: Charlene Elsby’s Hexis

December 5, 2019

Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere

August 15, 2016
Facebook Twitter Instagram

Recent Comments

  • parri Loved the article. Beautifully captured..stay strong. Something must await for you at the end of this path..

    How Bodybuilding Ruined My Life ·  April 2, 2021

  • Waterlily Heartbreaking, real, and often so vivid. Parents, family, the pain and the damage we carry for them and from them. There is a black void where bits and pieces of our soul take leave to as we watch our...

    Descansos ·  April 2, 2021

  • Neo G I hsve to check this out! Is that doom on the cover!!

    Dskillz Harris & Chile_madd – The Next Episode ·  March 28, 2021

Featured Columns & Series

  • The Birds
  • Dinnerview
  • WOVEN
  • Variations on a Theme
  • BLACKCACKLE
  • COVID-19
  • Literacy Narrative
  • Mini-Syllabus
  • Their Days Are Numbered
  • On Weather
  • Disarticulations
  • The Waters
  • Session Report series
  • Birdwolf
  • Comics I've Been Geeking Out On
  • Small Press Releases
  • Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like)
  • The Poetics of Spaces
  • Tales From the End of the Bus Line
  • Fog or a Cloud
  • 30 Years of Ghibli
  • Cooking Origin Stories
  • Food and Covid-19
  • YOU MAKE ME FEEL
  • Ludic Writing
  • Best of 2019
  • The Talking Cure
  • Stars to Stories
  • DRAGONS ARE REAL OR THEY ARE DEAD
  • Foster Care
  • LEAKY CULTURE
  • Jem and the Holographic Feminisms
  • D&D with Entropy

Find Us On Facebook

Entropy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

©2014-2021 The Accomplices LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Read our updated Privacy Policy.


Back To Top