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The End of Nature

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Anyone familiar with the author's other books on man and his fateful connection to the natural environment owe it to themselves to read this seminal offering first published over a decade ago when the phenomenon of global warming was a hotly argued and angrily debated issue. The publication of this new 10th anniversary edition arrives in a world in which most of the author's frightful prognostications regarding the negative consequences of the hotly-debated "Greenhouse Effect" issue of a decade ago have been proven to be accurate and true. If anything, McKibben's warnings were, in retrospect, conservative. For example, five of the ten warmest years on record have been in the last decade. Thus, "The End Of Nature " must be regarded as an intriguing book that comprehensively covers a critically important phenomenon; the massive intrusion of man, technology, and civilization into the natural order of the world's ecosystems to the point that we have ripped them asunder. While the Bushes and Gores fiddle away in their Washington offices, the forces of man are still engaged in such a maddening and suicidal plundering of the world's biological treasure house.

The author's basic thesis, now well validated by over a decade of dramatically documented data regarding the globe's climate changes, is that though our massive intrusion into the delicate balance of gases, fluids, and temperature gradients so important in determining the world's weather patterns, we have altered and fragmented the earth's natural balance in an order of magnitude so large and so overwhelming that it has now permanently negated nature's capacity to operate autonomously, independently, and naturally. We have in essence replaced natural forces with our own efforts, and have now become the single most important and decisive element in climatic calculus that determines the weather.

As a result, it is no longer possible to pretend that nature is something that just happens out there, and that we are merely subject to its forces and its whims. Instead, the author argues, it is human actions and human interference that now fatefully orients and influences the forces determining the weather. Yet, we live in a culture so embedded in patterns of denial about the effects of scientific and technological intrusion into the natural world that we seem to now regard the natural wilderness as mere grist for amusement parks. We seem so disconnected to nature or to its delicate balancing acts that we have no regard for the consequence of our continuing intrusions into its innermost workings. We seem to have forgotten our dependence on the elements of the natural world in order to survive, and consequently do not comprehend the disastrous consequences our massively ignorance, interference, and corruption of the natural world around us will likely bring.

Instead, we worry about our stocks and mutual funds, ignoring the facts that the world's potable water is disappearing as the world's population increases geometrically. We worry about our property values and our next promotions, never recognizing the degree to which our materialistic culture and our over-consumptive way of life is condemning us and the rest of the world to oblivion. So we fiddle as Rome burns. In any event, this is a terrific book, one that anyone interested in where we stand and where we are heading both culturally and globally needs to read. This, along with other books such as Lew Ayre's "God's Last Offer" and David Suzuki's "The Sacred Balance", can give the interested reader a better idea of what kinds of possibilities await us in the new millennium. Enjoy!

Warning. If you truly believe that ignorance is bliss, stop now and do not buy this book. If however, you care at all about the planet, and/or you care for your children and the world they will inherit, you must read this book. This is the most frightening and depressing book I have ever read and in some ways I wish I had never read it. I spent the week after reading it in a deep funk and the camping trip I took the next weekend was tainted by the my new awareness of the wilderness that we have as a civilization already destroyed. The cause of enviromentalism has never seemed so desperate and hopeless to me, but now that McKibben has opened my eyes to the steep slope towards oblivion that we are on , it seems criminal not to try to stop our fall, at least for my childrens sakes. This book should be required reading for all candidates for public office and high school graduation. In the decade since its publication much of the environmental degradation predicted has already occured, some like the melting of the Antartic ice sheet and accelerating destruction of the ozone layer at the fastest predicted rate. I would be very interested to read an update detailing exactly how far this has deteriorated in the last decade. Something must be done! But what? We are living blissfully in ignorance while the very oceans, the atmosphere that protects us and the earth that sustains us are being destroyed at a rate that probably even with total cooperative world effort and prioritization, we could not stop.We're talking about mere decades here! But in the present political and social climate in the U.S.,can anyone imagine our environment becoming the national priority? So, I'm left with, What can I do. I guess that other than urging this book on all my friends,( one of whom a conservative who after borrowing it for the weekend chastised me, " Thanks for ruining my weekend and my trip to Mt. Rainier!"), this review is a meager start for me. Maybe a start for you is to READ THIS BOOK! If not, our civilizations epitaph, written on a scorched and sterile Venusion planet may read, "They had a last desperate chance, but they decided to stick their head in the sand."

In the ten years between the time THE END OF NATURE was first published in 1989 and reissued in 1999, we experienced seven of the ten warmest years in recorded history (p. xiv), which establishes Bill McKibben as a global warming prophet. And the thing is--we're still not getting it. "We live in the oddest moment since our species first stood upright," McKibben writes in the new Introduction to his environmental classic, "the moment when we are finally grown so big in numbers and in appetite we alter everything around us" (pp. xv-xvi). The United States alone dumps 15 percent more CO2 into the atmosphere than it did ten years ago (p. xvi). Arctic glaciers continue to retreat, ice grows thinner, and the sea level steadily rises (p. xviii). In short, "this buzzing, blooming, mysterious, cruel, lovely globe of mountain, sea, city, forest, of fish and wolf and bug and man; of carbon and hydrogen and nitrogen--it has come unbalanced in our short moment on it" (p. xxv).

McKibben's basic argument is that our relationship with the concept of "nature" as something separate and wild has changed, and in our pursuit for "a better life," we have totally wrecked the environment (p. 48). By changing the weather, for instance, we have altered every spot on earth, depriving nature of its independence, leaving "nothing but us" (p. 58). Stated differently, we have ended nature's separation from human society (p. 64).

Because nature provides us with a sense of comfort, reading THE END OF NATURE is not a happy experience. McKibben has issued a wake-up call, and his book should be required reading for any global-warming skeptic, or for anyone who drives a SUV. As Thoreau said, we are living lives of quiet desparation--we enjoy the consumptive, easy life. However, as McKibben's compelling argument demonstrates, such a lifestyle is incompatible with the well being of our planet. He encourages us not only to change the way we act, but also to change the way we think by adopting the radical notion that we learn to respect nature "for its own sake," as a "realm beyond the human," and give it "room to recover" from the damage we have done (pp. 174-77). This book was a life changer that prompted me, in part, to move from the concrete, urban sprawl of Phoenix, Arizona to Boulder, where there is a respect for open space, and where it is still possible to have a humble relationship with nature.

G. Merritt

If I could recommend only one book to family, friends and neighbors about the gathering environmental darkness, this would without question be it. The End of Nature, now about ten years old, was generally dismissed by the intelligensia, (notably Christopher Lasch of Harper's), who described it as a "tear-stained" work of "rural piety", not incidentally missing the point entirely. This is not a garden-variety work of environmental apocalypticism, though McKibben does allow that the odds in favor of just such an ecological and social collapse are pretty good. The "successful" alternative future he describes is equally, if not more horrible.

If, by dint of technology and sheer ingenuity, we manage to avoid the consequences of the ongoing overshoot, what then? Imagine, if you can, a world in which we, our pets (and pests) and a carefully selected handful of bioengineered plants and animals live on, and in which almost everything else dies. Without wilderness, without even a semblance of connection to our origins, we probably could continue some form of human civilization. The question, however, is why, as individuals, we would want to.

The groundwork for this sort of dessicated world is already well-laid, given our very American demands for paved roads and air conditioning everywhere we go, along with our ceaseless demands for more stuff - and make that bigger and cheaper, too. McKibben does harbor some optimism that we can choose to take a more difficult path. I only wish I could share that optimism. Read and remember this important book!

McKibben, a masterful writer, takes on the issue of global warming--a phenomenon that, since his time of writing (1989), has been confirmed by all scientists not bought and paid for by industrial interests. The 14 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1980, with 1998 being the hottest ever. McKibben explores what ramifications this changed global climate will have on various aspects of our environment and society, from rising sea levels to thawing of the tundra to superhurricanes to unpredictable rainfall to agricultural disaster to rampant disease. McKibben also examines a few other human-caused ecological disasters, such as ozone depletion and acid rain, and he warns of bioengineering's potential for colossal damage. Most importantly, he looks at our anthropocentric hubris and "deviant" way of living, and, in measured, non-hysterical tone, calls for us to "bow down" before God and adopt the "humble" way of living a deep ecology! (what Duane Elgin would call "voluntary simplicity" and what E.F. Schumacher called "Buddhist economics"). Finally, McKibben explores the theological and philosophical implications of our meddling with God-created Nature, a meddling which has produced a new "nature," unpredictable, unreliable, and out of control. Though there are current works that give more up to date figures on environmental destruction (check out the websites for the UN Env. Programme; the Union of Concerned Scientists; Wildlife Institute; Natural Resources Defense Council, etc.), McKibben's work is still "must reading."

Bill McKibbon's The End of Nature was first published in 1989. Had I read the book then, my reaction would have been diluted. Instead, after finishing the book in July of 2000, I am stunned by the accuracy of his analysis -- especially regarding the inescapable ramifications of human-induced environmental changes and the path being followed by designers and marketers of genetic engineering. Books that complement Bill's well-expressed thesis include Mander & Goldsmith's "The Case Against the Global Economy" and Winona Laduke's "All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life" and Jeremy Rifkin's "Entropy".

The reissuing of Bill McKibben's groundbreaking book on global warming is pause for thought. Wouldn't it be nice if we could point back 10 years and identify this book as representative of a turning point in human evolution - one where we finally came to terms with our manipulation of natural processes? It is clear that we continue to plunder our environment with increasing improvidence, and that global warming has continued unabated. So hard is it to reach consensus on how to tackle the issue, that at the next Earth Summit (Johannesburg 2002) it has been proposed that global warming be left off the agenda entirely, lest the discussion deteriorate as it did in Rio.

At the same time this book sounded the death knell for what is sometimes called "hard" ecology: that nature should be left alone entirely and that the fight should be to reinstate it in its most pristine form. Sadly, this book forcefully made the point that this is now impossible, because the very fundamentals of nature have been affected by our interventions. The only cause for optimism (and I think this is McKibben's point) is to support conservation on these new terms, using a softer ecological approach. Unfortunately, this theoretical regrouping is unlikely to prove fruitful (witness George W. Bush's reneging on his CO2 emissions campaign promises).

Depressing, salutary and a testimony to our embarrassing myopia. Anyone with any optimism left after this might decide to expend it on the highly recommendable "Song of the Dodo" by David Quammen.

The good news: "The End of Nature" was a truly prophetic book when it was published in 1989. Eloquent and well-intentioned, it was one of the first books aimed at a general audience to discuss global warming and deep ecology. It may have even influenced public opinion, if not public policy.

The bad news: "The End of Nature" is meandering, journalistic, and full of 20-year old science. Even worse, it's main Big Idea doesn't seem true. McKibben believed that man's ability to change the climate would eventually make it impossible for anyone to see nature as quasi-sacred and independent of human meddling. In reality, man's respect for nature will surely increase, not diminish, as the earth warms up. Coastlines will disappear, hurricanes slam into cities, and summers sizzle. Whatever else global warming will do, it will humble mankind.

The bottomline: "The End of Nature" has earned a place in the canon of environmental literature alongside classics like "Silent Spring." Every environmental library should have a copy of it. However, there's no compelling reason why general readers in 2007 should devote much time to it.

This book has already received the highest accolade the reading public can grant: it has become part of the way we think. Since the publication of THE END OF NATURE we have all accepted McKibben's premise. Mankind is so powerful that no natural process on the planet now operates beyond the range of human influence. A pleasure to read, it is a great pleasure to see a tenth anniversary edition that will make this fascinating book available to new readers.

"The End of Nature" is a calm, wonderfully readable book about both the scientific aspects of global warming and the effects it will have on human societies. The title refers to McKibben's realization that all the rules about hundred year floods and so forth no longer maintain. Norms derived from past records can no longer predict what is to come, because human industrial activity has changed the whole nature of the playing field.