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Product Details
Hardcover: 344 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (September 10, 2014)
Diane Ackerman is concerned about how humans, after living at the mercery of the natural world for millions of years, have for the past century few centuries changed the world in radical ways. We are no longer at the mercy of weather, the tides, the winds, or even evolution, as our technology, and our hubris, have advanced through the years. Ackerman thinks we need to change how we look at the world, and concentrate more on using science to live in harmony with nature, rather than as a tool to overcome it.
That's certainly not a new thesis, of course. Aldo Leopold was writing about the need to live in harmony with nature in a modern, technological, world back in the 1920s, and there have been many since then. What Ackerman brings to the debate is a collection of of stories regarding how humans have used technology to replace, supplant, or in some case, work with nature. She talks about the military use of dolphins, aquaculture, artificial intelligence, evolution, biomass, solar energy, 3-D printing and dozens of other topics. Her range is great, and so is her passion, but in that range sometimes her focus is hard to perceive. What, exactly, Ackerman thinks the role of technology should be, beyond the fact that it shouldn't be harmful, is a bit vague.
Ackerman is a good writer, if a bit florid at times ("we not only bespangle the night, we broadloom the day") but for a science writer she's sometimes remarkably unfamiliar with science, and often speaks with just one person on any given topic. She doesn't seem to do any fact checking, either, otherwise she'd know arrows do not ricochet, and no one has made 3-D printed brass knuckles (although a plastic model has been made). Ackerman also tends to neglect the economics of the policies she or her interviewees propose.Read more ›
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Then _The Human Age_ is your little book of meditations. I’ll say something I don’t much in reviews: I haven’t made my way all the way through this yet, and certainly not in a linear fashion, because as much as Diane Ackerman works to give structure to her latest work here, it’s not that kind of book.
Ackerman’s prose can indeed run to the florid, as other reviewers have complained, but as much as I don’t go for the flowery stuff in general, I find her to be a pretty straightforward sensualist who notes the finer points of smells and sounds and textures because they are not something she is hardwired to ever ignore. I think it’s telling that she focuses in several pieces on Budi, the Toronto zoo’s adolescent orangutan who is so like a human child, and yet so not. As someone who has taken on the topic of how humans came to bring this planet to its current pass, and what more we might do – for good and ill – with our current capacities (read technology), she really, REALLY had ought to be more than a little discouraged and depressed. Instead, the author sees all the potential for us to remediate the damage we’ve done, at least in some measure, and…it’s weird.
It’s also necessary. We aren’t going to raise future generations to fix our mistakes if we bring them up on a diet of regret and resignation. Peering into vertical mariculture farms or the potential to actually bring back the wooly mammoths is just the thing to spark imaginations not yet dulled by real world experiences of avarice, short-sightedness, and inadequate political will to face whatever crisis du jour. (At this writing, it’s Ebola - in Liberia and potentially at home.)
I’m a little old for the more “formative” influences in Ms. Ackerman’s writing.Read more ›
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20 of 27 people found the following review helpful
The Human Age by Diane Ackerman provides an artistic and insightful view of humans and how we are changing the world. Ackerman describes a new epoch for the planet she dubs the Anthropocene to describe a world shaped by human action and behavior. Ackerman lays out this world in 31 vignettes exploring specific issues. At about the length of a long blog post, each tells a story about a particular aspect of your impact on the non-human world. The result is a set of interesting points, stories and themes that will be easy to retell to others.
Overall, Ackerman seeks to lend a sense of Malcolm Gladwell-esque to re-imagine sustainability arguments. Ackerman wraps traditional environmental facts and figures into stories that capture your imagination and spark new conversations. I believe that is Ackerman's point, to continue to advance these arguments into a new socially conscious lexicon.
The book is very effective at telling stories that harness the reader's interest without haranguing them with environmental messages. Well written, it is easy to find yourself reading three and four stories as Ackerman draws you into a different view of the world.
Ackerman recognizes and embraces our impact on the planet as reality and recognition of the possibilities for change. In Ackerman's view, the very forces and technologies that changed the planet can also remake those changes. Ackerman's argument does not suggest that we must fight technology's environmental impact with technology, but rather recognizing the essential elements of that impact to reorganize society, industry and our individual behavior.Read more ›
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