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The End of Nature: Tenth Anniversary Edition [Paperback]

Bill McKibben
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Paperback, Aug 5 1997 --  
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The End of Nature The End of Nature 4.3 out of 5 stars (16)
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Book Description

Aug 5 1997
Reissued on the tenth anniversary of its publication, this classic work on our environmental crisis features a new introduction by the author, reviewing both the progress and ground lost in the fight to save the earth.

This impassioned plea for radical and life-renewing change is today still considered a groundbreaking work in environmental studies. McKibben's argument that the survival of the globe is dependent on a fundamental, philosophical shift in the way we relate to nature is more relevant than ever. McKibben writes of our earth's environmental cataclysm, addressing such core issues as the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and the depletion of the ozone layer. His new introduction addresses some of the latest environmental issues that have risen during the 1990s. The book also includes an invaluable new appendix of facts and figures that surveys the progress of the environmental movement.

More than simply a handbook for survival or a doomsday catalog of scientific prediction, this classic, soulful lament on Nature is required reading for nature enthusiasts, activists, and concerned citizens alike.

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"Whatever we once thought Nature was--wildness, God, a simple place free from human thumbprints, or an intricate machinery sustaining life on Earth--we have now given it a kick that will change it forever. Humanity has stepped across a threshold. In his free-ranging and provocative book, Bill McKibben explores the philosophies and technologies that have brought us here, and he shows how final a crossing we have made." --James Gleick, author of Chaos

From the Publisher

More than simply a handbook for survival or a doomsday catalog of scientific prediction, The End Of Nature is a groundbreaking plea for radical and life-renewing change. The author argues that for the world to survive, we must make a fundamental philosophical shift in the way we relate to nature.

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Anti-scientific liturgy, filled with errors. Aug 21 2001
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
For better reading, try Paul Hawken's "Ecology of Commerce," which provides ideas and methods for creating a better world.

End of Nature is filled with errors, and although it uses apparently scientific data, the author is not concerned with accuracy or precision. In discussing his use of scientific information, and the response to the first edition of End of Nature, he states, "The science, however, was only one part of the original book - and not its most important." (p.xix) From here on out, the book is whines and compaints, nothing more.

For an example of incorrect data, take this gaffe "Trees and forest still cover about 40 percent of the land on the earth, but this area has shrunk by about a third since preagricultural times, and that shrinkage, it goes without saying, is accelerating." (p14 End of Nature). This claim is not only misleading, but false.

First of all, we have no concrete measurements for how much forest there may have been in preagricultural times. Secondly, the argument doesn't account for the growth of other perfectly valid and helpful environments, such as grasslands, that sometimes exude more oxygen than forests. But here's the biggest problem. Regarding forests, in the last century in the U.S. despite a fivefold increase in population, the percentage of land space covered by forests has remained constant - about one-third of the total land space. World forestland has also held steady over the last fifty years. That's right, steady.

At the same time world food yield per acre has DOUBLED since 1950, while world food prices fell by HALF from 1965 to 1990. We have been becoming more efficient farmers, better environmentalists who provide more and better food to the world, using less land, and at cheaper prices. In America, less farmers now produce more food and more efficiently. We feed three times as many people with one third the number of farmers on one-third less farmland than in 1900. With less than a fifth of the world's population, American ingenuity and resourcefulness now produces almost a quarter of the world's food

McKibben does not even provide a bibliography for his claims. The reader has no normal scholarly way to check his claims.

I'll tell you where I got my counter-statistics: Statistical Abstract of the United States, and, the eminent Julian Simon (read all his books, he won't let you down!)You can check my facts at your nearest local library.

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Prophetic and life changing. Feb 22 2004
Format:Paperback
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

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3.0 out of 5 stars More Heart Than Fact Jan 1 2003
Format:Paperback
This novel is a touching polemic about the voracious appetite of mankind to chew up and taint "Nature" - but it is so one sided that it's not a scientific examination of the subject. It's more like a poem or an ode to an earlier time. I enjoyed the book, but recognize it's shortcomings
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Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars The time is coming
It's been a while since I read this book, and it has been one that has always stuck out in my mind as being one of the better environmental books that I've read. Read more
Published on Jun 28 2003 by K Scheffler
4.0 out of 5 stars Above average seller, i would buy from them again
they did a good job packaging and shipping and had a GREAT price. the only thing the didn't do is send an email confirming that they shipped the item. Read more
Published on Jan 31 2003 by sJp
5.0 out of 5 stars Ignorance = Bliss ???
The science and explanation of the greenhouse effect/global warming has matured since the original publishing of this book in 1990, but give McKibben credit for raising awareness... Read more
Published on Jun 3 2001 by Puncturevine
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking, essential reading
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... Read more
Published on Mar 23 2001 by SAM GREENBLATT
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Explanantion Of Forces Leading to Global Warming!
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... Read more
Published on Feb 28 2001 by Barron Laycock
5.0 out of 5 stars Please don't read this if you are clinically depressed.
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... Read more
Published on Aug 11 2000 by "echochuck"
5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Book
Bill McKibbon's The End of Nature was first published in 1989. Had I read the book then, my reaction would have been diluted. Read more
Published on July 27 2000 by <aspergerian@yahoo.com>
5.0 out of 5 stars Eloquent, Beautiful, Shattering
If I could recommend only one book to family, friends and neighbors about the gathering environmental darkness, this would without question be it. Read more
Published on May 19 2000 by David G. Albrecht
3.0 out of 5 stars Don't Ignore this book.
Just finished this excellent book: The End of Nature, by Bill McKibben: This is a pivotal book for the layman in understanding environmentalism for the reason that it highlights a... Read more
Published on Mar 29 2000 by Frank J. Regan
5.0 out of 5 stars will make you see the world in a new way
This book has already received the highest accolade the reading public can grant: it has become part of the way we think. Read more
Published on Oct 21 1999
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