Time's Up!: An Uncivilized Solution to a Global Crisis [Paperback]

Times Up! is a carefully documented narrative of collapses in nature caused by disastrous interventions caused by human beings not aware of the importance of keeping ecosystems balanced. Moreover it provides a radical solution to our predicament, unthinkable to those in power. It is not just a book with warnings, it's also a book with answers

A compelling book you start reading and can't stop. Just like Jim Lovelock, an iconic figure in British science, Keith Farnish's warnings target mismanagement of Earth's resources and the lack of understanding of the dramatic changes happening to the environment of the planet. The earth as we know it is vanishing. It is moving inexorably to a new degraded state. The idea that we can "save the planet" by reducing carbon emissions is only one action among a coordinated set of attitudes to be adopted immediately.

As members of a technologically advanced society we bear a special obligation towards protecting the natural environment and raising ecological awareness. On a global level we must adopt a prophetic and redemptive voice towards the end of a cycle that's doomed to affect us globally as we already bear witness to it. The many ecological initiatives from around the world are just a uncoordinated effort so far in order to address growing environmental concerns affecting the environment.

Keith Farnish points out very accurately "if we...include unpredictable factors like the incidence of catastrophic flooding and storms, the outbreak of war or civil unrest, the sudden unavailability of energy supplies that feed every system in Industrial Civilization, or any other factor that can increase the sensitivity of a population, and you can be hurtling straight into the drop zone quicker than you can say, 'I want to get off '. And this is certainly not idle mathematical speculation: human civilizations have undergone collapse after collapse, in almost all cases with the post-collapse society left as a shadow of its previous might."

I would add that Prince of Wales has recently delivered an impassioned plea for the world to unite in the fight against the "terrifying" effects of climate change and in this sense is just echoing statements made by Keith Farnish. HRH Prince Charles said "The damage is becoming irreparable and the consequences are terrifying - rising sea levels, spreading disease and environmental refuges on an unimaginable scale." and you can read it all in detail at Times Up!.

For all reasons Times Up! is mandatory reading if we are conscious about the real danger knocking on our doors and also as a deadline warning if we still hope to be rescue from a catastrophe that is already unfolding before our eyes.

Almost everyone today agrees that Global Warming is real and is happening even faster than originally estimated. We can see the effects already in the melting of glaciers and sea ice, storms of increasing frequency and intensity and devastating droughts. Added to the ongoing degradation of the environment caused by industrial farming and fishing, the pollution from the burning of coal and gas to produce electricity and fuel our cars and you have the makings of an environmental catastrophe.

Just how devastating this catastrophe will be if we continue on our current course comprises the first half of Keith Farnish's excellent book, "time's up!". His explanation of the complex food web and the adverse effects of climate change and pollution is the best I have ever read. It is detailed but easily grasped. Most amazing is that he makes what is normally a dry, academic subject, interesting.
The second half of his book is about what he calls "Industrial Civilization", how it is holding us in thrall to consumerism while destroying the planet and how he thinks we can and should break free. I heartily agree with him about the ill effects of the so-called Industrial Civilization, but Mr. Farnish and I part company on the solution to our woes.

He advocates the complete destruction of Industrial Civilization. Much like Communism, this is an idea that sounds good on paper, but doesn't work in real life. We have already had a taste of what total destruction of Industrial Civilization would be like in the ongoing global recession. Academically, it seems like a great idea to rid the world of greedy corporations, but as we have so painfully experienced, in the real world that means throwing millions of people out of work. The ripple effect can be seen in every town in the For Sale signs on front lawns and the empty storefronts previously filled with small businesses.
The author uses his own life, going off-grid and growing his own food, as an example of how we should all live. Obviously, he has never seen Manhattan or Brooklyn or Queens or (insert the name of the megalopolis closest to you). There are not enough community gardens or local organic farms close enough to feed these huge population centers.

He also advocates the elimination of motorized transportation. He gets around just fine on a bicycle. Mr. Farnish lives in southern England. The climate there is so warm that people work in their gardens in January. I suggest that he try bicycling during a frigid Minnesota winter. Or perhaps a jaunt through the Rockies (the Donner party comes to mind).

He also loses sight of the fact that his book was grew out of his blog. If everyone quits their jobs and goes off grid as he so fervently advocates, then there will be no one to run the internet (hence, no blogs) or to publish books. They will all be in their backyards chopping wood and tending to their tomatoes.

There is the germ of a different solution in part three of this book. That is the use of people power (my phrase, not his) to effect change. Instead of the destruction of Industrial Civilization, the grassroots efforts he promotes could aim for the evolution of Industrial Civilization towards a more benign effect on the planet. Prior to the recent financial meltdown shareholder revolts, trying to wrest control of companies from greedy Boards and CEO's, were growing more and more common. Farmers Markets are springing up all over. To keep them stocked with produce will require more organic farms which could eventually lead to fewer factory farms. Drivers are getting rid of their gas-guzzling SUVs and replacing them with smaller fuel-efficient or hybrid cars.

Eastern Europeans, who successfully rebelled against a Superpower, can attest to the power of citizens to effect change. We should all be inspired by their example to make the changes in our lives and countries to slow down global warming and the destruction of our environment.

Mr. Farnish ends his book on what even he agrees is a controversial note: healthcare. Or, more exactly, the lack of healthcare when we all go back to the land. He feels that that we don't need modern medicine. In this, he is showing his youth. I grew up listening to the stories of my grandparents' generation (his great-grandparents) of what life was like before the advent of modern medicine, i.e. before antibiotics and most vaccines. When all that doctors could offer was palliative care. When a simple cut could mean death from infection. When epidemics of childhood diseases raged, killing and maiming hundreds, sometimes thousands of children.

I find it difficult to believe that the author would rather that doctors spend their time gathering herbs for poultices rather than in laboratories working on vaccines for scourges like the Swine Flu that could very possibly kill his own children.

Unlike the two people who posted 1* reviews of Farnish's book, no doubt as a result of the recent spate of bloggers calling him a "terrorist", I have read Time's Up! In fact I had to read it twice: the first time I was drawn into the fascinating stories of scale, became slightly more self-conscious during the examination of the nature of humans, became downright scared when faced with our lack of connection and the feeling that there was so much conspiring against us that nothing could ever improve, and finally sceptical that the apparently superficial response in the last section could do anything to reconnect us with the real world. But something kept bugging me, and I went through it again - and only when I had reached that last section a second time did I realise that the thing that so many people have recently been attacking was probably the only way out of this mess.

The idea of sabotaging (or Undermining, as the printed version calls it - I guess for legal reasons) the "Tools of Disconnection" in order to free civilized people from the yoke of industry makes perfect sense, yet it has never been elucidated so clearly as in this book. In fact Time's Up! specifically rails against the direct-attack "symbolic" actions Farnish has been attacked for apparently promoting, because they are a waste of time - the Tools of Disconnection keep us disconnected, so we keep consuming, voting, working for the system that we have become. Undermining these tools is the key to allowing a new wave of people to make the necessary changes to their lives, and then start the process again for a larger group of people. There is so much more to this book than the negative reviews would like people to think; perhaps they are scared people will read it and start thinking for themselves.

Terrorism it is not. Common sense it is.

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