Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition [Paperback]

At one point in his magnificent new book Alastair McIntosh explains the distinction between optimism and hope: the former alleviates suffering by denying reality whereas the latter draws on inner resources which can coexist with pessimism. With the accumulating evidence on climate change, he points out, at time 'one cannot help but hear the thundering hooves and feel the hot breath of the apocalypse cantering by'. And it is for this reason that he has 'been forced to abandon optimism and take recourse in hope'. For as he points out, hope, unlike optimism, is a spur for action, not a substitute for it.

While McIntosh does an admirable job of summarizing the science, economics and politics of climate change in the first section, it is the second part of the book that forms the meat of his argument. A tour de force rendered in flawless prose, the section draws on philosophy, theology, poetry, myth and literature to situate the real root of Hell and High water in the human condition. The modernity ushered in by the Enlightenment may have introduced much that is worth celebrating, but the rationality in the form of logical positivism that accompanied it has helped break the link between the inner realm and the outer world that nurtures its -- man and nature, soil and soul. The dissociation of sensibility first set in motion with the reformation and the suppression of imagination (faerie) has led to hollowing out of the human psyche; leading vacant souls ripe for colonization by consumerism. Emptied (and disparaged in the case of the New Atheists) of the spirituality that sustains inner health the culture satisfies its quest for meaning (the liminal) with a variety of addictions that approximate the experience (the liminoid). It confuses 'having' with 'being'.

McIntosh does not offer easy answers, but he does have a 12-step program for the regeneration of the human spirit and revival of its link to the world around it. I do not agree with all but that is more because of practicality than my view of their usefulness. But like Chris Hedges, McIntosh makes the important distinction between the irrational and the non-rational (love, hope, spirit et al), and stresses that the later needs to be reconciled with practicality in order to bring about meaningful change.

I had picked up this book as a diversion for an evening, but once I started reading, I had to hold everything else and immerse myself in it. I was overwhelmed. George Monbiot had it right: McIntosh IS a world changing author.

This is an incredible book. I loved Mcintoshs last book soil and soul. Infact it is a life changing incredible read. This is different, Whereas in Soil and Soul Mc Intosh goes from Autobiography, to campagin history to deep ecology, poetry and theology all in a tapestry that challenges the psycology of death and nihilism presented by mainstream corporate greed. This book seperated in to two parts firstly explores contemporary sciences view of climate change, and secondly explores the modern human condition asking essentialy; why do we keep destroying our selves and our environment? And what can be done to transform us from "peddlars of death to seekers of life". The books tone can ocasionaly sound didactic and presumptious of our complete agreement with the authors conclusions "as we saw earlier..." or "as we shall see..." are regularly used phrases. The main thing that strikes me about Alastairs writing is it's poetry, depth, and the huge Love and sensativity shown to all life. It is very humbling and beautiful to behold. He can really tell a story too. It is difficult to read his perspective about us living in a dieing time of huge extinctions and human suffering. And hard to deny it's truth. It allso strenghtens his argumant that we need very badly to have a depth of soul, love and inner life, that can deal with loss, chaos, and violence and still give the gift that makes life worth living. Read this Beautiful Book!

I've just finished reading Hell and High Water. It was an exhilarating, if not exactly comfortable, read. Alistair McIntosh says at one point how hard parts of it were to write. Climate change is an important matter but what makes this exploration of the problem and its solutions, is that it is about us.

This book unravels how the human condition, how we are and how we live now, underscores it all. Undeniably we live disconnected and incomplete lives for all our stuff. Of course we do deny it and the message of the book is to wake up, understand the addictive behaviours of the human race and move beyond it. Arguing about whether climate change is really our fault is tantamount to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. We have lost touch with something fundamental in our headlong rush to have rather than be. This is the brokenness which drags us down. Climate change sits there along with war, waste, pollution and poverty: all by-products of human dysfunction. We can fix nothing unless we fix ourselves. Reading this book (and acting on it) can be a step in that direction.