- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (30 Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140295097
- ISBN-13: 978-0140295092
- Product Dimensions: 18.6 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 364,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Humanity has consumed 10 times more energy since 1900 than in the previous thousand years. John McNeill will probably not appreciate reviewers pointing out this crude, back-of-an-envelope calculation of his, but I suspect he will have to get used to it. It is an extraordinary statistic, and one that should give all who care about the future of our planet pause for thought. People also move more rock and earth around the world than wind, glaciers, mountain-building processes or volcanoes. Only water remains a more effective agent of erosion--just. So numerous and powerful have people become in the twentieth century that we now collectively rank as a geological process.
The first part of Something New Under The Sun details these amazing facts, figures and estimates as McNeill guides the reader through the impact of 20th-century humans on the earth's geology, soils, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. The second part explores the political, economic and social factors that have led to these impacts. This is a monumental work of multidisciplinary scholarship that should earn McNeill the respect of academics and public alike. The author makes few judgements about the future of our planet, and fewer still about the wisdom of our twentieth century activities, a philosophical position that lends a certain blandness to the text in places. However, as a contribution to a field of study riddled with ideology and polarised, empirically questionable opinions, Something New Under The Sun is a breath of fresh air. --Chris Lavers --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
In the course of the 20th century the human race, without intending anything of the sort, undertook a giant, uncontrolled experiment on the earth. In time, according to John McNeill in his new book, the environmental dimension of 20th century history will overshadow the importance of its world wars, the rise and fall of communism, and the spread of mass literacy. Contrary to the wisdom of Ecclesiastes that "there is nothing new under the sun", McNeill sets out to show that the massive change we have wrought in our physical world has indeed created something new. To a degree unprecedented in human history, we have refashioned the earth's air, water and soil, and the biosphere of which we are a part. The author work is a compound of history and science. He infuses a substrate of ecology with a lively historical sensibility to the significance of politics, international relations, technological change and great events. He charts and explores the breathtaking ways in which we have changed the natural world with a keen eye for character and a refreshing respect for the unforeseen in history. He introduces us to little-known figures like Thomas Midgely, the chemical engineer who, McNeill claims, has had more impact on the atmosphere than any other organism in earth history. From Midgely's work with General Motors came the inventions of leaded gasoline and of Freon, the first of the chlorofluorocarbons that drift into the stratosphere and rupture ozone molecules. McNeill recounts episodes of environmental disaster - the mercury poisoning of Japan's Minamata Bay, the death of the Aral Sea in Soviet Central Asia - but shows too the successes of environmental policy in reversing pollution of the air and water. He fashions his story without pronouncements of doom or sermons on the ethical lapses of humankind. The author assesses the ecological course we have taken in the 20th century as an interesting evolutionary gamble. We have become exquisitely adapted to particular circumstances - a stable climate, cheap energy, rapid economic growth. But our fossil fuel-based civlization is on ecologically disruptive that it undermines the stability of these conditions. He does not speculate on the consequences, but his insights illuminate the new path we made in the global century.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Some books break new ground, and some cover areas almost totally uncharted. In Something New Under the Sun history and ecology combine into one of the astonishing and terryfing examinations of ecological damage I have read. The book avoids taking a preachy tone, instead regaling the reader with a litany of mankinds environmental impact in uderstated, clear prose, and to great effect.
If you are not an environmentalist but an historian, read this book for a reappraisal of modern history. If you are an ecological sceptic read this book. If you want to know how our children could live, read this book.
If you are not an environmentalist but an historian, read this book for a reappraisal of modern history. If you are an ecological sceptic read this book. If you want to know how our children could live, read this book.
Format:Paperback
I am not a natural environmentalist being very right wing economically but I have become very interested in resource constraints and the sustainability of human society on its current path of economic development. This book is very sobering reading because it chillingly details how quickly human beings are changing the planet in an unprecedented way. The author is not preachy or hysterical, he just methodically looks at the human impact on earth in modern times and points out the dangers or likely outcomes where he feels he can. My version at least was a bit dated - barely deals with global warming for example. But all in all a must read for anyone who wants to put human economic "success" in perepctive.
Format:Paperback
This must be the most readable account of the history of humankind driven environmental change in existence. An excellent and comprehensive review of the full range of human impact on the various spheres of earthly existence. Extensively supported with dates, figures, references and many examples.
If I have one criticism it is that it is easy to be left thinking that no good at all has come from any of the earth shaping endeavours of humankind. However do not that put you off, this book is an excellent lesson in the need for caution before we charge headlong in to the next great ideological earth reshaping project.
If I have one criticism it is that it is easy to be left thinking that no good at all has come from any of the earth shaping endeavours of humankind. However do not that put you off, this book is an excellent lesson in the need for caution before we charge headlong in to the next great ideological earth reshaping project.
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