December 23rd, 2010

Climate change seems to have fallen off the political map lately. But it remains the urgent issue of our time. Indeed, it is the issue that will determine “our time.”

Several books released this year reflect this reality. And yes, reading them can be grim going. There are no requisite Hollywood endings, only monumental problems, from the highest melting mountain glacier to the deepest toxic dung lagoon (the proverbial pile of poo) of the animal factories. There are rising oceans, onerous heat, desertification, walloping storms, vanishing forests and depleted soil — enough pestilence and disaster for a Bible update.

But weighted as they are with mind-boggling issues, and warnings that we must attend to our planet or veer into disaster by 2020 or 2030, they do offer hope, opening up new ways of thinking and illuminating pathways forward.

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