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Something New Under the Sun
by John R McNeill
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"In the course of the twentieth century the human race, without intending anything of the sort, has undertaken a giant, uncontrolled experiment on the earth. In time, according to J. R. McNeill in his startling new book, the environmental dimension of twentieth-century history will overshadow the importance of events like the 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.".…
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"John R McNeill is the son of William McNeill, who wrote one of my earlier choices, Plagues and Peoples . He is an environmental historian, and in this book he traces the technological roots of the current global environmental crisis. Namely, the conflict between the growing power of technology on the one hand – abetted by military competition and rising consumer affluence – and the global environment on the other, in which this conflict plays out. For the first time, humans have affected and transformed the global environment. In trying to find the causes of this change, he looks at things like the burning of fossil fuels – which goes back centuries but took off with the invention of automobiles in the 20th century. The growth of cities is also heavily dependent on fossil fuels, and this is another change that has really transformed the global environment. He also looks at things like the use of water in the world – how we are using up our fresh water. We are polluting and wasting it in a way that is unsustainable, and which is likely to lead to water wars in the future. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter McNeill closes by saying that the environmental changes of the last century are on an unprecedented scale, so much so that we can scarcely begin to fathom their implications. We can, however, start to think about them, and McNeill’s book is a helpful primer. He connects, as do most of these other books, changes in technology with changes in the environment. And these are the themes that have been most important in my thinking. I have learnt over the years, by reading these and many other books, to view the world not just as a backdrop for human events but as a participant in them."