In a Nutshell
The book is a broad-based, comprehensive study of the effects of global change arising from a number of causes. The effect is situated right there in the title. But there is one very stark piece of imagery that puts the entire terrifying concept of the book into nutshell that is, let’s face it, a tough one to crack:
“It is estimated that one-third of all reef-building corals, a third of all freshwater mollusks, a third of sharks and rays, a quarter of all mammals, a fifth of all reptiles, and a sixth of all birds are headed toward oblivion.”
Darwinian Deniers
That there is such an enormously large percentage of the American population that denies human responsibility for climate change or even the very existence of global warming should not be surprising. After all, these theories are almost babies in comparison to Darwin’s theories of evolution and there is still a shockingly large number of Americans who deny not the just the theory, but all the evidence supporting it. For some, this rejection is based in stupidity, but is rather steeped in religious faith. The following imagery captures this state of mind perfectly:
“At the heart of Darwin’s theory, as one of his biographers has put it, is `the denial of humanity’s special status.’”
War, What is it Good For: Imagery
Turns out that the question asked by that song about what war is good for is can be answered in literature. Quite possibly no two other human activities contribute more often to imagery than war and sports. Since sports often relies upon war metaphors, however, the victory must go to the battlefield rather than the playing field:
“Long-term relationships between pathogens and their hosts are often characterized in military terms; the two are locked in an `evolutionary arms race,’ in which, to survive, each must prevent the other from getting too far ahead. When an entirely new pathogen shows up, it’s like bringing a gun to a knife fight.”
Ocean Acidification
Ocean acidification is a term used to describe an impossibly complex process involving the emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at such a volume and rate that the effect of oceans absorbing the gas has been to increase the acidity of salt water which in turn has degraded the tensile strength of sea creatures equipped with calcium-based shells or exoskeletons from barnacles to oysters. The threat of his systemic process has been determined to have played large roles in at least of the two of previous five big extinctions (and mostly likely a third). Fortunately, the author has successfully boiled down this highly complex system into much more simplistic imagery that makes the threat abundantly clear:
“Imagine trying to build a house while someone keeps stealing your bricks…Ocean acidification is sometimes referred to as global warming’s `equally evil twin.’”
