Al Gore
What book about the inevitably dire consequences of waiting too long to address global warming without former Vice-President and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore? The status of Gore’s place in the history of America’s underwhelming response to potentially the single greatest threat of its history is encapsulated in one dreadful statistic: had global decarbonation commenced with Al Gore actually having the won Presidential election where he got the most votes, emissions could have been cut by just 3%. If started today, that figure has risen to 10%.
Guy McPherson
McPherson is described as a conservation biologist who attained tenure at the University of Arizona when he was just twenty-nine. He is also described the author as admittedly existing on the fringe. McPherson is most famous for development of the theory he coined “near-term human extinction” or NTHE. He is an intellectual paranoiac on the issue of human extinction from the planet in the very near term—possibly as early as 2026.
John B. McLemore
There seems to be something about climate change and the impending possibility of planetary doom that leads to extremities of thought and behavior. McLemore is described as a “closeted environmental declinist” and so intense did his ideological pursuit become that he wound up killing himself. To get a more comprehensive handle on the character of McLemore, he is described at one point by the author as one of the “Travis Bickles of climate crisis.” Bickle is the neurotic antihero of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver often painted as villainous, but who in the end only winds up killing pimps and drug dealers in order to rescue a teenage prostitute.
Donald Trump
Trump is important, of course, because of disbelief in climate change and removal of American from all global treaties and programs. But he is more significant symbolically for his reaction—or lack thereof—toward the devastation of Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria. The author quotes cultural theorist McKenzie Wark to underscore this symbolic importance: “We’re getting some intimations of how the ruling class intends to handle the accumulating disasters of the Anthropocene…We’re on our own.”
