Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse

Author and environmental studies professor Orr (The Nature of Design) presents an alarming look at climate change, predicting a best-case scenario (a sharp reduction in our carbon footprint) that belies the hopes of the green movement at large: ""Climate change... is not so much a problem to be fixed, but rather a steadily worsening condition with which we must contend for a long time."" Even this, however, depends on a political realignment sufficient to meet the severe challenges of the coming decades and centuries, including famine, drought and population displacement. Rather than a matter of reprioritizing, Orr contends that we must reshape our deepest held values; citing the case against abortion, he suggests that ""the same kind of arguments apply to the right to life of future generations... as our present use of coal, oil, and natural gas will kill into the far future."" Finding hope in ""the connections that bind us to each other, to all life and to all life to come,"" Orr maintains a guarded optimism that never forgoes the possibility that ""we are irreversibly en route to extinction""; for his expertise and crystal clear vision, Orr's disturbing message is hard to ignore.