A life on our planet
The most recent work by the famous English naturalist David Attenborough, which comes with a film available on Netflix, has been available in French in Quebec since mid-September. The one who has shown the splendours of the wild world on numerous occasions on the BBC looks back on his journey in which the fate of the Earth and the decline of its biodiversity are intertwined. A disaster worse than that of Chernobyl, says the 95-year-old author. In a very accessible story, he tells how humanity got there and how its evolution is linked to the climatic stability of the Holocene, our terrestrial period, and to its abundant biodiversity. He explains what awaits us if we do not act and offers his vision to “rewild” the world. “With or without us, the living world will be rebuilt. An anxiety-provoking work, of course, but also one of the most humane to appear on the subject.
A life on our planet
David Attenborough
Flammarion Quebec
288 pages
Climate emergency – There is still time!
Here is another book which is busy explaining the cascade of actions and events that led to current global warming. This time, the approach is graphic and the tone, slightly humorous, despite the seriousness and density of the subject. This is the second joint project of the French designer Étienne Lécroart and the mathematician Ivar Ekeland who produced the comic strip. Chance – A Mathematical Approach. Throughout the reading, we get to know various experts (biologist, historian, physicist, economist, climatologist), invited to explain essential concepts, but often complex. The graphic rendering and touches of humor make it a digestible work, not moralizing, which also softens awareness.
Climate emergency – There is still time!
Étienne Lécroart and Ivar Ekeland
Casterman
120 pages
Ostrich syndrome – Why our brains want to ignore climate change
This essay by activist George Marshall has become a staple in climate-related literature. Published in English in 2014, then translated into French for the first time in 2017, it is now republished and still relevant today. A specialist in communications related to climate change, the author questions the reasons that lead us to ignore this reality, to deny it or even to recognize it without taking action to counter it. The famous cognitive biases, yes, but there is more. George Marshall gives voice to psychologists, researchers and environmentalists and he takes us to victims of natural disasters and activists of the American Tea Party. If humans are programmed to ignore climate change, they are also paradoxically programmed to act, he explains.
Ostrich syndrome – Why our brains want to ignore climate change
George marshall
South Acts
432 pages
For a 99% ecology – 20 myths to debunk about capitalism
Frédéric Legault, Arnaud Theurillat-Cloutier and Alain Savard have opted for a crash course in “self-defense” in this essay which attacks the commonplaces often conveyed in the explanation of the environmental crisis and in the proposal for solutions. For the trio of authors (teachers in sociology and philosophy and union advisor), it is important to identify the real polluters, to understand that China is not all wrong, to realize that the lifeline will not come. technology, energy transition, or impossible green growth. Without denying individual responsibility, they rely on that of industries, fossils in particular, and of the capitalist system by advocating an exit from this model which is democratic.
For a 99% ecology – 20 myths to debunk about capitalism
Frédéric Legault, Arnaud Theurillat-Cloutier and Alain Savard
Ecosociety editions
296 pages
Climax
There are sort of three intertwined stories in this eighth novel by Thomas B. Reverdy and global warming is one of them. Finalist for the Femina Prize, Climax takes us to a fishing village in northern Norway where an accident occurred on an oil rig. Fish are found dead and a crack threatens the glacier dangerously. The fate of the villagers, including that of a group of teenagers who have become adults, will be turned upside down by these events which raise awareness of the impact of human activity on the environment.
Climax
Thomas B. Reverdy
Flammarion
336 pages