cover for Under the Sky We Make

Under the Sky We Make (2021)

How to Be Human in a Warming World

Kimberly Nicholas

rating okay
type nonfiction audiobook
concepts climate
2022/03/11 Recommended by Jon Foley; Nicholas says she won’t dwell a lot on the negative here, but much of the book discusses current failures and gives little evidence to her claims that “each individual can make a difference.
  • Science won’t save us— we will, need to shift from exploitation to regenerative mindset
  • Part 1 = facts (brain), Part 2 = feelings (heart), Part 3 = solutions (hands)

Part 1 (It’s warming, it’s us— how we got here)

  • Carbon emissions from our daily actions will stay in the air, warming the planet, for at least 300 generations
  • Climate = long term patterns of weather in a place
  • Must learn to live within the biophysical limits of nature; see limits as opportunities
  • Put values at the center of conversations— which are now moral, not scientific
  • All part of shift to regenerative mindset… three principles:
    1. Respect and care for people and nature
    2. Reduce harm at its source, not by treating its symptoms
    3. Turn impulse to build to building resilience

Part 2

  • Feelings have their own wisdom
  • Learned much about grief from death of close friend Paul Kalanithi, author of When Breath Becomes Air
  • Difference between meaning and happiness- long term vs short term
  • Order priorities by looking through the lens of carbon
  • Everyone can make a difference in whatever field they are in
  • Very anti-solar geoengineering

Part 3

  • Acknowledging climate privilege
  • Personal behavior change AND policy change are necessary
  • Internalizing personal responsibility and seeing other people’s actions are two key factors in inspiring change
  • Less cars, less flights, more plant based diets are most important changes
    • Much bigger impact than recycling, reusable bags, etc.
    • Aviation must be reduced to stabilize climate!
  • Electrify everything!
  • Inefficiency of agriculture (esp. animal agriculture)
    • Land use = main driver of biodiversity crisis, extinctions
    • Fresh water overuse for irrigation, agriculture
  • Agriculture = primary source of methane (animals) and nitrous oxide (fertilizers), more powerful greenhouse gases than CO2
  • One solution: rewilding
  • Economics favor short term benefits at the cost of long term harm
    • Need to incorporate morals into standard cost- benefit analysis
    • Can measure cost of fossil fuels in lives, not just money
  • Putting a price on carbon is NOT sufficient to drive necessary change
  • Vote with your money
    • Divestment