14 Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive the CO2 Crisis?: David Ray Griffin: 9780986076909: Amazon.com: Books

Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive the CO2 Crisis?: David Ray Griffin: 9780986076909: Amazon.com: Books







Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive the CO2 Crisis? Paperback – November 18, 2014
by David Ray Griffin (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 44 ratings

Can we act quickly and wisely enough to prevent climate change – better called climate disruption – from destroying human civilization? There is no greater issue facing humanity today. This book provides everything people need to know in order to enter into serious discussions and make good decisions: 

•The latest scientific information about the probable effects of the various types of climate disruption that threaten the very continuation of civilization. 
•The reasons why the media and governments have failed miserably to rein in global warming, even though scientists have been warning them for decades. 
•The additional challenges to saving civilization – religious, moral, and economic. 
•The amazing transformation of solar, wind, and other types of clean energy during the past few years, making the transition from a fossil-fuel to a clean-energy economy possible; and 
the falsity of the various claims that fossil-fuel companies and their (hired) minions have made to belittle clean energy. 

This book combines 
(1) the most extensive treatment of the causes and phenomena of climate change in combination with 
(2) an extensive treatment of social obstacles and challenges (fossil-fuel funded denialism, media failure, political failure, and moral, religious, and economic challenges), 
(3) the most extensive treatment of the needed transition from fossil-fuel energy to clean energy, and 
(4) the most extensive treatment of mobilization. 

It provides the most complete, most up-to-date treatment of the various kinds of clean energy, and how they could combine to provide 70% clean energy by 2035 and 100% before 2050 (both U.S. and worldwide).

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Editorial Reviews

Review


"...a most excellent compilation of renewable energy facts and context..." -- Zachary Shahan, Director, CleanTechnica.com and Planetsave.com

"If you can read only one book on climate change,

make it this one...clear and comprehensive...a masterful depiction of the severe dangers and our best available escape routes. If reading this book does not change your life, nothing will." 

-- Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur/Reporter


About the Author
is Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology, Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University (1973-2004);
 Co-Director, Center for Process Studies. He edited the SUNY Series in Constructive Postmodern Thought (1987-2004), which published 31 volumes. He has written 28 books, edited 13 books, and authored 248 articles and chapters.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.


Plan B

Acting in accordance with Plan B would mean going into immediate and complete mobilization, racing against time to prevent the kind of sea-level rise that would result from the continuation of business as usual. However, even this will not prevent continued sea-level rise from causing much distress over the next 30 years, because a great amount of further sea-level rise is already built into the system. As Romm pointed out in Hell and High Water, global warming has already guaranteed that while it will


Product details

Paperback: 516 pages
Publisher: Clarity Press, Inc. (November 18, 2014)

Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars 41 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,225,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#4288 in Environmentalism
#706 in Atmospheric Sciences (Books)
#3445 in Ecology (Books)

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Top Reviews

Marcus Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars
I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to understand the ...Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

There is no shortage of books devoted to the topic of human-caused climate disruption. What sets this new book apart from the others is its scope, its lucidity, its depth of analysis, and its practical recommendations. It also has the advantage of being one of the most current. To reiterate Richard Falk’s endorsement of this book, “If you can read only one book on climate change, make it be Unprecedented.”

This book provides a clear and detailed overview of the latest scientific literature on human-caused climate disruption and its consequences around the world as well as an encyclopedic review of current clean energy technologies. It also looks at the politics of climate deniers and failure of the media and elected officials and others to tackle this unprecedented challenge.

The question that is the subtitle of this book: Can Civilization Survive the C02 crisis? does not have a predetermined answer. If we continue business as usual--if we continue to allow politicians to accept unlimited sums of money from the fossil fuel industry and if the media continues to pretend that we are not facing an unprecedented environmental crisis—then the answer is clearly No. But, as Griffin makes clear, that does not have to be the answer. From Griffin’s perspective, the future is open. It is also possible, assuming that we act now, that the answer is Yes, civilization can survive the CO2 crisis. Griffin’s last chapter is aptly titled “Mobilization” and in it he lays out the steps that could and should be taken by elected officials at the national, state, and local levels; religious leaders; business leaders; academics; military leaders; young people and others so that the answer to this question is Yes, civilization can survive the CO2 crisis. As others have noted before, the “climate crisis” is really a moral and a political crisis.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to understand the challenges that we face and what we can do about them.

30 people found this helpful

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John H Buchanan
5.0 out of 5 stars an issue that looms as perhaps the greatest threat human civilization has yet encounteredReviewed in the United States on April 20, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

David Ray Griffin has written the definitive, comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis of climate change, an issue that looms as perhaps the greatest threat human civilization has yet encountered. While others have made this argument effectively, authoritatively, and more sparingly—Bill McKibben's writings spring immediately to mind—no one else that I know of has addressed our dilemma in such a complete and convincing issue-by-issue fashion. Griffin does this "controversy" a great service by "debunking the debunkers," that is, by showing the true colors of the most public of the climate change deniers, as well as revealing the motivations and actions of the individuals, organizations, and corporations behind them.

14 people found this helpful

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daveyd
4.0 out of 5 stars 
Seems like a rhetorical question
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018
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Author David Ray Griffin provides readers with sufficient irrefutable evidence that connects global warming with greenhouse gas emissions from expanding uses of coal, oil and natural gas. They are abundant; they are affordable sources of heat, fuel and industry drivers.

But wait. Author Griffin writes that the survival of civilization itself may be at stake as the behavior of mankind has become the subject of this book of global discourses on political, social, economic, and ecological issues, but in the end do we as fellow travelers have expectations for change? Will the global elite, the most powerful and influential forces behind the curtain, in the interest of humanity, but at the expense of personal wealth and power, volunteer self sacrifice for some societal benefit? 

Seems like a rhetorical question.

Perhaps it all began about 10,000 years ago when human civilization discovered global agriculture. Fast forward through mankind's rapid reliance on fossil fuels as they became a dependence reflecting abundant results in agricultural expansion and multiple industrial crucibles. But with this bounty of benefits came challenges and formidable threats; global warming, extreme weather changes, droughts, coastal erosion, more storms and floods...
A theme found throughout the Chapters, Endnotes and Conclusion are the hedonic ruminations about the survival of civilization. Excuse me. Should civilization under the perpetual authority and tyranny of mankind survive all else? From whence came the power and greed behind the emergence of global warming and the threat to all living species? Under what virtue does Man earn the medal of wisdom, divinity, and universal ambience that seems to be his entitlement attitude.

Civilization may not deserve to survive. Wars, repressive leaders, greed, corruption, and evil ambits seem to be power portals behind the control and management of all lucrative levers of energy resources.
On page 356 the author writes of "whether the world as a whole could be powered by clean energy..." as though our world is an immutable concord always in wait of the next mandate from flawed managers of the planet's inhabitants. We are where we are because of who we are collectively: an errant self-indulgent trial-and-error matrix of values as diversified as a garland of wrist bands. We are being asked to trust our future destiny to the intellectual forces of wealth and power where dominion over societies transported us to our present continuum of on-the-brink uncertainties.

The book's Postscript begins on page 422 and posits that the crises mankind now confronts has political solutions that elected officials can propose and implement. Sorry, but these are the same power acolytes who succeeded in redefining climate change and its tributaries into civilization's conflicts.
It is the relentless expansion of humanity and its arcane soirees into Camelot with undefined consequences that will prevent meaningful journeys into a calculus of reality.

Perhaps we should revisit the words of former President Ronald Reagan: Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.

One person found this helpful



Helen Goggin
5.0 out of 5 stars AN URGENT WAKE UP CALL
Reviewed in Canada on April 16, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I haven't read the whole 424 pages but can say without reservation that this is and I know will continue to be the best book I have on climate change and i have been reading in this field. 

I am privileged to know David Griffin and through many years now have admired his research and organization skills when it comes to producing books. But there is much more than that here. His intellect and ability to reason give inestimable value to everything he writes. And in this book his passion for his subject and compassion for humanity are equally evident. He pleads with people of faith to support the scientists who are pleading with us to listen. 

Anyone who has children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have to read this book and that doesn't leave out many of us! How dare we expose the next generations of our own families and every family around the world to the conditions of our planet that will be created by a continual increasing temperature and the collapse of civilization and demise of the human race. 

This book is an incredible compilation of the warnings of science and refusal of many living today, and especially corporations in the fossil fuel industries to believe what science has been telling us since the 1970's witnessed by the 75 pages of end notes. Every delegate who will be heading to the December meeting in Paris of our world governments' next try at agreeing on cutting back carbon emissions in the atmosphere should read this book and pack it in their brief case.

5 people found this helpful

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James Manly
5.0 out of 5 stars 
An Important and Helpful Summary of the Environmental Threat.

Reviewed in Canada on September 24, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Unprecedented by David Ray Griffin provides an excellent overview of the crisis our world faces today with helpful background information on the fake science of climate change denial, the failure of politicians, media and other sectors of society to face up to the difficult choices before us and possible approaches to a solution. As a Canadian, I regret that much of his focus is on the United States but there is plenty of material here for us to consider. I have bought copies for our children--it's their world and their children's more than mine that is affected.

One person found this helpful

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John Duddy
5.0 out of 5 stars A monumental work.Reviewed in Canada on April 29, 2015
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Time to get off the fence. Having listened to the chatter about global warming and climate change over several years I was willing to wait and see. No more. 

This book opened my eyes to the conspiracy to keep us confused so that energy corporations could continue to rake in huge profits. Having read several of Griffin's books over the years I was prepared for some eye opening research. This book gets the job done. Dr. Griffin has been suggested as a candidate for a Nobel Prize; for this work he deserves the highest rewards known to humanity. The Nobel Prize might be a first step in acknowledging his years of research and his profound contributions to human knowledge.
Dr. Griffin deserves a rest; then I suggest he write a report on the damage done to the Pacific Ocean by the Fukushima melt-down. We cannot depend on government or mainstream media to tell us the truth about these extinction level disasters.

3 people found this helpful