Kimberly Nicholas. Under the Sky We Make: How to Be Human in a Warming World. G. P. Putman’s Sons. New York. 2021.
Reading this book covers a workable way forward after walking through "It's us; it's bad; we can fix it". The author highlights our damaging obsession with the "Exploitation Mindset" and the essential need to shift to a regenerative mindset. One of many similar thoughts floating around.
The last section of the book is a "too long, didn't read" list of the book's key takeaways and actions. 247 pages digested to just 8 pages.
Additional
- Video Interview with Women and Inclusivity in Sustainable Energy Research - 51 minutes
Notable
To stabilize the climate at any temperature, we have to completely stop adding carbon to the atmosphere.
--
Your own suffering is not special. ...Pain times lack of acceptance equals suffering.
--
"Lift in, dump out" support those closest to the crisis and vent to those farther away.
--
The Exploitation Mindset tends to prioritize convenience and efficiency over other values. But convenience is not a core value that leads to meaning; it is not the point of life.
--
Reaching maturity is something like switching from thinking of your life as a first person narration to thinking of yourself as a character in a larger third person narrative... Meaning comes from being able to make the story not about you, but about a larger narrative that goes on after you die.
--
Living ethically and responsibly in this era will ultimately involve some painful reconciliation, forcing us to come to terms with the very real costs of some of the overconsumption exalted under the Exploitation Mindset, including jet-set getaways, shiny cars, and fat steaks that may still be filling your social media feeds.
British researchers identified activities to live better and happier while consuming less; the found the best win-win leisure choices are local outdoor activities, reading, hobbies and games, music, and --lowest emitting of all-- "sleep and rest".
--
lagom: a sufficient amount is the perfect, most satisfying thing
--
Rather than looking for one right answer from some external authority (the one and only, perfect pathway everyone must follow to solve climate change), the task for each of us is more about figuring out who we are and becoming more of that. ... adapting our particular skills, talents, and preferences to our local context to work toward the principles of protecting people and nature, reducing harm at its source, and increasing resilience.
--
ikigai: what gets you up in the morning (fun, satisfying and valuable work), and periodically examining if your work meets the criteria as you change over time
--
When confronted by new facts, the idea of coming up with a new story doesn't typically occur to [people]: We reach for something off-the-rack, for the comfy, broken-in plotlines of ideology.
--
"Climate change isn't a cliff we fall off, but a slope we slide down." [Kate Marvel] There is no bottom to the slope; we will keep sliding until we put on the carbon brakes. Every inch of the slide we don't cede is a victory.
--
So what does a good-hearted person do in an [climate] emergency? They look for ways to help, and they pitch in where the can. They assess their assets and liabilities, talents and communities, and figure out how to mobilize them toward protecting people and nature, reducing harm at its source, and increasing resilience. [emphasis added]
--
Consider:
- 72% of global climate pollution can be traced to household consumption decisions and income buys climate pollution
- anyone in the United states making over $38,000 each year is among the top 10% of incomes in the world
- people in the top 10% of the world's incomes are responsible for 50% of household pollution worldwide
- people over the median US income ($69,000 per year) have the greatest freedom to reduce emissions through consumption choices
- driving, flying, and eating meat are the consumption choices with the greatest impact
Contents
Introduction: Science Won’t Save Us
- Science Won’t Save Us
- It’s Us
- Breaking Up with Exploitation
- The Path Ahead
PART I : It’s Warming. It’s Us.
… How We Got Here
-
Carbon Is Forever… Understanding the Urgency of the Task Ahead
- Carbon Is Forever
- The Science and Politics of Danger
- The Carbon Bathtub Is Almost Full
- What’s Ahead?
- Every Fraction of a Degree Matters
- A Game of Jenga We Cannot Afford to Lose
- Welcome to Club Climate Alarmed
-
We’re the Asteroid… Earth Will Be Fine – But Humans Are in Trouble
- Today’s “Normal” Isn’t Normal
- Our Place in the Universe
- We’re the Asteroid
- Why We Need Nature
- Home Underfoot
- Uprooting Exploitation, Sowing Regeneration...Time for a New Mindset
- A New Mindset
- Three Principles of Regeneration:
- Respect and care for people and nature.
- Reduce harm at its source not by treating its symptoms.
- Turn our impulse to build toward the building of resilience.
- Regenerating Nature and Climate
- Making Fossils History
- What We Have to Do by 2030
PART II: We’re Sure. It’s Bad.
… How We’ll Get Through Now
-
Sink into Your Grief: How to Honor Everything We’re Losing
- Stewards of Grief
- Swimming Through an Ocean of Grief
- Facing Inevitable Loss
- Honor It All. Save What You Can.
-
Making Meaning in a Warming World… Personal Choices Under Global Change
- Beyond Happiness to Meaning
- Maximize Meaning, Minimize Carbon
- Work with Purpose
- Make Decisions Guided by Meaning
-
Face Your Fears… Through Doom to Purpose, by Way of All the Feels
- OK Doomer
- The Struggle is Realized
- You Don’t Have to Be Perfect; You Just Have to Be Brave
- The Five Stages of Radical Climate Acceptance
- Stage 1: Ignorance
- Stage 2: Avoidance
- Stage 3: Doom
- Stage 4: All the Feels
- Stage 5: Purpose
- One Foot in Front of the Other
- Get Angry… Being Cassandra in a Post-Truth World
- We’re Sure
- Big Oil Lied Big
- Can Reality Survive in a Post-Truth World?
- Being Cassandra
- May Cooler Heads Prevail
- Harnessing Feelings for Action
PART III: We Can Fix It.
… How We’ll Go Forward
-
Climate Change Isn’t Fair… Acknowledging Climate Privilege
- The Cruelty of Carbon
- Some Countries Are More Equal than Others
- From Countries to Households
- The Rich Need to Get to Work
- Personal Carbon Responsibility
- Both/And, Not Either/Or
- Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
- What Makes Change Happen?
-
Slowing Down and Staying Grounded… Embracing a Car-Free, Flying-Less Life
- A Fateful Beer in Vienna
- Staying on the Ground
- Car-Free Cities
- Electrifying Everything
- The Future Is Closer than You Thinking
- Low-Carbon Love
-
Food Shouldn’t Come from a Factory… Putting Grandpa George’s Turkey out to Pasture
- The Problem with Bigger Breasts
- Fragile and Inefficient
- Industrial Agriculture Is Killing the Planet
- Industrial Agriculture Is Killing Us
- Regenerating Nature
- Eating on a Living Planet
-
Values and Costs… We Can’t Afford Not to Fix Climate Change
- It’s Not Just the Economy, Stupid
- The Amorality of Markets
- True Costs of Fossil Fuels
- Price or Prohibit Pollution?
- The Climate Doesn’t Care What Carbon Costs
- Popping the Carbon Bubble
- Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
- Manage What We Can’t Avoid; Avoid What We Can’t Manage
-
The Personal Is Political… Citizen Action Can Effect Global Change
- Overcoming Carbon Lock-In
- Beyond Political Feasibility
- Elect and Talk to Your Repeated
- Political Demands
- Fairness and Just Transitions
- The Court of Public Opinion and the Courtroom
- The Moral Compass of Civil Society
- On the Streets of Stockholm
- Being a Good Ancestor… Building the Climate Cathedral
- The Urgency of Eternity
- Find Bright Spots and Embrace Failures
- Being a Good Ancestor
- Forget Future Generations
- What Is Humanly Possible?
- Cathedral Thinking
Conclusion: Under the Sky We Make
- TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read) - Takeaways from each chapter in a bulleted list