Monbiot has received many awards for his work. There is no doubt that he is a source to be trusted, having recieved a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement presented by Nelson Mandella. He is an intellegent guy. His sucess lies not only within the environmental field, but many others.
However, Monbiot knows his audience. He knows what people have heard about global warming, what they don't believe, what they don't understand, and what they are just tired of hearing about. Monbiot begins and ends this chapter with his discussion of Faust. This is to draw the reader in, to make them interested in what he is about to say. Also within this metaphor we can realize what we feel about Faust before we realize Faust is representing human kind.
The introduction begins with a story which is self-effacing. It shows that Monbiot, for all of his awards and acclaim, is very humble and willing to call himself hypocritical and point out that he does not know everything. He allows us to know that he doesn't want everyone to go back to running the Earth in loin cloths - which immediatly disarms the reader and quelches any feeling that they are about to be judged. He points out where he falls short - he points out that he is one part in the collective we which, if not checked, will drive this planet to destruction.
While maintaining this feeling - as if you are talking to a collegaue, Monbiot throws in an extreme amount of research and a general feeling that he knows his stuff. Just his preface of the research to come in the intro allowed the reader a glimpse into how much time and frustrations were spent fashioning this book. He quotes reliable, yet easily accesible works such as Nature and Science.
The author does a good job of revisiting the impact of the small change in temperature. While it is easy to think it is not a big deal since day to day can differ by this much, Monbiot does a great job of repeatedly hitting the importance of it. He also drives home the point that this was our doing as industrialized nations. We like to push the blame onto others, but Monbiot becomes "one of us" and brings the blame with him.
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I agree with your last sentence. It is so natural for humans to put the blame on other people or causes instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. Monbiot does become "one of us", and that is very refreshing.
ReplyDeleteI like how you talk about Monbiot calling himself out on being wrong sometimes. As a reader, knowing that you are reading something written by someone who is human and makes mistakes, makes them seem more normal, than someone who is always right.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I like how you brought up the idea that he was including himself when he says that environmentalists are hypocrites
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Monbiot is very humble and willing to call himself hypocritical. I also liked that he admitted he doesn't know everything and even he knows that there is more that he could do. I agree that he gets across that he has done a lot of research and knows what he is talking about.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the last paragraph in that we as richer nations like to push the blame on other nations saying that they don't keep up with us. When the fact is that we are the ones causing all the harm with the new technology and lust for luxurious items.
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