Eaarth - Lightly, Carefully, Gracefully

McKibben closes out his book Eaarth focusing on three major areas; agriculture, fossil fuels, and the internet.

In this post, I'd like to do a close reading of a paragraph regarding the agriculture side of things. With all the reliance we have on industrialized agriculture, it's no wonder we have a problem (read more about that and monoculture in farming here). This specific paragraph concerns the mentalities associated with large scale agriculture. It reads:

"It's hard not to think we all made a mistake. Because yields were rising, we never took seriously all the warnings. In much the same way that rising house prices lured people into ever deeper debt, the Green Revolution lured us into a kind of ecological debt we're only starting to comprehend."

This image is super cheesy, but I kind of love it.

Something I really enjoyed about this book was McKibben's reliance on the word "we" and "us". Throughout Eaarth, he constantly is addressing the audience collectively. He's creating that very sense of community and connectedness that he speaks about towards the end of this chapter by just choosing to use the word "we". Not "I", not "you", "we". As in together. As in all of us, every single one of us. Because the issues addressed here do effect everyone on the planet. We all live here. 

And not only is he addressing everyone, but he includes himself with the word "we". He's not precluding himself as an all-knowing environmentalist, incapable of harming the Earth. McKibben, by purposely involving himself in this narrative, takes partial responsibility for this new Eaarth. As all of us should. We all live in a society that is dependent on an unsustainable system, and in some way, we all contribute to it. Even if you are an environmental scholar who lives in Vermont. 

Moving onto the rest of this excerpt. McKibben here makes a comparison between monetary debt in association with the housing market and ecological debt in association with global climate change. By making this connection, he offers us a very concrete insight into a sometimes abstract idea. Climate change and the issues associated with it seem invisible until you start to put the pieces together. Likewise, the housing crisis seemed impossible until it happened. McKibben makes it incredibly easy to understand the situation we've gotten ourselves into by using a similar situation for reference.

Finally, the last words of this excerpt "... we're only starting to comprehend." The word choice of comprehend here not only directly imply understanding, but the word comprehend had a hand in the word comprehensive, meaning all encompassing. Not only do the implications of our "ecological debt" exist on a difficult to understand plane, they also exist on a large and literally worldwide plane. They exist for everyone everywhere.

Overally, I really enjoyed this book. I think McKibben does an excellent job laying out the facts in a way that is not overly intellectual, but still gets the severity of the problem across. I like the humor he incorporates throughout, as well as the personal anecdotes, which I think only improve on a really excellent author's voice. I will absolutely recommend this book to everyone I know, because I think everyone should read about extremely important issue. 

Write to you soon.

Danielle K.