Down to the Wire, David W. Orr
Down to the Wire, David W. Orr
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Down to the Wire
Confronting Climate Collapse

Author: David W. Orr

Narrator: Barry Abrams

Unabridged: 8 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/14/2018


Synopsis

Down to the Wire is a sober and eloquent assessment of climate destabilization and an urgent call to action. David Orr describes how political negligence, an economy based on the insatiable consumption of trivial goods, and a disdain for the well-being of future generations have brought us to the tipping point that biologist Edward O. Wilson calls "the bottleneck." Due to our refusal to live within natural limits, we now face a long emergency of rising temperatures, rising sea-levels, and a host of other related problems that will increasingly undermine human civilization. Climate destabilization to which we are already committed will change everything, and to those betting on quick technological fixes or minor adjustments to the way we live now, Down to the Wire is a major wake-up call. But this is not a doomsday book.

Orr offers a wide range of pragmatic, far-reaching proposals—some of which have already been adopted by the Obama administration—for how we might reconnect public policy with rigorous science, bring our economy into alignment with ecological realities, and begin to regard ourselves as planetary trustees for future generations. He offers inspiring real-life examples of people already responding to the major threat to our future.

About David W. Orr

David W. Orr is Counselor to the President and Paul Sears Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Oberlin College. Prominent in the creation of the Green Campus movement, he cofounded the Meadowcreek Project, the Oberlin Project, and the journal Solutions. He lives in Oberlin, Ohio.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael

In writing Down to the Wire, Orr has produced not only one of the best books on the social issues related to the long emergency of climate deterioration confronting our generation but also an impassioned call to action filled with well-reasoned and specific steps we need to take if we and our childr......more

Goodreads review by Michael

What I posted in Facebook. Am reading David Orr Down to the Wire. There is no better inquiry and explanation of the Climate Change Crisis. Far more than just another catalog of the ill's and problems D.Orr adduces causes and effects not in a classically "linear" way, but with the complex "systems th......more

Goodreads review by Fred

This book is about consumption. Man 's consumption of raw materials in an unsustainable manner. What's interesting is that the disease consumption, AKA tuberculosis, was a slow death for those afflicted until modern antibiotics. Mankind's addiction to more and more stuff is also a slow death for the......more

Goodreads review by Daniel

A little heavy on citations, felt like a textbook at times. Interesting points on rethinking economy obsessed with growth and a lot of good stuff on leadership and political will on climate. Makes it clear hard problem is fundamental societal change and restructuring of government and economy vs sim......more