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Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming is …
Pretty much exactly what you need if you want to learn about slate quarrying in the Corris area. Comprehensive, readable, nicely indexed and referenced.
Probably not much use to you otherwise.
The core points the author makes – that plant-based diets aren’t a magic bullet to solving climate change, that they can be nutritionally deficient if you’re not careful, and that sometimes the reporting/marketing around them is wildly optimistic/biased/incorrect – are all valid.
However, the book is too verbose, uses derisive language about various groups of people (mostly vegans), and fundamentally ignores the fact that fixing the climate crisis will take emissions reductions in all areas of society. So using data (correctly, as far as I can see) to show that the emissions from meat production are (for example) only a quarter of those from transport is valid — but then the book suggests that this means our diets don’t have to change and really we should only be caring about fixing transport.
We should be caring about fixing transport, and also our diets. The book is full of these false …
The core points the author makes – that plant-based diets aren’t a magic bullet to solving climate change, that they can be nutritionally deficient if you’re not careful, and that sometimes the reporting/marketing around them is wildly optimistic/biased/incorrect – are all valid.
However, the book is too verbose, uses derisive language about various groups of people (mostly vegans), and fundamentally ignores the fact that fixing the climate crisis will take emissions reductions in all areas of society. So using data (correctly, as far as I can see) to show that the emissions from meat production are (for example) only a quarter of those from transport is valid — but then the book suggests that this means our diets don’t have to change and really we should only be caring about fixing transport.
We should be caring about fixing transport, and also our diets. The book is full of these false dichotomies, as well as numerous annoying strawman arguments.
It’s pretty irritating to read, even once you get beyond the inflammatory title and cover.
Alexander Klimchouk: Hypogene Speleogenesis: Hydrogeological and Morphogenetic Perspective (Paperback, 2011, National Cave and Karst Research Institute)
This book provides an overview of the principal environments, main processes and manifestations of hypogenic speleogenesis, and refines the relevant …
Now Wait for Last Year is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Philip …
Bit of a slow starter, and suffers from Philip K Dick's seeming obsession with describing breasts, but the ideas are quite interesting once it gets going. It has one or two good twists, and it feels like you’ve achieved something to keep in pace with the narrative and not get lost. It feels like the book is well pitched for that.
Comprehensive and clear
Clearly written, interesting throughout, and heavily referenced without being too dry. I like that he somehow manages to end on a positive note, despite the (appropriate) downers in the first few sections.
Would highly recommend to anyone on this planet who plans to eat food in the future.
