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jamesarosen's review
3.0
The good:
Hawken covers a lot of different topics. He shows that we can have an impact on climate change in essentially whatever field we want to focus on and they all matter.
There are some good callouts to businesses and charities doing real on-the-ground work today.
The bad:
Each chapter is mostly vague, with occasional bits of practical information. Buying Cottonelle instead of Charmin is great (for the Boreal forests), but it’s not going to make a real dent. We need collective action fueled by everyday individual action. I want lists or organizations to get involved with.
Some of the chapters, such as the one on plastics, are preachy and useless. I’d accept being shamed for my use of plastic if there were any alternatives, but when I go to the supermarket, every dish soap, laundry soap, pound of tofu comes only in plastic. There is no action I can take.
Overall, there are good ideas in here, but they’re thin. I’m left mostly frustrated.
Hawken covers a lot of different topics. He shows that we can have an impact on climate change in essentially whatever field we want to focus on and they all matter.
There are some good callouts to businesses and charities doing real on-the-ground work today.
The bad:
Each chapter is mostly vague, with occasional bits of practical information. Buying Cottonelle instead of Charmin is great (for the Boreal forests), but it’s not going to make a real dent. We need collective action fueled by everyday individual action. I want lists or organizations to get involved with.
Some of the chapters, such as the one on plastics, are preachy and useless. I’d accept being shamed for my use of plastic if there were any alternatives, but when I go to the supermarket, every dish soap, laundry soap, pound of tofu comes only in plastic. There is no action I can take.
Overall, there are good ideas in here, but they’re thin. I’m left mostly frustrated.
spyralnode's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
After reading 'The Climate Book' earlier this year, it left me feeling very angry, but also very inspired and ready for action. I have continuously been asking myself, for years, 'what else can I do for the state of our climate?'
While 'Regeneration' was good and informative, I felt that there were too few things that were applicable for me. It didn't give me that call to action that 'The Climate Book' did. Paul Hawken focuses on large systems - be it rainforests, indigenous populations, city infrastructures or the clothing industry. So while it gives me yet another incentive to be more active in the environmental activism community, it also made me lonely in my attempts to have significant impact. I also thought that some sections leaned more into preachy and forcefully 'inspirational' rather than genuine, data-based messages with approachable and realistic solutions.
It is structured similarly, with chapters focusing on each on categories of systems, and essays on each particular one. It is also a beautiful book, I loved the wonderful pictures of natural landscapes and animals.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely, it's a fantastic learning source. Some of my takeaways were:
- There are possibilities to draw energy from heating in geothermal areas at only 80C. Trials started in Iceland and Japan, and it's now also available in Taiwan (!!!).
- There is an entire island of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean. Recycling facilities may be closed due to bankruptcy (an example was given from Victoria, Australia), and when that happens it is highly costly to sort their rubbish, hence it all ends up with the regular waste.
- I need to pay more attention to the toilet paper I buy... most of the industry is still based on cutting up trees, which are often older, holding heaps of carbon.
- We only consume as staples about 200 of plant foods, which is less than 10% of plants we could be consuming safely.
- The poor are not only suffering from the consequences of climate change, but they are being actively exploited. The author offers a few examples from the US, such as of private prison owners looking to raise sentence times for decreasing crime severities, which mostly tackles the poor. They are also allowed to buy sugary drinks and zero-nutrition foods on food stamps, evolving into cardiovascular diseases and cancer in a country where no state has under a 20% obesity rate.
While 'Regeneration' was good and informative, I felt that there were too few things that were applicable for me. It didn't give me that call to action that 'The Climate Book' did. Paul Hawken focuses on large systems - be it rainforests, indigenous populations, city infrastructures or the clothing industry. So while it gives me yet another incentive to be more active in the environmental activism community, it also made me lonely in my attempts to have significant impact. I also thought that some sections leaned more into preachy and forcefully 'inspirational' rather than genuine, data-based messages with approachable and realistic solutions.
It is structured similarly, with chapters focusing on each on categories of systems, and essays on each particular one. It is also a beautiful book, I loved the wonderful pictures of natural landscapes and animals.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely, it's a fantastic learning source. Some of my takeaways were:
- There are possibilities to draw energy from heating in geothermal areas at only 80C. Trials started in Iceland and Japan, and it's now also available in Taiwan (!!!).
- There is an entire island of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean. Recycling facilities may be closed due to bankruptcy (an example was given from Victoria, Australia), and when that happens it is highly costly to sort their rubbish, hence it all ends up with the regular waste.
- I need to pay more attention to the toilet paper I buy... most of the industry is still based on cutting up trees, which are often older, holding heaps of carbon.
- We only consume as staples about 200 of plant foods, which is less than 10% of plants we could be consuming safely.
- The poor are not only suffering from the consequences of climate change, but they are being actively exploited. The author offers a few examples from the US, such as of private prison owners looking to raise sentence times for decreasing crime severities, which mostly tackles the poor. They are also allowed to buy sugary drinks and zero-nutrition foods on food stamps, evolving into cardiovascular diseases and cancer in a country where no state has under a 20% obesity rate.
melissa_muses's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Nature is amazing. We need never have intervened. Every solution we need really is right in front of us. A practical and inspiring read that teaches something new on every page.
emkat1997's review against another edition
This is good info but I honestly just am not interested since so much of it is stuff I've already learned about
mushimushi's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0
alevernal's review
5.0
Read as part of a book club, one chapter per week. Awesome solutions and thoughts. The last part dragged a bit but overall it’s an inspiring and encouraging read.
cammschwartz's review
5.0
This is one of the best books that has all of the information about what is going on in our environment. Are you stressed about the current climate situation? Look no further than this book to lead you to optimistic solutions (watch the movie 2040 for an AMAZING visualization). I cannot recommend this book enough to everyone to learn the steps we need to take to improve our earth for the better.