Nature Literature discussion

Please add your comments about On Time and Water here.

Miracle of miracles - I was actually able to download an electronic version of this through my rural library, so I'm looking forward to taking part in the conversation!

I read it in Icelandic a while back, and really liked it. It is among my favourite climate crisis books.

My copy just showed up, so I hope to start this weekend!

I just began to read it.

Magnason is right about the message of climate crisis — it’s just so complicated that most of us find it incomprehensible. I have trouble relating degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit and wish we had adopted the metric system when I was in grade school so this would all be a bit easier to understand. But Magnason masterfully explains the concepts of global warming, ocean acidification, carbon capture and others in relatable ways. I especially like the human volcano metaphor (The God in the Steam Engine chapter). The earth’s volcanos emit an average of 200 million tons of CO2 a year while humanity releases 35 BILLION tons a year. But we don’t see or hear our conflagrations. Maybe others are experiencing similar Aha moments while reading this book?

I'm almost done with this book and it's not really what I expected. I do love all the photographs he included.

1. Do you like the way the author combines family history with the changes in the glaciers, overall climate, and dismal prospects for our future?

2. Did you like the book right away or did it take you awhile to warm-up to it?

3. Do you agree with his assessment that no one will listen to climate scientists until they information they provide is easier to use/understand or is more personalized?

1. Yes, I did actually like it Hayley. I thought it was an interesting way to show how the climate crisis will affect people in the future that we know now.

2. I seem to recall it took a little while until I got what he was doing.

3. Not completely no. I think it depends on the person that is listening to them. I don’t think there is one way to talk about this, because people come to this problem from such different angles.

I've read it a while ago (read my review), and what remained is the image of the glaciers as the mythologicals cows of the world, that feed us with water enriched by minerals. And how fatal it will be when they disappeared.
Also the unrolling of just HOW ENORMOUS the (hidden) fires are which we keep going in order to be transported or for stuff being produced.
I wish this book a lot of readers and have gifted it to some of my friends.