Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Bob talks with environmental writer Bill McKibben about his new book Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. McKibben has been offering suggestions about how to avoid problems associated with climate change for more than two decades. With climate change now upon us, McKibben’s new book lays out our limited choices to save our planet and ourselves. Then, Dmitry Orlov grew up in Russia in the waning years of communism, attended high school in America, and regularly returned to Russia as it collapsed into debt. Unfortunately, he sees an awful lot of similarities between the USSR and the USA and he talks about it in his new book Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects.
Well just like the rest of us, it could be that Mr. McKibben with this book is simply "making a life on a tough new planet". Climate change is a hot topic these days and people would buy something relevant to the times, of course. But I haven’t read this book so he deserves a chance. And if I were to read about climate change from the words of a scientist, I may have to deal with an overload of jargon.
Andrew Green
Rants And Raves
I listened to the Bill McKibben piece on the Bob Edwards show this morning. Many parts of his mostly fear-mongering oratory I would state were scientifically "stretched" at best. Consider his "global warming caused the road into my town to collapse" and other anectdotal information.
I thought I’d do some research, which I did. He doesn’t appear to have any type of scientific background whatsoever. He’s a journalist. Some journalists like to step outisde their role and pretend that they are what they are not. Clearly, Mr. McKibben is playing the role of a scientist in that manner. Clearly he’s not a scientist, he’s a poser. Don’t you vet these clowns at all? I’m not in the camp of global warming being a hoax, but for the sake of your integrity and your show-put up people who are qualified to speak on a topic.