Eaarth by Bill McKibben

Eaarth, by Bill McKibben, was an interesting read. The entire book was informative. The first two chapters describe the changes our planet have went through as a result of passing the 350 ppm mark. These changes have fundamentally altered our planet, hence the new name Eaarth. I think it's interesting how he wrote about our planet as if it is an entirely different one from the one we lived on before we passed the 350 mark. I think this was effective in showing that the problem is not just for our grandchildren, but for our parents. We already live in a different planet from our previous ones because we have changed it in so many ways. It is going to be up to us to return to 350 ppm so that our planet remains habitable.
Before reading Eaarth, I didn't think that global warming was presently causing major changes in our planet. I thought that an increase in 1 degree would have little, if no effect, on our world. However, warmer air holds more water, increasing evaporation, which makes dry areas drier and wet areas wetter. If we can lower our carbon to 350 ppm, our environment will have fewer natural disasters that are linked to global warming.
In the last half of the book, McKibben elaborates on how America has always focused on growing. Instead of focusing on growth, McKibben argues that we need to back off. Growing makes us "too big to fail" in which case we always fail because we're too big. McKibben also suggests that we think local. A lot of energy that is generated is lost in the process of distributing it. Also, food that travels farther is less fresh. We should take a local approach to energy and food by focusing on local community. I think if we begin to increase our sense of community, and take advantage of local energy and food, we will be closer to returning to the 350 ppm mark.