"All animals eat plants, or eat animals that eat plants, that is the food chain"... an driving it all is sunlight.

This book is absolutely wonderful. Not only does it give you a good education about the basics of climate change it also spends a lot of time analyzing the sociological mentality of why we poison our planet and how we continue to lie about it so effectively. He analyzes tribal cultures witch is of great help in understanding climate change especially since we in the west learn very little of it.

I think what I love most about this book is how much he spends talking about the spiritual aspect of the planet. This is a book of science and facts but at the same time doesn't ignore the spiritual connection we need with the planet. We all feel a sense of awe and wonder when we look into the night skye or stand on top of a mountain.

All in all a great concise book that tackles the most important issue of our day through science, history, sociology, and spiritualism.

It's all the fault of the Republicans. That's pretty much the concept of this entire book. The fate of the world? We'll run out of fossil fuels. The end. I was hoping for a more direct approach on what we can do as a species to conserve what little ancient sunlight we have left, as well as how (not just that we can) look into other methods of energy. How can the average American, for instance, afford solar panels? All I got from this book was the blame game on Reagan, the Bushes, and Trump.

We live in the Garden of Eden and it all proceeds directly from the Sun. That we are squandering this gift on trips to the store in SUV's to buy milk is mind boggling. It took me awhile to finish this book but it was worth the contemplation.

Thom Hartmann is an amazing surge of energy on the planet! He's a radio host, author and I don't know what else yet, but I was recently introduced to him by a good friend and bought this book to see if he was all he was cracked up to be. Well, this book is amazing; so much so that I bought another, "Cracking the Code," which I haven't started yet.

This book was an eye-opener when I originally read it back in 1999. It still is a book I recommend.

From a blog post I wrote in 2005:

Anyone who doesn't believe in global warming or the negative affect we're having on our planet should read this book and see if their belief stays the same. Thom Hartman has clearly done his homework and presents a lot of research.

His main point is that we're quickly using up our 'ancient sunlight' by which he means plantlife, oil, natural gas and coal mostly. The causes for this mass use is attributed to our exponential increase in population and our transition from a hunter/gatherer society to an agricultural then industrial one.

He offers some solutions though they all seem rather minor.

We did this for book club and I gotta say, most of us were pretty depressed after reading it. Sure, we're probably going to have enough natural resources left in our lifetime...but our kids? It's a pretty bleak picture.

"A call to consciousness combining spirituality and ecology that offers hope for the future
"As the world's population explodes, cultures and species are wiped out, and we have now reached the half-way point of our supplies of oil, humans the world over are confronting difficult choices about how to create a future which works.

"Thom Hartmann proposes that the only lasting solution to the crises we face is to re-learn the lessons our ancient ancestors knew -- that allowed them to live sustainably for hundreds of thousands of years -- but that we've forgotten.

"Hartmann shows how to find this new and yet ancient way of seeing the world and the life on and in it, allowing you to touch that place where the survival of humanity may be found."
~~back cover

This book put into words what I've thought for a long while -- that what makes us human, what differentiates us from the rest of the mammals -- is taking care of each other and the planet. Altruism, if you will. A quality which is sorely lacking in today's culture.

It's apparent -- at least to me -- that humanity cannot survive for much longer on the course we've chosen -- the reckless dependence on fossil fuels, and the accompanying disregard for the environment and any other species. Eventually, and perhaps sooner rather than later, it's all going to come crashing down around our ears. If humanity survives at all, it will be as stone age people. A grim fate, but the fact that we refuse to look at the consequences of our actions will inevitably lead us there. Unless ... unless we finally manage to face up to what we're doing, and change it.
Drastically.

"I am grateful for this book because the more of us who heed Thom Hartmann's passionate message, the more likely it is that our highest hopes, rather than our darkest fears, will come to pass."
~~John Robbins author of Diet for A New America

Wonderful book. After finishing "Mindfulness" and then reading "Last Hours" I can see where mindfulness thinking will lead to a better world. By no longer thinking in terms of winners and losers and instead thinking in terms of relationship we, as a species, can live longer and save our world. The big problem/question that is not answered in this work is: how do we get the population down low enough so that current sunlight will be enough to make our world work?

Mindfulness will work as way to live, it works for many Old Cultures. It will not work for a Young Culture. Young Cultures work because they conquer. Old Cultures cooperate. By Cooperating Old Cultures will last longer and be much more sustainable. But to get to this point there will be a crash. Can Old Cultural ideas of cooperation, relationship, friendship, caring for strangers out last the fall of Young Culture. This will be the main issue facing mindful people V those who must win. Another question is will those my age see the beginnings of this crash caused by Young Culture thinking. This is also a question that Hartman could not answer. It should be interesting.

The latest in the series of climate-related books I've read, I cannot say that I would recommend this one. Originally published in the nineties, but now in its third edition published in 2018, the author has not done a good job of updating the book, with many old statistics littering the text.

In addition, it is an organizational mess, with Hartmann hopping from topic to topic, spending a couple of pages vaguely alluding to one issue after another without settling into a real discourse beyond the type of talking points you've read a million times on Common Dreams or other liberal websites of the early aughts. Two pages on buried methane in the arctic; two pages on deforestation; two pages on ocean currents; now we're talking about weird meditative techniques for some reason; etc. Hartmann has published a number of books on ADHD, and I don't mean to be unkind, but this book reads like it was written by someone with trouble with sustained attention.

The final part of the book is dedicated to a comparison between what Hartmann calls Younger Cultures and Older Cultures. By Younger Culture, he means any form of human civilization that makes use of agriculture and builds city/states. By Older Culture he means our tribal forebears and those few pockets of existing tribal humanity that are still out there. He extols the virtues of Older Cultures at great length, only to admit at the end that going back to tribal forms of living is not really practical at this juncture without immense human suffering as a result. It's not that there isn't a point of some kind to made in the comparison, but Hartmann never quite says how exactly we can get from here to there.

I guess I'm losing patience with books that take a pie in the sky approach to addressing the climate crisis, which urgently requires action now. No doubt Hartmann would say that my thinking on the matter is hopelessly influenced by the Younger Culture that I have lived in my entire life, but these dinners of air do not satisfy me.

4.5 stars

This book is very good at getting you to think in a different way about energy use and consumption in a historic sense. It raises questions about what it means to harvest sunlight, what we are doing to our planet, and what can be done to repair the damages we've already done (and save the lives of the billions on the line when, not if, the current energy bank account goes dry). Great stuff, and very useful research for my current project. Highly recommend even with the feel of a liberal slant to the message.

The scientist in me didn't like this book at all and argued constantly with it. The dreamy utopian in me loved it. Thom does a good job of describing the problem of rapacious human activity on this planet but doesn't really propose any viable solutions other than making 'Sustainability' mainstream thinking (which it's becoming in some countries)and for us all to become more spiritual (a desirable goal but I can't quite see how it's going to replace fossil fuels).