1. A convincing and concise manifesto on why ambitious political action must happen now if we will mitigate the already inevitable consquences of global warming.
2. Think you already knew that? Goodstein points out why government-level action hasn't happened yet, even with so much inspiring momentum all over the world: while the arguments are rationally convincing--very few still claim that humans have no impact on global warming--we haven't made the emotional case. We believe extinction, for example, is "sad" but not "wrong." We shy away from asserting that the reason it's painful to hear about endangered salmon or forests is because we love those salmon and forests.
3. Goodstein spends a good portion of this slim book making the case for the urgency of global warming:
"Unchecked, global warming threatens to destroy one of every two animals, birds, plants, reptiles, forests, fish and other creatures alive today on the earth."
I get that. I'm convinced. I'm horrified. I was looking forward to the "passion and politics" part, the "love" part, the "stop global warming" part, all promised by the title.
4. I don't feel like I got much of that. Goodstein does articulate some efforts he's heartened by, mostly pertaining to "Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America," which hinges on a large-scale national teach in coming up next month.
5. While Goodstein encourages you to partake in Focus the Nation, to demand that climate change be a priority for everybody you vote for in the 2008 elections, and to adapt your lifestyle to your conscience (though these changes aren't as urgent as governmental changes), Goodstein doesn't deliver anything particularly unique in this book.
6. The best thing he offers came early on in the text, and wasn't followed up on. And that's his case for reorienting the language of global warming: to be unafraid to claim it as a moral issue and to not deny our love for our earth as the catalyst for action.
7. I love that it's short. Seriously. The book's brevity (178 pages, big type, big borders) makes it accessible. Many folks I know do care about global warming but seem intimidated about entering the debate because they haven't read the latest tome or scientific treatise. Fighting for Love in the Century of Extinction is for them (and by "them," I mean "us").
8. Goodstein is so heartfelt, it seems he can't help but insert every frightening fact about global warming--to startle urgency into us. And while he does include a few lukewarm personal anecdotes, his manner of writing this book is at odds with the book's very thesis.
9. Because that thesis is so appealing to me, I'm particularly disappointed.
10. But for a book peculiarly of this moment, for an accessible, sincere, and reasonable take on global warming, this is worth taking a look at.
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