November 10, 2015 - 09:48
When I started reading the book, I was constantly comparing it to Ozeki's novel, and to Wild, and how we are prgressing towards texts that are more explicitly environmental. However, that did not take away the text's ability to enagage, and I felt myself deeply involved in the text, despite it being usually hard for me to remain attentive through non fictional works. Kolbert does a good job in addressing alarming environmental issues and presents a detailed history, like the comprehensive accouunt of the frogs, which gives credence to her argument and the necessity of taking action. She raised a lot of questions for me, the most important one being whether everything eventually boils down to self interest. We exploit the environment for our own gains and even if we attempt to save species, in the end the end goal is for humans' position to be secure. Moreover, I felt that even though Kolbert aims to instigate environmental action, she does not give suggestions for how this should be done on an individual level.