100 Books Like H Is for Hope

Haraway’s book struck me like lightning. Here was a book that seemed to address relations between species in terms usually restricted to humans.

Many people, including social historians, have meaningfully described social formations in terms of various kinds of dependency and collaboration, for instance, slavery, feudalism, and companionship. After all, human-animal relations deserve a similar perspective. Human relations with dogs, cats, and birds, for instance, could be described in terms of a diversity of ranks and hierarchies. For other contexts involving domestic animals (including cows, reindeer, and horses), the language of slavery and servitude might be more relevant.

Haraway’s approach not only helps to illuminate complex nuances of modern biotechnology, to me it also seems vital at a time of escalating extinctions caused by humans. 

This book is truly a tour de force. Reading it, I was greatly impressed by its sweeping take on human relations with birds across countries and continents and throughout human history, sharing at the same time the author’s deep knowledge of birds and their habitats, his lifelong engagement with key field sites, and his unlimited fascination with the avian world.

I was also impressed by his perceptive and original observations of the lives of birds and the practices and politics of humans commenting upon them. Keeping in mind that birds are now increasingly seen as the canaries of the global coalmine, signifying the massive environmental dangers of the current age of extinction, this book, for me, provides a series of warnings, a profound message.

I was deeply moved reading this book, a treatise about impending species death written by a fellow anthropologist facing her own death. The text freely moves back-and-forth between abstract reflections about life on the edge and observations on the mutual relations between indigenous Australians and flying-foxes (the only flying mammals in existence), now seriously threatened by both global warming and human encroachment.

This is not only a unique near-extinction saga; its language and framing took me straight into some of the biggest issues of our time, of what the author calls deathwork, the living dead, and double death, where death piles up by some domino effect. The book itself, to paraphrase its title, offers a shimmering light into the ethics and politics of species protection and the threat of extinction.

This is a wonderful book. The iconic song of the blackbird takes the author into a series of exciting reflections that complicate a whole range of concepts often applied to birds, such as dance, space, and territory. I was repeatedly struck by her insights into the lives of birds.

I am amazed by the way she brings bird biographies into focus. At a time when birds (and other animals) are still often seen either as empty categories or simply good to think with, such a perspective feels like a fresh wind. As Despret observes, bird songs are in the process of vanishing. I am inclined to think of her powerful book, with its metaphoric uses of the song of the blackbird, as echoes from Rachel Carson’s warnings in Silent Spring.

I bought this book after hearing its author, Simon Sharpe, speak about it at a festival. His talk was very inspiring and convincing, and the book definitely matched my expectations.

As a sustainability academic, it really appealed to me the way he sets out how current practices in science, economics, and diplomacy don’t work, and then proceeds to provide alternative solutions to address climate change, which is very compelling.

I liked that the call for action was not in the obvious areas that we normally pursue for climate action, and that despite all setbacks and lack of progress, there is grounds for hope, and regardless of who we are or what we do, there are things we all can do. 

This book appears heavy reading and complex but it can be considered in individual sections. That makes a complex subject easier to understand. It looks specifically at the fiscal impacts of climate change and countermeasures.

The economic perspective is critical, but it is not the only consideration of the impacts of climate change, and this book reveals how social and environmental factors can relate to economic costs and benefits from a fiscal perspective.

This book provides a nice introduction to the science and economics of climate change. It explains, in easy-to-understand terms, the nature of the uncertainty regarding what we might expect, and it emphasizes the possibility of an extreme climate outcome. Given that possibility, it explains the importance of “radical” forms of adaptation, an example of which is geoengineering. And the book is short enough to be read in one sitting. 

I recommend this book because it chronicles an aspect of climate change that has received too little attention so far–the less catastrophic but equally deadly effects of long-term gradual warming and weather volatility.

Park argues carefully and persuasively that, while we focus so much attention on climate-driven weather catastrophes, the effects of global warming on everyday health and productivity are much higher.

Yergin is a master at weaving together geopolitics, economics, science and technology, policy, and culture to teach us about the critical role energy plays in defining the world around us. He is one of the few experts who puts energy at the center of his work, and he uses his understanding of history to inform his interpretation of the present.

Among other things, this book reveals the role global climate change plays in geopolitics today and will play in the future, and it reveals fascinating insights into the emerging Cold War between China and America. The nations with the most innovative technology in the energy sector are poised to remain dominant world powers in the future.

Nordhaus was one of the first economists to explain the nature of climate change and why dealing with it is of economic importance.  In this book, he uses his DICE (Dynamic Integrated Climate and Economy) model to help explain --- at a textbook level --- how unrestricted GHG emissions can cause climate change to occur and lead to serious problems in the future. He also utilizes the model to illustrate some of the uncertainties we face when thinking about the climate system and when trying to predict the changes to expect under different policies. The book thereby provides students (and others) with a good introduction to climate change policy.