We Are the Weather
Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In We Are the Weather, Jonathan Safran Foer explores the central global dilemma of our time in a surprising, deeply personal, and urgent new way.
Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists, that our planet is warming because of human activity. But do those of us who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly believe it? If we did, surely we would be roused to act on what we know. Will future generations distinguish between those who didn’t believe in the science of global warming and those who said they accepted the science but failed to change their lives in response?
The task of saving the planet will involve a great reckoning with ourselves—with our all-too-human reluctance to sacrifice immediate comfort for the sake of the future. We have, he reveals, turned our planet into a farm for growing animal products, and the consequences are catastrophic. Only collective action will save our home and way of life. And it all starts with what we eat—and don’t eat—for breakfast.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Could you give up meat if it meant saving the planet? Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer thinks it’s a crucial choice, and ten years after the release of Eating Animals, he returns to nonfiction to explain why. Foer makes his case with personal anecdotes from his family history, as well as scientific and historical facts about the role farm animals play in the production of carbon emissions. None of this is dense or difficult to read—it’s accessible and thoughtful, buzzing with the same urgency as Greta Thunberg’s speech to the United Nations. Vivid and impossible to ignore, We Are the Weather is a perfectly timed call to action.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an unconventional but persuasive manner, novelist Foer (Here I Am) explains why taking meaningful action to mitigate climate change is both incredibly simple and terribly difficult. Writing from an intensely personal perspective, he describes the difference between understanding and believing, making clear that only the latter can motivate meaningful action. He argues that the dichotomy between those who accept the science of climate change and those who don't is "trivial," because "the only dichotomy that matters is between those who act and those who don't." Foer makes the case that animal agriculture is the dominant cause of climate change, concluding that "we must either let some eating habits go or let the planet go. It is as straightforward and as fraught as that." While he calls for everyone not to eat animal products before dinner (at the very least), he is not shy about discussing his own hypocrisy, disclosing his lapses back into meat-eating after writing a book-length treatise against it (2009's Eating Animals). Foer's message is both moving and painful, depressing and optimistic, and it will force readers to rethink their commitment to combating "the greatest crisis humankind has ever faced."
Customer Reviews
Eye-opening
Phenomenal book, extremely imfortative in an entertaining way, and a great wake-up call. Think everyone should read this book at least once, if not more times.