I found this book to be somewhat difficult to read, it took me reading over it a couple times to (hopefully) grasp what Buckner was trying to point at. The obvious philosophical writing style made it a little difficult for me to enjoy but I still found his perspective to be interesting. There were things I agreed with, and there were things I didn’t but all in all it made me think.
- “The involuntary humor of apocalyptic discourse resides in its tendency to neuter everything: trying to persuade us o planetary chaos, it incorporates our possible death into everyday blandness. It would like to wake us up, and instead it put us to sleep.” (51)
I can agree with what Buckner is saying here. With the “end of the world” or the disappearing of the rainforests, or dying coral reefs, or worsened natural disasters, or what have you constantly being at the forefront of everything it almost normalizes the entire thing. It desensitizes people to the severity of it because they hear it all the time and may not always be actually seeing the ramifications of global warming day to day.
- “Worse yet: new problems keep sprouting, like the heads of the legendary Hydra. Hardly have we dealt with one focus of pain before another springs up, making our efforts seem ridiculous.”
It almost seems futile to even try and combat climate change when every day it seems like new issues are arising. Its overwhelming and frustrating to feel like no matter what you do nothing will change. Despite the fact that I try to live as much of an eco-conscious life I can (I know there is so much more I could do), its hard to know that if massive amounts of effort is put forth from major corporations, the rich, and the government, then nothing will actually change. (I know this is a really pessimistic viewpoint but I’m feel 😦 today so) I know a lot of small acts can change things too but its still frustrating.
Environmental Geography 