The collapse of western civilization : a view from the future / Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Oreskes, Naomi, author.

Conway, Erik M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civilization, Western--Forecasting.

Civilization, Western.

Civilization, Western--21st century.

Science and civilization.

Progress--Forecasting.

Progress.

Twenty-first century--Forecasts.

Twenty-first century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (105 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York, New York : Columbia University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The year is 2393, and the world is almost unrecognizable. Clear warnings of climate catastrophe went ignored for decades, leading to soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, widespread drought and-finally-the disaster now known as the Great Collapse of 2093, when the disintegration of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet led to mass migration and a complete reshuffling of the global order. Writing from the Second People's Republic of China on the 300th anniversary of the Great Collapse, a senior scholar presents a gripping and deeply disturbing account of how the children of the Enlightenment-the political and economic elites of the so-called advanced industrial societies-failed to act, and so brought about the collapse of Western civilization. In this haunting, provocative work of science-based fiction, Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway imagine a world devastated by climate change. Dramatizing the science in ways traditional nonfiction cannot, the book reasserts the importance of scientists and the work they do and reveals the self-serving interests of the so called "carbon combustion complex" that have turned the practice of science into political fodder. Based on sound scholarship and yet unafraid to speak boldly, this book provides a welcome moment of clarity amid the cacophony of climate change literature.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Coming of the Penumbral Age

2. The Frenzy of Fossil Fuels

3. Market Failure

Epilogue

Lexicon of Archaic Terms

Interview with the Authors

Notes

About the Authors

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780231537957

0231537956

OCLC:

1002221965