Life as we know it can be, reviewed

We review Life as We Know It (Can Be), Stories of People, Climate, and Hope in a Changing World by Bill Weir. See more about the book here.

Life as we know it can be, reviewed

This book tackles an important topic. Maybe that is perhaps stating the obvious, as it is about the threats to our own existence, except, like the guy on a branch, sawing off his connection to the main tree, we seem, collectively as a species unwilling to stop destroying our plannet. It seems on one hand slightly insane that we have got ourselves into this position. But, at the same time, it is precisely because we are the creators of our own existential dilemma, that this illustrates why it is exactly so hard to tackle and resolve these issues.

Bill Weir, author of this book is very much aware of this, and is attempting to grapple with this paradox and the deeply knotted challenges that we face if we have any hope of extricating ourselves from the downward slope that we are on. He creates the narrative device of writing letters to his children, both now, and it the years to come when they try to understand the situation we have ‘gifted’ to them. Oftentimes, and generally for the better, he then forgets about this, and just talks about what he wants to discuss. In all good stories, no matter what the narrative device was to take us to the crux of the story, once you are there. You don’t really need or want to be dragged back to the construct of the narrator telling you the story.

This juggling of story and narrator can sometimes feel a little jagged and even jarring. Referring to himself as your old man, is folksy, and we get it, but sometimes it drags you into memoir. Rather than perhaps what the subtitle of the book offers – stories of people and hope. Weir is clearly capable of writing a memoir, he has had an interesting enough life. He is also capable of writing another book about positive stories around people doing things who might just save us. However this book sometimes jumps between both, either and even neither too. Some of the stories about people and their projects were actually quite downbeat, inconclusive, and arguably not always that helpful.

We definitely looked forward to reading this book, but, at times it felt like neither flesh nor fowl. It was sometimes hard to identify the usable takeaways, and when we were just drifting into memoir, and, when it covered unsuccessful acting auditions, it was perhaps something to be edited out. There are good elements in this book, but it felt a bit jumping all over the place too. We would have loved more details about what might save us, if anything, and what is the path to avoiding dire outcomes. It is an important book, and tackles vital themes, you just might need to dig a bit to find the usable takeaways to help do your bit to save the planet too.

Conservation groups are now suing the state of Utah for failing to stop the overconsumption of irrigation water that is killing the Great Salt Lake ecosystem.https://t.co/C0d1FrPjLi

For context…https://t.co/q2QaF7sNWc

— Bill Weir (@BillWeirCNN) May 6, 2024

More about the book

Award-winning journalist and CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir takes readers through time and around our changing world to confront the biggest threats to life as we know it and search for proven ways to build happier, healthier, and more resilient communities, come what may.

While reporting from every state and continent, and filming his acclaimed CNN Original Series, The Wonder List, Bill Weir has spent decades telling the stories of unique people, places, cultures, and creatures on the brink of change. And as the first Chief Climate Correspondent in network news, he is immersed in the latest scientific warnings and breakthroughs while often on the frontlines of disasters, natural and manmade.

After the birth of his son in April 2020, Bill began distilling these experiences into a series of Earth Day letters for his boy to read in 2050, weaving the worry and wonder into a reminder to other anxious parents that they are not alone and a better future can still be written. This dialog with a boy born into “The Age of Unreason” inspired Life As We Know It (Can Be). With a storyteller’s flair, Bill digs into fascinating corners of history, psychology, technology, and his own biographyto connect the lessons he’s collected from the happiest, healthiest, and most resilient societies.

Now streaming on @StreamOnMax https://t.co/aTyMpgxeUx

— Bill Weir (@BillWeirCNN) June 1, 2023

Bill’s stories take readers on journeys from the Greek Island where people live to 100 at an astonishing rate to the one community in Florida that took on a hurricane and never lost power, from the Antarctic Peninsula where one species of penguin is showing us the key to survival to the nuclear fusion labs where scientists are trying to build a star in box. In these pages, we join a search for ancient wisdom and new ideas.

Life As We Know It (Can Be) is a celebration of the wonders of our planet,  a meditation on the human wants and needs that drive it out of balance, and an inspiration for communities to galvanize around nature and each other as the very best way to brace for what’s next. ENGAGING EXPERT AUTHOR: Dubbed “the Anthony Bourdain of climate reporting” for his distinctive storytelling style and a focus on our connected planet, Bill Weir created the primetime CNN Original Series The Wonder List with Bill Weir in 2015. Previously, he had launched the weekend edition of Good Morning America, was co-anchor of Nightline, had his reporting featured on World News with Diane Sawyer, 20/20, and his own Yahoo! News digital series This Could Be Big. He anchored ABC’s Summer Olympics coverage from London in 2012 and reported from inside Apple’s Chinese factories for Nightline. He has also written and hosted projects for the FX and USA networks and was an anchor/reporter in Los Angeles, Chicago, Green Bay, and Austin, MN. This is his first book.

More about the author

Bill Weir is a veteran anchor, writer, producer, and host who joined CNN in 2013 after a decade of award-winning journalism at ABC News. The book collects a series of letters to his (at the time) newborn son, River, about climate change and how the world is changing. Without sugarcoating the science of climate, he finds optimism in the ways humans are responding – new technologies, community-building, the hidden ways America is becoming greener – and the lessons he’s collected from the happiest, healthiest, and most resilient societies through his reporting.

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