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William H. Calvin
June 29th 2003
A Brain for all Seasons
A challenging attempt at an overview of how the human brain and climate change interacted to make us what we are. This book has any fascinating facts and interesting interpretations. Sometimes one wishes the book were longer and in more detail, but there is a bibliography which I will work through.
Many of the theories are contentious, and Calvin generally makes sure the reader is aware of the difference between fact and fiction, unlike many of the TV shows one sees nowadays.
The earlier parts of the book, covering prehistory, are fascinating. The last couple of chapters covering the present are scary, probably very appropriate, and incredibly interventionist in attitude to climate change.
Calvin basically starts from the premise that we have irreversible changed the climate and environment. He agrees that we should try to limit the damage, but argues that there is never was a stable climate or environment in the past, and that there never will be one on the future.
His proposals for intervention (dams in the arctic, blowing up ice barriers and so on) may sound extreme, but if his is right and humankind has developed in one of the most stable periods of the Earth's climatic history, violent climate change is inevitable, whether provoked by human intervention, or caused by the same forces what caused climate change on a vast scale before man was around.
And violent climate change is something we should be modest about, realise we will have very little control over it, and do the best to survive. The scary bit is how ugly survival will be. The "War for Oil" theorists would say we have an example of it already. I don't have the information to judge, but certainly "might is right" has not vanished as a ruling principle.
A Brain for all Seasons
October 2004
This book, which I probably read last year (the beginning of this year was consumed by the Reformation), has me making notes all over the place.
Calvin's thesis is that climate change, both local and global is a trigger for evolution is fascinating and credible. His writing style is perhaps not the greatest, and the travelogue is not my favourite vehicle for presenting scientific theory, but for all that I enjoyed the book greatly.
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I still want to do a project with a visual map of the world evolving over time, with continents, climate information and micro events that are documented all available at the click of a mouse.
I did even go as far as to start collecting data. If time permits I will do more.
M. Calvin earns his living as an academic, and presents a strong case for his theories, some of which are very perceptive and simple. In the end however I think he is somewhat arrogant, and possibly dangerous with his ideas for reducing the damage caused by global warming. His simplistic interventionist solutions could only to well appeal to someone like George W. Bush and lead to an ecological disaster as a half thought through version is poorly implemented and executed.
I won't spoil the fun by telling you what they are, read the book, learn on the way, and to retain your sense of modesty, go and visit a cave with old stalactites with a geologist, and have them run through the history of the world and climate as told by the minerals deposited by the drops of water.