Our Angry Earth

by Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl

Describes the present ecological condition of the planet, and offers advice on how to live in harmony with the environment and a warning of what will happen if we do not

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Politics, Environment, Ecology, Audiobook, Climate Change

323 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1991

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read three books in a row that were written decades apart but had a similar theme. I started with, “The Sheep Look Up” by John Brunner (1972) Followed by a non-fiction book, “Our Angry Earth” published in collaboration by Frederik Pohl and Isaac Asimov in (1991), and finally, “The Ministry For the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson (2020)

*** “The Sheep Look Up” is a near future speculative novel (not set in a specific year but reading it in the year 2021, I could easily place it as an alternate present time world (that did not have internet and cell phones as the dominating tech of the day, for one thing). The novel, overall, is a projection of the way things appeared in the early 1970's. A little off, for example, was the common opinion at the time, of the coming of a new ice age rather than a CO2 based atmospheric warming. However, the pressing issues in Brunner's future earth are: Air pollution has gotten so bad that filter masks are commonly worn to simply walk around outdoors. The infant mortality rate and instances of birth defects has increased substantially, many of the formerly treatable diseases are no longer easily treated as antibiotics have lost there ability to do so and the water has become mostly undrinkable. Corporations profit from solutions to these problems (whether it be a real or successful solution or not). The poor are generally exploited or ignored, which causes protests and riots. Governments favour economy over human rights and the assurance of well being. All this told with the new wave styling much reminiscent of Brunner's earlier 1968 novel, “Stand on Zanzibar”.

*** “Our Angry Earth”, predated Al Gore's “An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It ” by a decade and a half – their title is better, I thought. They list examples backed with scientific facts of the oncoming troubles ahead plus offer possible solutions.

**** “The Ministry for the Future”, was an entertaining up to date list of projected environmental challenges set within a speculative fiction novel, with proposed, solutions, such as, carbon coins – a cryptocurrency awarded to those who reduce, or even, eliminate carbon release into the atmosphere.

All three had this in common: You can cry wolf over and over, it doesn't matter. They never show up. Not even the first time.

[Rohomes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The authors are listed as Frederik Pohl and Isaac Asimov. Another reviewer (on Amazon.com) complained that the book's style is not Asimov's, and therefore not as entertaining as Isaac's usual writing. That is true, and it does appear that Pohl was probably the primary contributor as far as the written word is concerned. It is also true that this was Asimov's last non-fiction book, and at the time I believe he was quite ill; he died in 1992, the year following the book's publication. However, while the writing style does not seem to be Isaac's, the book is very comprehensive and detailed in its listing and explanations of the environmental dangers we face, and that detail certainly appears to be the result of Asimov's supreme intelligence, almost photographic memory, vast scientific knowledge, and wonderful research abilities. I seriously doubt that the book would contain the depth of exact detail as to what is going on as humanity continues its march onward toward the extinction of life on our planet, if Asimov had not had a hand in it. I suspect that Pohl and Asimov planned the outline of the book and the listing of the problems involved, then Pohl produced most of the wording with Asimov supplying the scientific data.

This is a very, very good book, and one which everyone who cares about the environment should read. It will fill any gaps in your knowledge of our problems, and that is a very worthwhile and even necessary thing. If you're looking for knowledge of the facts, and serious attention to the exact details involved, this book fills the bill perfectly. If you're looking for entertainment, maybe you should just forget about the dangers we face, and bury your head in some of Asimov's science fiction. I should add that while the book isn't very "amusing" in the Asimov style, it will definitely hold your interest. It isn't dull, and it never flags in its steady piling up of the facts and details involved. But not only is it not "entertaining" in an escapist way, it will just about scare you to death!

The only thing that would make this book better is for someone to put out a second edition bringing everything in the first edition up to date. The book was published in 1991 - 22 years ago (as of this date, 2013). I'm looking for something that updates it that is just as easy and captivating to read as this one is. If Pohl is still alive, maybe he could do that; but without Asimov's help, it probably wouldn't be as comprehensive and helpful, though any update would be better than nothing. And maybe some of Isaac's other friends could combine their scientific knowledge and research abilities to make up for what was lost when Asimov left us. (It might take 5 or 10 of them to replace one Asimov!)

P.S. - if anyone knows where I can find an "update" to what this book provides, I would greatly appreciate it if he or she would add their own review of this book and mention the update(s) in their review.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gloom, doom, and despair. As much as I have enjoyed some of the science fiction penned by Asimov & Pohl, this non-fiction work published in 1991 was not a good read. The authors themselves state that even if the (1991) world population of 5+ billion were reduced to just 1 billion the planet would still be doomed. So even a killing field that would make Mao, Stalin, and Hitler appear to be rank amateurs cannot save us. Mankind, and particularly technological, industrial mankind is essentially an unwelcome virus infecting what would otherwise be a pristine earth. In this 2018 printing of the book I was surprised that the several references to Acid Rain had not been removed (or at least footnoted), as even the EPA's own studies have debunked that 1980's Enviro-Boogie man (see https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybel... ). I was also disappointed in their promotion of halogen bulbs as "green", as the authors clearly point out the damage halogen can do to the human eye. And of course, the wonderful mercury containing CFC bulbs are also trumpeted as a great leap forward. After many pages of gloom and doom the authors move to their solutions -- first they recommend personal change (i.e. if you want to save the environment then change your own lifestyle). This is probably the most laudable section of the book. The bigger solution of course is political and economic. And how is that solution to ever be achieved? -- why big government and high taxes, of course! I found laughable the thought that draconian and all powerful government should be the solution since the authors themselves admitted that the worst polluters at their time of writing were the countries behind the Iron Curtain of Communism. So give up your freedom, pay more taxes, and you just might save the planet! Meh. While I will likely continue to read the fiction of Pohl and Asimov, non-fiction by either is not likely to appear on my to-read list anytime soon.

[Sven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although dated in some ways, this book from 30 years ago is still worth reading. It will help you understand that the environmental movement did not just start, an that the problems have been building for a long time.

It also includes practical advice for "being more than one person", organizing for political action to change policies at the local, state, and national level.

[Norman Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite having been originally published almost 30 years ago, this book still contains much relevant information about the world's climate crisis, because we have done almost nothing to mitigate the crisis in those years. Asimov and Pohl lay out the causes of our problems in a way that is clear and easy to understand. They also provide many ways that we could reduce the pollution that causes most of the problems.

I think the book's use of the Gaia metaphor will sound too much like New Age woo-woo to some readers, but they are certainly correct that every part of the Earth's ecosystem is interrelated, sometimes in ways we don't understand.

In the years since this book was first published, many of the book's predictions have come true. We are experiencing more and stronger hurricanes, for example. The arctic and antarctic ice sheets are melting faster than predicted. Average temperatures continue to rise every year. About the only bright spot is that the ozone hole has generally grown smaller, due to heeding scientific evidence about the harmful effects of CFCs. Oh, if we would only heed the scientific evidence for climate change!

The world's population has grown from 5.2 billion to 7.7 billion in the intervening years, causing an even greater strain on the Earth's resources, and in reading this book it's depressing to know that if we had taken the authors' advice then we possibly could have leveled off some of the environmental problems they write about, but instead have likely passed the point of no return.

One of the most powerful ideas in this book is that there are external costs for cleaning up pollution that the public bears largely through higher taxes. The idea of carbon taxes levied on pollution producers discussed in the book has long been criticized by conservatives, but the authors' case for it makes sense. I have a friend who moved from California to North Carolina who regularly posts on Facebook about his cheap gasoline prices relative to what he left behind in California, but it's people like him who miss the point made in this book that we all pay for the environmental damage caused by artificially low priced fossil fuels.

The book concludes with a section on how people can become more active in the fight. The authors talk about starting or joining environmental groups, with specific steps on how to make these types of groups effective. They talk about contacting political leaders and helping pro-environment candidates get elected. The most dated section of the book talks about letter writing, still effective, but surpassed by social media, which was not even predicted by these two giants of science fiction.

This is a depressing read, but it contains a lot of useful information we can use in talking with nonscientific people. It's too bad a whole segment of society rejects the ideas of the climate crisis out of hand simply because of politics.

Maybe sometime soon some other writer(s) could publish a similar, updated version of this that would motivate people to treat their world a little bit better. Unfortunately, I think we're in for some very tough environmental times ahead.

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was a whole lot to take in. this book was originally written in 1991, so quite a while ago, however much of the information was still enlightening. i'm not sure that much of what i was reading was still true today, but it was interesting to see how the situation was over 25 years ago, and how they predicted the situation would be now. i think that i learned a lot about how much it is really going to cost to change the world for the better. reading about the perspective that many corporate suck up and high polluting companies take on making their process more environmentally friendly was quite striking. knowing what your up against is always a good thing. the end of this book got very...political, but not in the way that you would think. it was genuinely informative about the election process? i was confused reading about the last chapter or so because i was no longer convinced what i was reading was a book about the environment. i now have a bit of knowledge on how to get elected and how to win an election...nice. anyway the biggest con of this book is of course the age of the information provided in it, by now most of the research probably has modern replacements that can be found elsewhere.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is technically nearly 30 years out of date, there is so much that is still relevent, accurate and worryingly true about how we are still polluting the planet, the space around us and causing significant changes to our climate, not to mention the simplicity of the possible solutions if we could just get past our immediate 'now, now, now' mentality. Asimov and Pohl pulled together and explain the major ways we as a species are damaging the planet, which they accept was not new information or particularly enjoyable reading, but which we as a species needs to recognise and understand (properly recognise and understand, not just 'oh okay' it and ignore it). But they also give plenty of glimmers, no lashings of hope as they run through the many and varied ways we as individuals, groups, communities, countries and a species could do something about it and save ourselves (not the planet, the planet will be fine, it is us that will and are paying). The only problem is finding the desire, will and motivation to do it. And it seems in the 30 years since publication, we are still having problems finding the desire, will and motivation. Rather concerning since the weight of evidence is even greater now than it was then.

[Fabius · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd book for which the rating is largely meaningless. A primer on ecological disaster written by two science fiction authors in the early 90s that is at once ahead of the curve of many such works on climate change today (in recognizing the ultimate importance politics) and curiously quaint, more like an artefact from the 50s or 70s (in advocating a vision of politics based largely around founding clubs and sending mails to your congressperson). Its value today probably lies in that, as a historical artefact of its time rather than as an actual primer on the anthropocene.

[Stephan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to all things related to understanding the need to save our planet. However, this was written in 1992, so some issues have been updated. I look forward to reading more of Asimov's work.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally think of sci-fi writers as leaning conservative (Heinlein, Card), probably because militarism and personal autonomy are common themes. But in this non-fiction work, written in 1991, Asimov and Pohl reveal a soft spot for dear old Mother Earth.

Sci-fi writers are of course also known for thinking hard about the future. After a discussion about the hazards of prediction, they point out that one class of "future" events can be predicted quite accurately: those that have already begun to happen (and, I might add, which are driven by systematic and entrenched economic incentives.)

What did these two giants predict 17 years ago? The crumbling of our aging Eisenhower-era bridge and highway infrastructure due to underinvestment. The reality of global warming ("what we can say for sure is that these things are precisely what we would expect to find if the theories were true, and that we would be very surprised to find them if the theories were false.") The need to put a price on carbon emissions by, for example, taxing them. And, perhaps worst of all to space enthusiasts, the proliferation space junk, "a sort of orbital minefield, left there by the spacefaring nations of the Earth."

[Brady Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book almost twenty years ago, but there are parts I still think about.

[Boni Aditya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Simple book - Quite Old too - A detailed list of all the pollutions, and the pains that we inflict upon earth - Written way before the Fukishima disaster and clearly mentions the hazards of building a nuclear plant on an earth quake prone zone or near the oceans and the many ways in which safety systems can fail repeatedly - none the less a good book - but unfortunately irrelevant for the modern times where the people have little or no say in any such matters and the worlds has passed into the control of the MNC's and the legislators who are bought out by big Companies. The author prescribes activism as a solution to combat the evils of all the pollution to earth and that could be the worst joke i have heard in a few years. For a man capable of thinking so far ahead into the future he sure does lack a perspective about the depth of evil in humans that could have caused such pollution in the first place. Issac Asimov should have concentrated some time to research about human psychology, and not merely constrict himself to the scientific/technical aspects of a happening. Behind every project is a human mind, a human greedily seeking for profit or an oligarchy running the show to fill their pockets. But this is a book is extremely well detailed and I had to fall asleep on numerous occasions while reading this book on the bus - It was throughly detailed and thus lacked any sense of suspense - It was merely boring on many occasions. Most of this has become common sense for this generation. They are all aware of the smog and the pollution and what causes it and are helpless against it!

[Elar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well written informational material about mother Earth and ways we are killing it. My only question is if we had this kind of expert opinion and guideline 26 years ago why are we not on the right track. We have made some developments to solve ecological problems but lobbying for stagnation have really kept us making leap for (cleaner) future.