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Cataclysms: An Environmental History of Humanity
Humanity is by many measures the biggest success story in the animal kingdom; but what are the costs of this triumph? Over its three million years of existence, the human species has continuously modified nature and drained its resources. In Cataclysms, Laurent Testot provides the full tally, offering a comprehensive environmental history of humanity’s unmatched and perhaps irreversible influence on the world.
Testot explores the interconnected histories of human evolution and planetary deterioration, arguing that our development from naked apes to Homo sapiens has entailed wide-scale environmental harm. Testot makes the case that humans have usually been catastrophic for the planet, “hyperpredators” responsible for mass extinctions, deforestation, global warming, ocean acidification, and unchecked pollution, as well as the slaughter of our own species. Organized chronologically around seven technological revolutions, Cataclysms unspools the intertwined saga of humanity and our environment, from our shy beginnings in Africa to today’s domination of the planet, revealing how we have blown past any limits along the way—whether by exploding our own population numbers, domesticating countless other species, or harnessing energy from fossils. Testot’s book, while sweeping, is light and approachable, telling the stories—sometimes rambunctious, sometimes appalling—of how a glorified monkey transformed its own environment beyond all recognition.
In order to begin reversing our environmental disaster, we must have a better understanding of our own past and the incalculable environmental costs incurred at every stage of human innovation. Cataclysms offers that understanding and the hope that we can now begin to reform our relationship to the Earth.
Testot explores the interconnected histories of human evolution and planetary deterioration, arguing that our development from naked apes to Homo sapiens has entailed wide-scale environmental harm. Testot makes the case that humans have usually been catastrophic for the planet, “hyperpredators” responsible for mass extinctions, deforestation, global warming, ocean acidification, and unchecked pollution, as well as the slaughter of our own species. Organized chronologically around seven technological revolutions, Cataclysms unspools the intertwined saga of humanity and our environment, from our shy beginnings in Africa to today’s domination of the planet, revealing how we have blown past any limits along the way—whether by exploding our own population numbers, domesticating countless other species, or harnessing energy from fossils. Testot’s book, while sweeping, is light and approachable, telling the stories—sometimes rambunctious, sometimes appalling—of how a glorified monkey transformed its own environment beyond all recognition.
In order to begin reversing our environmental disaster, we must have a better understanding of our own past and the incalculable environmental costs incurred at every stage of human innovation. Cataclysms offers that understanding and the hope that we can now begin to reform our relationship to the Earth.
480 pages, Hardcover
Published November 9, 2020
16 people are currently reading
193 people want to read
About the author
Laurent Testot
31 books5 followersLaurent Testot (1967) est un journaliste scientifique, conférencier et essayiste français. Spécialiste en France de l'approche historique globale, et plus spécialement de l'interaction de l'homme avec la planète sur le temps long. Il est l'auteur de l'essai Cataclysmes. Une histoire environnementale de l'humanité qui a reçu le prix de l'Académie française Léon de Rosen pour la promotion du respect de l'environnement. Il a dirigé plusieurs ouvrages en histoire globale et mondiale dont Histoire globale. Un autre regard sur le monde et La Guerre, des origines à nos jours. Par ailleurs, il est l'auteur d'Homo Canis. Une histoire des chiens et de l'humanité.
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October 22, 2024This is a reasonably good overview of global history of mankind, but as a synthesis of environmental historiography, I'm afraid, it isn't really a success. Its quality is too variable for that and it still offers too much an ordinary history of humanity with a few fragmentary ecological accents. You can't completely blame Laurent Testot for that, because ecological historiography is still in its infancy: it was only in the 1990s that historians and others began to pay systematic attention to ecological aspects of history, each time taking different angles (biodiversity, climate , etc.). As with any new branch of science, such a fragmented approach initially produces very fragmented knowledge, and insights and theories often change rapidly. Even the historical climate study is still a long way from a sound synthesis. This is apparent from the work of Jan Zalasiewicz & Mark Williams, for example, The Goldilocks Planet: The 4 Billion Year Story of Earth's Climate, 2012, who are very cautious and constantly emphasize how preliminary our knowledge of climate history is. A typical example is the dating and estimation of what is called the Little Ice Age, the temporary decrease in temperature during the 2nd millennium of our era, which has been constantly referred to lately: just about every researcher sticks to a different epoch (Testot prudently situates it between the 13th and the early 19th century, others only refer specifically to the 16th or 17th century). This cacophony is annoying, but is actually part of the normal process of scientific research, before a preliminary synthesis is more or less reached.
It will therefore come as no surprise that I am not very fond of studies that speak out quite firmly and unequivocally. And this one by the French publicist Laurent Testot does suffer from that ailment. Agreed, the author once in a while admits that we still have too little insight into some phenomena, but his entire book, from beginning to end, exudes the thesis that man has been a catastrophe for the planet from the very beginning. The title alone, 'cataclysms', speaks volumes: a cataclysm is the superlative of a catastrophe, a large-scale disaster with even Doomsday allures. With this book, Testot wants to show that man since his arrival has committed an attack on nature and the planet, with every major revolution (an equally debatable but nevertheless slightly more neutral term than cataclysm) one step closer to the abyss.
In other words: this book offers a history 'à thèse', in which the author adamantly wants to prove his point of departure. I am not going to dispute that human action is putting our planet under great pressure, possibly even threatening the livability of it, and that this is the result of a gradual historical process. But Testot does no good to raise awareness about this problem due to his haphazard and sometimes arguable ecological accents. Rather, this book is an accumulation of loose elements that environmental studies have brought to light, with the only element of synthesis that it is only going downhill. Occasionally his sources (if he cites them at all) are very questionable. He claims, for example, that around 1600 the Little Ice Age (here it is again) wiped out a third of the Russian population by a major famine, his source being the highly controversial American writer Simon Winchester. I also find it really annoying that instead of the word ‘humans’ he uses the word 'ape' in each of the titles of his major parts, to emphasize that we are essentially not much better than our biological cousins. That derogatory language somewhat contradicts his purpose of showing how pernicious human intervention is, and thus how different from the behavior of other animal species. And just one more point of critique: in his global history of humanity Testot often relies on very old theories, like the 'Neolithic Revolution'- approach of Vere Gordon Childe, or the 'Axis Age' of Karl Jaspers, and the 'Columbian Exchange' of Alfred Crosby. These were all very valuable views decades ago, but since then they have been nuanced and adjusted thoroughly.
I have no doubt that in the coming years/decades environmental history will gradually move towards more mature approaches and possibly a first, preliminary synthesis. But that is certainly not to be found here in this book. I'm giving Testot a 3-star rating for the tremendous effort he has made, but in my harsh rating system that should probably better be 2.5 stars.
It will therefore come as no surprise that I am not very fond of studies that speak out quite firmly and unequivocally. And this one by the French publicist Laurent Testot does suffer from that ailment. Agreed, the author once in a while admits that we still have too little insight into some phenomena, but his entire book, from beginning to end, exudes the thesis that man has been a catastrophe for the planet from the very beginning. The title alone, 'cataclysms', speaks volumes: a cataclysm is the superlative of a catastrophe, a large-scale disaster with even Doomsday allures. With this book, Testot wants to show that man since his arrival has committed an attack on nature and the planet, with every major revolution (an equally debatable but nevertheless slightly more neutral term than cataclysm) one step closer to the abyss.
In other words: this book offers a history 'à thèse', in which the author adamantly wants to prove his point of departure. I am not going to dispute that human action is putting our planet under great pressure, possibly even threatening the livability of it, and that this is the result of a gradual historical process. But Testot does no good to raise awareness about this problem due to his haphazard and sometimes arguable ecological accents. Rather, this book is an accumulation of loose elements that environmental studies have brought to light, with the only element of synthesis that it is only going downhill. Occasionally his sources (if he cites them at all) are very questionable. He claims, for example, that around 1600 the Little Ice Age (here it is again) wiped out a third of the Russian population by a major famine, his source being the highly controversial American writer Simon Winchester. I also find it really annoying that instead of the word ‘humans’ he uses the word 'ape' in each of the titles of his major parts, to emphasize that we are essentially not much better than our biological cousins. That derogatory language somewhat contradicts his purpose of showing how pernicious human intervention is, and thus how different from the behavior of other animal species. And just one more point of critique: in his global history of humanity Testot often relies on very old theories, like the 'Neolithic Revolution'- approach of Vere Gordon Childe, or the 'Axis Age' of Karl Jaspers, and the 'Columbian Exchange' of Alfred Crosby. These were all very valuable views decades ago, but since then they have been nuanced and adjusted thoroughly.
I have no doubt that in the coming years/decades environmental history will gradually move towards more mature approaches and possibly a first, preliminary synthesis. But that is certainly not to be found here in this book. I'm giving Testot a 3-star rating for the tremendous effort he has made, but in my harsh rating system that should probably better be 2.5 stars.
March 19, 2022
rating 2.5 stars. A consensus is gradually growing that the impact of humans on our planet has become so far-reaching that we can now speak of the Anthropocene. The notion is relatively recent (only launched around 2000), and not yet fully accepted among scientists, but hardly anyone will dispute that the ecological system on our planet is under heavy pressure, especially with climate change and a drastic decline in biodiversity as the most threatening factors. It is good to see how it has come to this, and which mechanisms had and have a determining influence. The French journalist and publicist Laurent Testot makes an ambitious attempt to bring this into focus, in a world history that spans well over 450 pages, from prehistoric times to the present. The author has done his research, I will not dispute that, and the book therefore is a dizzying accumulation of facts and trivia that indeed offer a global history of humanity (and Testot does a good job at that), enlarged with to some extent an emphasis on environmental aspects. I purposely write 'to some extent', because that is what is striking about this book: this certainly not is an extensive ecological history, rather the story of global human evolution with the occasional focus on certain ecological aspects, such as the disappearance of large animals, the impact of volcanic eruptions and epidemics, and so on. Because of these very varying perspectives, this book has a superficial and hybrid character, rather the result of what the author happened to read together, without processing it into a well-thought-out synthesis. It may be too early for that, as ecological historiography still is in its early stages. You should definitely take that into account when you start to read this tough chunk.
More on this in my History-account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
More on this in my History-account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
January 17, 2021
Ambitious in scope, Cataclysms is a narrative rather than data-driven environmental history of humanity that will fascinate newcomers to this field, but might leave seasoned readers craving more. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2021...
November 6, 2022
Wasn't very impressed with this book. His writing felt all over the place, and he would regularly make huge statements and then move on rather than providing any insight or proof. The sorts of statements that could have been a chapter or a thesis for a book on their own. Might have just been too ambitious of a book. Maybe if he had started much more recently in history and focused more on the effects of humans since some point in the 19th century.
March 22, 2022
ma se in un movimento collettivo il pubblico si alzasse e decidesse di agire in prima persona, allora…
June 27, 2021
It is an excellent book about world history and our relationship with the environment, nonetheless the links between environment and history are not explained very well in my opinion. If it is your first exposure for the topic it will not be as clear. Additionally, it rejects capitalism without recognizing the enormous wellbeing that has brought and it presents humans as villains with nature. Humanity’s environmental impact is more about physical, cognitive biases and knowledge constraints than malice
February 15, 2022
Un interessante excursus attraverso la storia dell'umanità, vista dal punto di vista del suo rapporto con l'ambiente. Rapporto duro, litigioso, conflittuale, in cui l'uomo ha sempre cercato di piegare la natura al suo volere, fin dall'antichità. E alle sue incredibili capacità, alla fine c'è anche riuscito, rischiando però di pagare per questo un carissimo prezzo, visibile ai giorni odierni nel repentino peggioramento di tutti i parametri climatici.
Saremo in grado di raddrizzare la rotta prima che sia troppo tardi? Detto con l'autore, saremo un Icaro o un Prometeo? Il libro non da una risposta, la lascia a noi, che da qui in poi potremo essere attori in prima persona di questa storia, la cui fine (per fortuna) non è ancora stata scritta. Non è il solito libro catastrofista, anzi, invita ad agire per fare in modo che la nostra storia possa appunto proseguire.
Saremo in grado di raddrizzare la rotta prima che sia troppo tardi? Detto con l'autore, saremo un Icaro o un Prometeo? Il libro non da una risposta, la lascia a noi, che da qui in poi potremo essere attori in prima persona di questa storia, la cui fine (per fortuna) non è ancora stata scritta. Non è il solito libro catastrofista, anzi, invita ad agire per fare in modo che la nostra storia possa appunto proseguire.
December 3, 2022
Informative and depressing... I love it!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews