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In the course of the twentieth century
the human race, without intending anything of the sort,
has undertaken a giant, uncontrolled experiment on the earth.
In time, according to J. R. McNeill in his startling new
book, the environmental dimension of twentieth-century history
will overshadow the importance of events like the world
wars, the rise and fall of communism, and the spread of
mass literacy. Contrary to the wisdom of Ecclesiastes that
"there is nothing new under the sun," McNeill
sets out to show that the massive change we have wrought
in our physical world has indeed created something new.
To a degree unprecedented in human history, we have refashioned
the earth's air, water, and soil, and the biosphere of which
we are a part.
In the mold of compelling recent books like
Dava Sobel's Longitude and Jared Diamond's Guns,
Germs, and Steel, McNeill's work is a fruitful compound
of history and science. McNeill infuses a substrate of ecology
with a lively historical sensibility to the significance
of politics, international relations, technological change,
and great events. He charts and explores the breathtaking
ways in which we have changed the natural world with a keen
eye for character and a refreshing respect for the unforeseen
in history. He introduces us to little-known figures like
Thomas Midgely, the chemical engineer, who, McNeill claims,
had more impact on the atmosphere than any other organism
in earth history. From Midgely's work with General Motors
came the inventions of leaded gasoline and of Freon, the
first of the chlorofluorocarbons that drift into the stratosphere
and rupture ozone molecules. McNeill recounts episodes of
environmental disaster -- the mercury poisoning of Japan's
Minamata Bay, the death of the Aral Sea in Soviet Central
Asia -- but shows too the successes of environmental policy
in reversing pollution of the air and water. He fashions
his story without pronouncements of doom or sermons on the
ethical lapses of humankind.
McNeill assesses the ecological course we
have taken in the twentieth century as an interesting evolutionary
gamble. We have become exquisitely adapted to particular
circumstances -- a stable climate, cheap energy, rapid economic
growth. But our fossil fuel-based civilization is so ecologically
disruptive that it undermines the stability of these conditions.
McNeill does not speculate on the consequences, but his
insights illuminate the new path we have made in this global
century.
J. R. McNeill is professor of history
at Georgetown University. He is the author of The Mountains
of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History
and other works.
Something New Under the Sun
is a volume in The Global Century series, books by outstanding
scholars in the history of the twentieth-century world.
The general editor of The Global Century series is Paul
Kennedy, author of The Rise and
Fall of the Great Powers.
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