Book Review: The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here by Hope Jahren
“…most of the want and suffering that we see in our world today originates not from Earth’s inability to provide but from our inability to share. It is because so many of us consume far beyond our needs that a great many more of us are left with almost nothing.”
Hope Jahren, The Story of More
Our planet is in severe crisis. Every day brings news of another climate disaster — wildfires, excessive record-breaking heat, flooding, drought. Predictions for our future are dire and alarming. This has been our reality for years now, but lately things have started to feel on the brink of apocalyptic and dystopian. As Hope Jahren writes in The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here (Vintage, 2020), there are too many of us, we’re consuming too much, and we have a short amount of time to take action.
Jahren was born in 1969 (a fact she references frequently, at least once per chapter in this book) and that’s her framework for deconstructing the many changes with climate, technology, society, agriculture and more that have occurred within the past 50 years. There are many sobering facts and alarming statistics included in this book along with her recollections of growing up in Minnesota, contrasting how different life was just several decades ago. Here’s a daunting summary that appears at the end of the book:
“Globally, since 1969…
… population has doubled
… child mortality has decreased by half
… average life expectancy has increased by 12 years
… 47 cities have grown to contain more than 10 million people
… production of cereal grains has tripled
… the amount of crops that can be harvested per acre has more than doubled
… the amount of land cultivated for farming has increased by 10 percent
… production of meat has tripled
… annual slaughter of pigs has tripled; chicken has increased sixfold; cattle has increased by half
… consumption of seafood has tripled
… the amount of fish taken from the ocean has doubled
… the invention of aquaculture has made fish farming the source of half of all seafood eaten today
… production of seaweed has increased tenfold; we eat half of the total as hydrocolloid food additives
… consumption of table sugar has nearly tripled
… the amount of human waste produced each day has more than doubled
… waste of edible food has increased such that it equals the amount of food needed to adequately feed all of the undernourished people on Earth
… the total amount of energy that people use every day has tripled
… the total amount of electricity that people use every day has quadrupled
… 20 percent of the world’s population has come to use half of the world’s electricity
… the total population living with no access to electricity has grown to one billion people
… the number of airline passengers has increased tenfold while the total distance traveled by rail has declined
… the miles traveled by car each year has more than doubled; there are currently almost one billion motor vehicles on the planet
… global fossil fuel use has nearly tripled
… coal and oil use has doubled; natural gas use has tripled
… the invention of biofuels has grown to consume 20 percent of the global annual harvest of grain
… the production of plastic has increased tenfold
… the invention of new plastics has grown to consume 10 percent of the fossil fuels used each year
… the share of electricity generated using hydropower has decreased to an all-time low of 15 percent
… the share of electricity generated using nuclear power increased to an all-time high of 6 percent
… the adoption of wind- and solar-powered electricity has grown to provide almost 5 percent of all electricity generated each year
… one trillion tons of carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels
… the average global surface temperature has increased by one degree Fahrenheit
… the average global sea level has increased by four inches; half of this rise was due to the addition of water melted from mountain glaciers and polar ice
… more than half of all amphibian, bird, and butterfly species has declined in population; one-quarter of all fish and plant species has declined in population.”
At 208 pages, The Story of More isn’t a lengthy book, yet Jahren manages to address all of the above in a very approachable yet succinct and comprehensive way that also feels thorough enough for the average person. She also outlines potential actions to be taken on both a large scale and individual level. (Many of the reviews criticized The Story of More for putting the burden of mitigating this crisis on individuals rather than corporations and the government; I felt it offered a good mix of both.)
I listened to this on audio and Jahren does a good job of narrating. 3.5 out of 5 stars.