Tim Flannery, is a leading writer on climate change, a scientist and an explorer. His current book, Sunlight and Seaweed, explores the possibilities on how to feed, power and clean up the world.
Whilst it’s no book for dummies, it is a rather accomplished achievement put together, cleverly researched and bounded in a not-too-thick book (163 pages plus end notes) for us to ponder and hopefully not only give us food for thought, but to actually help our beautiful planet, Earth.
The first page has reviews that tell me the book is an easy read and how an important book it is, well that may be true but when I looked into these people who wrote the reviews, they are ecologists, moral philosophers and scholars, so people who know a bit about this stuff before they turn the pages. For me, some of it was a little hard to imagine and yeah, maybe I had to read ideas a few times, but overall it’s a great read on a range of compelling new technologies and approaches that address some of the biggest challenges we face.
Flannery states that the population won’t be able to sustain our future here on earth unless we ship shape the way we use fossil fuels (how about not at all), to pollution, farming agriculture, use of batteries and using one free source, the sun, to our advantage. Each chapter flows into the next. Read about how we can learn about agriculture from lead cutter ants and termites and how about we ‘Calm the Farm’ and not eat as much meat as the future cannot sustain meat production as land is disappearing at an alarming rate.
The new normal is scary, we live in a time where species are becoming extinct daily, where the long term impact on the oceans biodiversity is taking a hit. Flannery explores ideas about removing fossil fuel and using solar instead, using the sun to produce heat and in turn store this energy for when the sun goes down, seems logical doesn’t it? We already have taken this on board to a small degree but now it’s time to get sun serious
Flannery talks about Kelp farming which can reduce the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, a creative and extremely valuable direction. Instead of pouring money into plebiscites, that money could fund kelp farming, at least give it the dollar injection it’ll need.
Like I mentioned, some explanations require a second read at times but you don’t need a degree to be able to understand everything. Sunlight and Seaweed is the beginning of a new way of helping the planet we live on.
Sunlight and Seaweed is out now through The Text Publishing Company
RRP $19.99
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