Young Readers: The Sixth Extinction and The Uninhabitable Earth

THE SIXTH EXTINCTION (young readers adaptation) by Elizabeth Kolbert is scheduled to be available on February 6, 2024. No one would deny that this is an important topic of grave concern to young people and I am grateful for having seen a preview. I wish, however, that greater effort had been made to provide a version of this award-winning text that more clearly outlined key issues. Kolbert shares many relevant stories (e.g., the rhino ultrasound), but important messages may be lost in the still rather dense text.  In addition to line art images (no graphs or diagrams that I saw), there is a three page glossary and index, but, sadly, sources and further reading are not included. Booklist recommended THE SIXTH EXTINCTION for grades 5 thru 8 (seems young, given the language level) and gave it a starred review.

THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH by David Wallace-Wells is now available in an adaptation for Young Adults. It tells the story of “Life After Warming” and shares dire predictions regarding a range of topics including dying oceans, greenhouse gas, extreme weather events, and results like hunger and migration. However, the language is quite stilted (e.g., “like our sea-level myopia, it threatens to occlude our picture of what global warming means for us”) and there is even an entire section improbably named The Anthropic Principle (how many high school students can readily explain that idea?). Plus, graphics or images are totally missing. And, despite an array of statistics included in the text, there are no sources listed and no bibliography for further reading. Those additions and a much more conversational tone would have made this text more appealing and more inspirational for its intended young adult audience. Kirkus sums it up well: “Heavy going, both in content and prose style, but filled with critical content.” 

Fortunately, there are a variety of accessible texts on climate change and the environment geared to high school students.

Firescaping Your Home and This is Wildfire

FIRESCAPING YOUR HOME by Adrienne Edwards and Rachel Schleiger is “A Manual for Readiness in Wildfire Country.” The first inside picture is beautiful – hills covered with trees and grasses with a suburban-like street in the foreground – but it could also be dangerous in this age of increasing temperatures, burn bans, and drought. Edwards and Schleiger offer perspective about fire and its dangers while also focusing on habitat and providing useful information on what to plant, where, and when. Their comments and extensive charts, however, are focused on plants (trees, shrubs, and grasses) indigenous to the West Coast, specifically for Washington State, Oregon or California environs, although some points (reduced wildlife habitat, increased erosion, fewer natural windbreaks) do also apply generally. They discuss, for example, the use of succulent gardens which can be both fire resistant and drought tolerant. A different section outlines how to determine prevailing wind patterns where you live. They also provide links to national databases and maps like the Understand Risk web page, the FEMA’s Wildfire web page, and Risk Factor from First Street Foundation. Throughout, Edwards and Schleiger include numerous colorful photos and drawings, diagrams, and highlighted, boxed summaries. There is a wealth of information in the text itself as well as several pages with suggested Resources and Further Reading, Source Notes, and an Index spanning a dozen pages.

Local Links for Travis County: Travis County Wildfire Hazard Map;  Texas A&M AgriLife Extension with suggestions on what not to plant and Preparing for Wildfires pdf. 

THIS IS WILDFIRE by Nick Mott and Justin Angle appears on the August Next Big Idea Book Club list. The authors, a journalist podcaster and a professor at the University of Montana College of Business, provide a balanced perspective into “How to Protect Yourself, Your Home, and Your Community in the Age of Heat.” They begin with background history (e.g., sections on Public Land, Big Burn, and Yellowstone Fire) as well as information about Firefighters, the stress they face, and how to help them. Next, Mott and Angle describe Forest Management and various steps related to Fire Ecology, noting that some burns are needed in that they encourage ecosystem renewal and growth. At roughly two-thirds of the way into the text, the authors discuss “What You Can Do” in terms of contacting local or national authorities and adapting by changing people’s behavior so as to live more resiliently with fire. They note, for example, “by 2010, about thirty million homes, occupied by sixty million people, were in the WUI” (wildland urban interface) and then describe the home ignition zones: immediate (within five feet), intermediate (six to thirty feet) and extended (thirty to one hundred feet). Their checklists (e.g., keep trees at least 10 feet from structures like fences or outbuildings) seem rather unrealistic given that many suburban lots are fifty feet or less in width. The authors themselves note the difficulty in instituting change, even providing an estimate that “it would cost $6 billion to replace all roofs in the WUI in the country with fire resistant materials.” Some resources and web links are noted which may provide more targeted, practical information for the average homeowner.