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- Doom : the politics of catastrophe / by Ferguson, Niall,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Setting the great crisis of 2020 in broad historical perspective, Niall Ferguson challenges the conventional wisdom that our failure to cope better with disaster was solely a crisis of political leadership, as opposed to a more profound systemic problem. Disasters are by their very nature hard to predict. Pandemics, like earthquakes, wildfires, financial crises and wars, are not normally distributed; there is no cycle of history to help us anticipate the next catastrophe. But when disaster strikes, we ought to be better prepared than the Romans were when Vesuvius erupted, or medieval Italians when the Black Death struck. We have science on our side, after all. Yet the responses of a number of developed countries, including the United States, to a new pathogen from China were badly bungled. Why? The facile answer is to blame poor leadership. While populist leaders have certainly performed poorly in the face of the pandemic, more profound problems have been exposed by COVID-19. Only when we understand the central challenge posed by disaster in history can we see that this was also a failure of an administrative state and economic elites that had grown myopic over much longer than just a few years. Why were so many Cassandras for so long ignored? Why did only some countries learn the right lessons from SARS and MERS? Why do appeals to "the science" often turn out to be magical thinking? Drawing from multiple disciplines, including history, economics, public health, and network science, Doom is a global postmortem for a plague year. In books going back nearly twenty years, including Colossus, The Great Degeneration, and The Square and the Tower, Niall Ferguson has studied the pathologies that afflict modern America, from imperial hubris to bureaucratic sclerosis and online schism. Doom is the lesson of history that this country--indeed the West as a whole--urgently needs to learn--if we want to avoid the doom of irreversible decline"--- Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease); Epidemics; Political leadership.;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- A house between Earth and the moon / by Scherm, Rebecca,author.;
"The gripping story of one scientist in outer space, another who watches over him, the family left behind, and the lengths people will go to protect the people and planet they love Scientist Alex Welch-Peters has believed for twenty years that his super-algae can reverse the effects of climate change. His obsession with his research has jeopardized his marriage, his relationships with his kids, and his own professional future. When Sensus, the colossal tech company, offers him a chance to complete his research, he seizes the opportunity. The catch? His lab will be in outer space on Parallaxis, the first-ever luxury residential space station built for billionaires. Alex and six other scientists leave their loved ones to become Pioneers, the beta tenants of Parallaxis. But Parallaxis is not the space palace they were sold. Day and night, the embittered crew builds the facility under pressure from Sensus, motivated by the promise that their families will join them. Meanwhile, back on Earth, with much of the country ablaze in wildfires, Alex's family tries to remain safe in Michigan. His teenage daughter, Mary Agnes, struggles through high school with the help of the ubiquitous Sensus phones implanted in everyone's ears, archiving each humiliation, and wishing she could go to Parallaxis with her father-but her mother will never allow it. The Pioneers are the beta testers of another program, too. As they toil away two hundred miles in the sky, Sensus is designing an algorithm that will predict human behavior. Tess, a young social psychologist Sensus has hired to watch the Pioneers through their phones, begins to develop an intimate, obsessive relationship with her subjects. When she takes it a step further-traveling to Parallaxis to observe them up close-the controlled experiment begins to unravel. Prescient and insightful, A House Between Earth and the Moon is at once a captivating epic about the machinations of big tech and a profoundly intimate meditation on the unmistakably human bonds that hold us together"--- Subjects: Science fiction.; Climatic changes; Human behavior; Implants, Artificial; Scientists; Space stations;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Into the clear blue sky : the path to restoring our atmosphere / by Jackson, Rob,1961-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."One of the world's leading climate scientists, a superb storyteller, shares his hopeful and attainable vision for restoring the atmosphere and ending the climate crisis within our lifetime.Climate change is here. From the millions displaced by the floods in Pakistan to California and Canadian towns incinerated by wildfires, we are experiencing the anguish that climate change causes. Fossil fuels are making the planet unlivable, and they are deadly. We know that we must cut emissions if we are going to limit the catastrophes, but is that enough? In Into the Clear Blue Sky, climate scientist and chair of the Global Carbon Project Rob Jackson explains that we need to redefine our goals. As he argues here, we shouldn't only be trying to stabilize the Earth's temperature at some arbitrary value. Instead, we can restore the atmosphere itself in a lifetime -- and this should be our moral duty. Restoring the atmosphere means reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the air to pre-industrial levels -- starting with super-potent methane -- to heal the harm we have done. Emissions must be cut, first and foremost. But to safeguard a livable planet for future generations, we must repair the damage we have caused. Jackson introduces us to the brilliant leaders and innovators behind some of the boldest and game-changing climate solutions under development. When it comes to greenhouse gas mitigation, our choices matter, because it is easier to stop emissions from happening than to remove greenhouse gases from the air later. But while mitigation is crucial, no number of solar panels, electric cars, and veggie burgers alone will be enough to halt climate change. Decades of inaction have convinced Jackson that we need to remove greenhouse gases from the air using everything from nature to cutting-edge technologies. Into the Clear Blue Sky is a heart- and mind-changing book. Guided by one of the leading scientists in this fight and a deeply gifted storyteller, we learn why we should all feel hopeful. One way or another, we will restore the planet together. The question is how, and how long will it take?"--- Subjects: Climate change mitigation.; Climatic changes.; Global warming.;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Return to the river : reflections on life choices during a pandemic / by Pelzer, David J.,author.;
From #1 international bestselling author, speaker, and humanitarian Dave Pelzer comes the next chapter in his life--how, after spending decades saving others in the military, as a fire captain, and an internationally acclaimed advocate, he needs to confront a way to save himself. On the surface, Dave Pelzer's life seems like an action movie--he's walked the red carpet with celebrities and stood shoulder to shoulder with soldiers in Iraq; he's flown top-secret missions for the U.S. Air Force, obtaining the rank of chief, and battled wildfires in California as a volunteer fire captain. And now--on the eve of the 50-year anniversary of this rescue from horrific childhood of abuse and into the safety of the foster care system--he reflects on the battles he's fighting in his own heart. From a lifetime spent serving and saving others, can he learn how to serve and save himself? Banished to his basement at age five, Dave Pelzer had cried a river of tears before most children learned to tie their shoes. His now classic books, A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy, chronicled how he was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who nearly killed him multiple times. But despite the odds stacked against him, he rose to become a #1 New York Times bestselling author, inspirational speaker, and internationally recognized humanitarian. After fighting for years to vanquish his pain and to channel it into service for others, Pelzer sifts through the psychological rubble of a life that has seemingly crumbled around him. What he shares is deeply transformative and unflinchingly honest. In his struggle to simply survive, he never learned how to just be. Reeling from the loss of a love--and a broken spirit--Pelzer must reconcile his life choices and free himself of blame and shame to find peace and renewed purpose. Amidst the towering redwood trees and the serenity of his childhood utopia of the Russian River, Pelzer reflects on having the courage to move forward in your life, the peace to accept yourself, the vulnerability to strip yourself of facades, and to find the tenacity to carry on when life doesn't turn out the way you planned. For anyone who has been hurt, victimized, or feels alone, there is hope and there is always a way to rewrite your own story. Pelzer's soulful and inspiring story will remind you to keep your faith, live with gratitude, and find the well of resilience deep within you.- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Pelzer, David J.; Adult child abuse victims; Choice (Psychology); COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-; Resilience (Personality trait); Self-acceptance.; Self-esteem.; Self-realization.;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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