A World Without Bees

 A World Without Bees by Allison Benjamin and Brian McCallum

2010

Weight: 10 oz

Method of Disposal: Donating

The trajectory of pollinators, one of the more frightening futures to contemplate.  The critters themselves are always fascinating.  The first chapter or two of this book gives you the fun facts about bees--that the males only live to mate and then die, that sick bees will leave the hive to die so that infection does not spread to the others, that they will not defecate inside the hive.  They are clean and regimented.  They have a plan, they follow the plan, and they perform their dance well.  God save the Queen.

But humans, being the destructive force we are, make it increasingly challenging for the bees to survive.  This book puts forth a wide variety of theories and introduces us to the people who study and stand behind those theories, and they suggest that the disappearance of bees cannot be connected to any one thing we do as earthly inhabitants.  The pesticides and herbicides are a frequently accused culprit, as our parasites and disease that are spread when bees are transported from place to place to increase pollination and the productivity on farms.  A small group of people argue that cellphone use is confusing the bees trying to get back to their hives, though this idea is not popular in the scientific community.  As always, global warming and large-scale farming lacking in diversity of crops are massive problems that we are not sure if the bees can adapt to quickly enough.

Throughout history, bees have disappeared in large numbers periodically, but the current trend seems to be far more alarming to beekeepers all over the world.  In parts of China, honeybees have completely disappeared and people are responsible for pollinating the plants themselves, which is a more laborious project than might be expected.

This book is a great introduction to bees, what life might look like without them, and the massive obstacles facing beekeepers today.  It is clear there is much more to learn, but I feel more prepared to jump into the abyss of information that has been cropping up in the last decade or so.  It does nothing for improving my mood, needless to say, but it is clearly important.

No is Not Enough

 No is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein
2017
Weight: 14 oz
Method of Disposal: Mailing to Someone

Do not let the current climate wear you down.  

It is incredibly hard.  

I do not always know that I can do it.  It is challenging to dedicate your life to your work and family, and then have anything left over to help change the current tide of politics, but we all have a part to play in this community.  This book was written before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and in it Klein warns about what will happen once it hits.  Only, she did not know what "it" was.  She writes, 

"So far Trump's unending atmosphere of of crisis has been sustained largely through his own over-the-top rhetoric--declaring cities "crime infested" sites of "carnage" when in fact the violent crime rate had been declining nationwide for decades; hammering away at a manufactured narrative about an immigrant crime wave; and generally insisting Obama destroyed the country.  Soon enough, however, Trump could well have some crises to exploit that are distinctly more real, since crisis is the logical conclusion of his politics on every front." 

So here we are, and I am exhausted.  I remember a time when there was not BIG news every. single. day.  Sometimes, multiple times a day.  He is still on the offensive and all over the board, even as Covid-19 rages.  Remember the early days of the pandemic when there were news stories coming out of California saying that ICE was still conducting raids even as there was talk of releasing people from prison due to not being able to keep them safe.  At least it made the news back then, I suppose, so we would know and could be outraged.  We have unmarked security forces patrolling protests.  Do you remember when people dying in a protest in America had become shocking?  Now, it is hard to keep up with who is getting killed and where.  Meanwhile, the "President" chuckles about staying in office past his term.  

Klein writes, "People can develop responses to sequential or gradual change.  But if dozens of changes come from all directions at once, the hope is that populations will rapidly become exhausted and over-whelmed, and will ultimately swallow their bitter medicine."  She had already laid all of this out for us in her powerful book, The Shock Doctrine.  In No is Not Enough she writes about how some populations who have been through a shock previously are less susceptible to fascism.  They see it, and they rise up and refuse it.  She writes about the inverse of the "Shock Doctrine."  A "People's Shock" rising up from below.  She seems to have, somehow, maintained some hope that globally we can rise up and ask for more, save our planet from global warming, implement a culture of caring, do the opposite of what Trump proposes in the Art of the Deal.  My optimism was waning as I read, and I found it hard to envision, but I do not want us to stop trying.

She says it is important to have a Utopia to strive for and work for.  The one she describes seems worth a good fight.

The Green Book

The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen

2007

Weight: 11.2 oz

Method of Disposal: Giving Away

Things I liked about this book:

• Please God, we need to do something about climate change. This message is clear in the book.
• The authors try to meet you where you are at and often.  They do not say "do not fly in an airplane."  They say limit your flight or, if you do fly, do these things while you travel to limit your damage to the environment.
• The use of famous people to make it more trendy.
• I found there are some things that I know better than to do them, but I had grown lazy about it.  This book helped remind me that even the little things can matter.

Things That Work Less For Me

• It was published in 2007 so there is a lot that is irrelevant now or the conversation has changed.  PDAs, camera film, and beepers are rarely used so are no longer worth mentioning.  Often, while reading, this would give me hope that we had already done things that would help us so much just because certain items had become antiquated.  Then, we would get to the next page, and I would realize e-waste and increased electric usage had likely wiped out many of the improvements we had made in other areas.  It is time for a revised addition! 
• The use of famous people may work for some folks but also felt a little superficial to me.  These people are not living paycheck to paycheck.  They can buy any car they want, multiple cars, and they can buy anything and everything energy efficient.  Sacrificing seems less painful if you have so much.
• On the one hand, I want people to do the easy things and make a difference.  On the other hand, I want to be sure that people know that, just because they brush their teeth in the shower and don't buy farmed fish, there is still so much more that needs to be done and so much of that is systemic.

The Encyclopedia of Animals

The Encyclopedia of Animals  Harold G. Cogger
2002
Weight: 5.2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

I am getting rid of this book for the same reason I got rid of the Sharks and Whales one from earlier today.  This one is only slightly more difficult to let go because it has all sorts of animals in it, including adorable baby hedgehogs and platypuses.  Who ever gets to see a baby platypus in real life?!  There is a polar bear on the cover, which makes my heart swoon.  It is so difficult to handle when one comes to the realization that polar bears may become extinct in our lifetime due to global warming.  They are such beautiful, big, strong bears.

It is really amazing to think about how many different types of life there are on the planet and, no matter how many times I look through books like this over the years, there is always one I have never heard of, seen, or imagined.  I hope someone who truly loves animals and the Earth finds this book super cheap and loves it as I have or more.