Book review: Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
The latest book by Elizabeth Colbert, following The Sixth Extinction, is a book about people trying fix environments actions that previously have been done to fix or to mold them to human need or desires. That are lot of long term past actions that amounted to a number of issues.
Elizabeth interviews and describes how alien fish species introduced in US from Asia unbalances environments and how government, NGO sometimes, battle to restore or contain those changes. The same goes for atmospheric changes, landscape, waterways.
Chapters go from mainly visits and interviews in getting complex technical subjects shown in a simpler way to reader so everyone can be aware of issues, risks, remediations without being in the field.
The book is nice reading, and while it may not cause such impact The Sixth Extinction had on me, it may make you hunger for more, getting Elizabeth’s previous work later. It also is a very updated with projects that already moving on that could impact globally everyone’s life. The **White Sky** is explained on the last chapter and it is about a project that seems by the author’s writing and to myself one more case where humankind thinks can tame the Nature and probably can’t and shouldn’t.
Understanding how do remediate errors with new errors is the key here and not be taken lightly. The 10 example chapters in the book are enough to show us.