Field Notes from a Castrophe: Chapters 5 & 6

I really didn't understand what the curse of Akkad has to do with global warming. The beginning of chapter 5 discusses all the reign Sargon and his sons had over Akkad. I don't understand all the history lessons that Kolbert likes to have. I think someone needs to remind her that her readers aren't students in her history class. I know she must have a point to this, but I fail to see what it is. And I've noticed most of her chapters always go off topic and then she tries to tie in climate change to her message. I just wish she would just get straight to the point.

Chapter 5 seemed to have a lot of useless information mixed in with some actual important facts. The climate models and research from GISS was very interesting. The research done by Hansen on the CO2 levels in Venus made me worry about what could happen to the earth with continuous increase of green house gases. Hansen had also made some predictions during the 1980s about Global Warming becoming a problem at the time. With the truth he had in his predictions and the fact that thousands people died in Europe in 2003 shows how much proof that climate change is really becoming a problem. I remember one of her sources, David Rind, was saying "We're really interested in adaptation to climate change. Well, what does 'adaptation' mean? It seems we're already having problems adapting to it right now. I question whether we should spend more time trying to reverse climate change (which is highly unlikely) or if we should spend more time trying to adapt to it. 

There was a lot of factual information in Chapter 5. I didn't know that average global temperatures were about ten degrees colder than they are today during the Last Glacial Maximum or about how water vapor can be considered a greenhouse gas. When I first read the chapter, I couldn't really understand how the curse of Akkad would have to deal with her point. Yet, I began to see it a bit more clearer at the end of the chapter. (And after reading it again. Ha ha.)

Chapter 6 was much shorter and more straight to the point. I liked the commercial ad in the beginning of the chapter. I thought that was quite funny even though be unfortunately true. The amphibious houses sound like a really good idea in terms of how to adapt with global warming. There was a lot of information in this chapter about the CO2 levels and the effects of climate change on the Netherlands. I loved the ending quote from Ann van der Molen. "The water is coming up, and we have to live with it, not fight it-it's just not possible." We've been continuously trying to fight this problem. Yet, not enough people seem to think that it may be too late to fight it; the only thing left to do might to just embrace it and learn to live with it.