With his book, "The Anthropocene Epoch: When Humans Changed the World", Bruce Glass gives us a concise, well researched and deftly argued treatise on climate change as a result of human activity. The atmosphere and the oceans are warming, due to the increasing concentration of "greenhouse" gases in the atmosphere, a product of the Industrial Revolution and its aftermath. With the extraction and burning of fossil fuels to power our machinery and heat or cool our homes, we are changing the climate and also producing change at a geological level. Thus, Glass joins those who choose to refer to the present period in geological time as the "Anthropocene Epoch"- the "Age of Humankind".

The Earth is over four billion years old and life on our planet is probably over three billion years old. We, homo sapiens, didn't appear until about 100 thousand years ago. We didn't begin farming and domesticating other animals until about 10 thousand years ago. So, for almost all of the existence of the Earth, human activity has had no impact on the planet. But in the last 250 years or so, since the invention of the steam engine, we have become the most dynamic force on Earth. Our population has exploded to almost eight billion and our technology has grown so powerful that we could destroy ourselves and almost all other vertebrate life on the planet with relatively little effort. We have become, as a species, the most powerful organic force ever set loose on the planet.

There have been five great extinctions, events in which most of the species living on the Earth were wiped out. We humans had nothing to do with those extinctions, they happened long before us. The fifth great extinction was the great asteroid of 65 million years ago that killed off all the non-avian dinosaurs. We are now in the midst of the Sixth Great Extinction and this one is on us. We have destroyed or are destroying most of the natural habitat of other living things on this planet. We have done this/are doing it through deforestation, pollution, over-fishing, poaching and hunting.

In his chapter, "An Age of Unreason", Glass examines the political culture of the climate change deniers. He cites Governor Greg Abbott of Texas as an example. In February 2021, an abrupt deviation in the North Polar Vortex brought a massive Arctic air mass down over North America as far south as Texas. For almost a week, all of Texas suffered a blast of frigid air as cold as that of the Yukon. The Lone Star State has its own power grid- and it failed. In most of the state, there were rolling blackouts, in some areas, the power, and heat, went off for days. The pipes froze and broke in countless homes and businesses and hundreds of people died. The governor tried to blame the power grid failure on "the liberals" and their "Green New Deal" love of renewable energy. Of course, Greg Abbott, like most Texas Republicans, is a tool of the oil and gas industry. Glass laments the four years that were wasted under Donals Trump and his crew of science deniers.. But, he concludes that hope is on the way. We just have to be willing to work for a better world, and to vote for it. ( )

Interesting take on the effect humans have had on the world without all the political rhetoric and more a science-based, historical view. Great if you want to learn more about our ecological world and the effects humans can have given what we know. Thank you to the publisher and LibraryThing for a review copy. ( )

In Need of a Capable Editor

The Anthropocene Epoch attempts to lay out the history of humanity’s impact on our climate in layman’s terms. A noble venture, the book falls short in numerous ways, many of which could have been solved by a capable editor. While there was clearly a massive amount of research done on the topic, it reads more like a rambling term paper than a persuasive book.

First, the qualifications of the author are unclear as Mr. Glass is described as a “businessman, artist and author.” It appears that the book is self-published, which may explain the lack of editing.

The book opens with an extended overview of natural history to the present. For a book aimed at laymen, these first two chapters are a slog. Following this is the author’s take on the current state of affairs. In this area, the author will likely lose readers with conservative views as his left-of-center analysis includes many subjective statements as well as objective ones made without citations . The chapter ‘An Age of Unreason’ includes rambling commentary of media personalities (Limbaugh, Murdoch), anti-vaxxers, anti-fluoride activists, the Big Lie/January 6 insurrection and much more. Agree with these statements or not, they are rambling, randomly cited, and somewhat jarring to the narrative.

While the author will likely keep left-of-center readers nodding in agreement to this point, the book ends with a whimper rather than a call to arms. The chapter ‘Hope is on the Way’ is a seemingly random collection of projects, ideas and companies seeking to make headway against climate change. This is followed by dozens of pages of unnecessary appendices including a list of endangered species as well as the entire text of the proposed ‘Green New Deal.’

Unfortunately, I would only recommend this book if a second, thoroughly edited version is released.

Note: I received this book via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program in exchange for an unbiased review. ( )

The Anthropocene Epoch: When Humans Changed the World, by Bruce Glass, discusses the ways in which humans have changed the earth, resulting in climate change, worsening storms and the possibility of a sixth mass extinction.

Glass begins the book with a look at the five mass extinctions that have already occurred. He then discusses the ways in which the growing human population has changed the earth as we improved our lives resulting in climate change.

The last chapter looks back at laws that were successfully enacted to clean our air and water, protect wildlife, reduction of CFC’s. Additional legislation today, including international agreements may be as successful in slowing the warming of the planet. Companies making changes to reduce their affect on global warming are listed. Innovation, research and technology are developing ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The addenda are one of the best parts of the book, in my opinion. They list the animals on the endangered species list, look at our personal carbon footprint and ways we can reduce that. Addendum C includes the entirety of the Green New Deal. Addendum D has 2 pages of additional reading suggestions. It is worth looking at the notes section since some offer additional information rather than just a source.

I enjoyed reading this book and learned a few things in the process. The book is easy to read and informative. The complexity of slowing climate change is evident when discussing mitigation efforts. This book should be required reading. If we don’t all make changes to help reduce global warming, we will all suffer the consequences. ( )

In presenting his arguments about human effects on the environment and the need to reduce and reverse it, Bruce Glass uses clear, straightforward writing to make a thorough case. After an introduction detailing the extinction of one species (the great auk) at human hands and listing some of the other negative effects people have had on the environment (including, but not limited to, listing some other other species hunted to extinction or in danger of having the same happen), the book covers how we got here, where we’re currently heading, and how and why we can change course in eight chapters. Four addendums provide more detailed information in the form of the list of endangered species, including how threatened they are; a more detailed account of the relationship between one’s activities and carbon emissions; the text of the Green New Deal; and a list of additional reading.

The first four chapters cover the history of life on Earth, divided into pre-human history (including five of the extinction events), the rise of humanity as the dominant species, the rapid growth of the population, and the currently ongoing extinction event due to the effects of human activity on the environment. This is followed by a chapter on the likely results of current trends continuing, one looking at claims that the changes are actually natural and not the result of human activity, and one on the active disregard and denial of science. The final chapter ends things on a more optimistic note, describing actions that are being taken or proposed to slow or reverse climate change.

While I found the information in this book clearly presented for the most part, I will note that I was already familiar with at least the basics of a lot of it beforehand, which may have affected my view of how clear it was. There was one point in an area that I’m not familiar with (specifically, a claim that something was a misinterpretation of the Bible) that came off as an unsupported assertion, with neither an explanation of the misinterpretation nor a note directing the reader to a source that did so. Overall, however, I feel that this is a worthwhile read for someone who doesn’t really know the basic science of the matter. ( )