pdotb reviewed The Great Displacement by Jake Bittle
A human face to the climate crisis, but _very_ US-centric
4 stars
Content warning climate crisis
I'm torn on this one. On the one hand it does a good job of showing the current human cost of the climate crisis, through both the instantaneous disasters of floods and wildfires, and the slower-moving crises of coastal erosion and rising sea level. It also shows how these crises have differing effects depending on race and class and, at the end, talks about the way all of this happens in the context of a very individualistic politics, so personal crises yield weak societal support. On the other hand, apart from maybe 3-4 pages at the end, the entire book is about crises within the US and, I get that makes it more relatable to an American (and, probably, other OECD country) readership, but it also feels like a bit of a failing of empathy.