By Noelle Merveilleux, VRG Intern

Climate change is a growing concern for the general public. Evidently, there is a growing body of evidence that supports the general view that if we do not act accordingly, we run the risk of environmental catastrophe. Environmental catastrophe means a few things for us. It means weather events can and most likely will increase in severity. It means we shall witness increased loss of species and their habitat. Eventually, we would probably bear witness to the depletion of vital resources like water, making it difficult for life on Earth to flourish.

I had the opportunity to spend some time reading a book focused on different aspects of climate change. Keith Akers’ Embracing Limits: A Radical and Necessary Approach to the Environmental Crisis is a dense read. Now, what do I mean by this? Not only does Akers highlight some of the damage done over years to the biosphere, including discussing the effects of animal agriculture and oil production on the environment, he also brings in the economic element of the crisis, an element that more and more people are starting to come to terms with in more recent years. This was a much-appreciated move. It is as he suggests throughout the book, that understanding this crisis should be addressed at multiple levels, including the economic level. He presents the view that because the Earth has finite resources, we should not expect endless economic expansion and should try to aim for degrowth. However, Akers is generally cautious about prescribing solutions such as this one and others throughout the text, especially in his recognition of negative outcomes of his proposed solutions. He delves more into this than I want to spoil for you here, starting with the second chapter.

My usage of “dense” to describe the nature of Akers’ work is not meant to fault his efforts in any way or to turn readers away, but to hopefully make anyone seeking to read this book aware of how troublesome learning about these issues can be and to possibly challenge you, the readers to become more informed and engaged in your own lives. I think it is fair to say there is no one solution or quick fix for this problem. At various points in the text, Akers laments the amount of work ahead for humanity as a whole just to even begin changing the attitudes in the social sphere surrounding these issues, let alone beginning to scratch the surface on reversing the effects CO₂ emissions have had in our atmosphere. It seems futile, especially these days, but I hope you feel encouraged to act in your own life in all the ways you can and that you find community with like-minded individuals in spite of that.

You can purchase Embracing Limits here:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/embracing-limits-keith-akers/1143247893

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