#books ## Title: No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference --- ### Author: Greta Thunberg #### Rating: 4/5 #### Date: 2019/09/27 ## Review --- The main message conveyed in the book is the following: > > “...unless in that time permanent and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society have taken place, including a reduction of our CO 2 emissions by at least 50 per cent. And please note that these calculations are depending on inventions that have not yet been invented at scale. Inventions that are supposed to clear our atmosphere of astronomical amounts of carbon dioxide. > > Furthermore these calculations do not include unforeseen tipping points and feedback loops, like the extremely powerful methane gas escaping from rapidly thawing Arctic permafrosts. Nor do they include already locked-in warming, hidden by air pollution, nor the aspect of equity, nor climate justice, clearly stated throughout the Paris Agreement, which is absolutely necessary to make it work on a global scale.” > If you would ask me if I believe in climate change, I would say “Yes of course! Don’t you?” But what I just realized after reading this book is that maybe it’s not something that I really believe in. I mean, is it something to ‘believe’ in the first place? It seems that climate change is a kind of measurable fact that exists in the world and something many well-learned folks that I respect agree upon. So why would I not really believe in it then? Well that’s because I am not directly affected by it, or rather, I fail to see how my actions are directly linked to it. I mean, I act in a way that is mostly environmentally friendly: like I take the train, ride my bike, conserve energy when possible and I even did my bachelor thesis in a green field. But when the time comes for me to buy a plane ticket to go somewhere or when it comes to what I am going to eat tonight, the climate comes in last in terms of importance. I can see what Greta is saying but only to a certain degree, I struggle to fully understand it. I keep on finding myself directly contributing to the problem. I guess I have a lot to learn. Great book. ---