On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason
On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason
One of the foremost challenges of the current generation, is to change the perception of climate change. We can consistently be told the facts – that climate change may be irreversible by 2030, the 20 warmest years on record have been in the last 22 years, more than 1 million species face extinction, the ocean acidification level is at a level not seen in 50 million years, an area about the size of Denmark of pristine tropical forest is lost every year, and so on. This makes for terrifying reading, but even as I sit here, a literal meter from my radiator, I don’t reach out and turn it off. This is indubitably due to perception. It is the same mentally cognitive mechanisms that make me procrastinate when an exam seems insurmountable. We don’t act, even given it being in our best interest, out of a fear of failure; it seems hopeless. Moreover, the damage we are doing will not be felt by us, but rather by generations we will never have the pleasure of knowing, so what’s the point?
This is what Andri Snær Magnason aims to change with this new, stunning, compelling and engaging book on his absurdly interesting life. With a combination of facts, science and personal anecdotes, Magnason manages to impress on the reader the scale of how climate change will affect every aspect of the life we all have come to know and love. In his discussion of time, he describes how at any one point, you are connected to around 262 years. His grandmother is ninety-four years old. If he manages to meet his great grand-daughter, and assuming she will become as old and energetic as grandmother Hulda, she will be alive in 2186. An honestly unfathomable number. This is however 262 years of a connection as strong as family, a bond that should tell you the importance of the actions we make today. From the beginning of the book, the barrier between us and future generations is broken down. We are introduced to a part of us, a connection to the future, that we will directly affect.
With this in mind, Magnason carries us through his life, interviewing the Dalai Lama about the melting glaciers in the Himalayas, the interconnectedness of humans, animals and nature. In one noteworthy tale of his family, he describes how his grandmother and grandfather would hike to the top of Vatnajökull (the largest glacier in Europe), where at its thickest point, there is over one thousand meters of ice between them and the ground. He did this same trek a few years ago, to experience his grandparent’s feats. If climate change continues unhinged, we risk that over ninety percent of the glaciers in the world will melt away completely withing ninety years – including Vatnajökull. As such, if Magnason’s granddaughter was to hike to the same point him and his grandmother have stood, she would be able to stand on the ground, point to the sky and say, “My grandfather stood there”. These are the kind of wonderful, yet terrifying, visualisations that Magnason sprinkles throughout the book, helping the reader grasp the scale of the problem at hand.
For the most part, the book does leave us feeling slightly hopeless. Even now that we can comprehend the scale of the problem at hand, it seems we should have acted years ago, and anything we do now, will only slightly mitigate the impending doom. He describes how sacrifices must be made. That we will have to let all the glaciers melt, such that we can focus on combating other effects of climate change that will be even more destructive. We have to accept that there are animals, nature, cities that our children’s children will never see and experience. However, what he does leave us with is a glimmer of hope. Though it will not be the same world we leave behind to future generations, it is a world. But only if we act now, and drastically.
Reviewed by Gus
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