McKibben lays out the causes of climate change and explores the possibilities of what it means for the future, and the present.

He doesn't offer many answers, as he recognizes that it's impossible to know exactly what will happen. He does, however, make the case that it's already too late, we've already changed the atmosphere and everywhere on Earth is now touched by humankind.

This is what he means by "end of Nature," our idea of Nature as that which is unspoiled by humanity is forever gone. We've changed the atmosphere and thus there is nowhere left on this planet that is unspoiled.

While he occasionally falls into the nostalgic view of Nature common to many nature writers, his argument is compelling and well-written. ( )

At once out of date and up to date. Originally published 1990, a record of what people need to do then and even more need to do now, but 30 years have been wasted and it is now impossible to avoid many things. The concept of "the end of nature" is a bit like the idea that was are in the anthropogenic age; it is like a change of quantity into a change of quality, but the book is valuable even if one has a quibble about this. Includes ideas of deep ecology which I found inconclusive.

Two encouraging things: chlorofluorocarbons are being dealt with, and the imminence of genetic modification seems not much closer now than it was then.

I was supposed to see McKibben speak, so figured I should delve into his books, having only read his essays in the past. That was maybe a mistake. First, work responsibilities popped up meaning I won't get to go to the presentation. Second, End of Nature is as bleak as the title sounds. I don't think there's anything in it about the environmental crisis that I didn't know prior to picking up this book, but there's two key differences. First, a slew of the problems I already knew about were presented in one book, whereas I learned about them piecemeal through different deep science/environmental works before. Second, McKibben wrote about these problems 32 years ago! That's 32 years that we've done little to address the problems and plenty to make them worse. The book overall though, doesn't offer solutions and to be fair, being honest, I agree that there's not any practical solutions. People just don't see the danger and don't care to see. But a lot of the book was personal musings, peppered with science but not as deep a science as I've been used to in other environmental books. It's a dark, dark book and unfortunately, it's honest. ( )

Whatever we once thought Nature was – wildness; God; a simple place free from human thumbprints, or intricate machinery sustaining life on earth – we have now given it a kick that will change it forever. Humanity has stepped across the threshold. In his free ranging and provocative book, Bill McKibben explores the philosophies and technologies that have brought us here, and he shows how final a crossing we may have made.