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Books Requiem for a Species: why we resist the truth about climate change By Clive Hamilton Allen & Unwin, 2010, ISBN 978-1-74237-210-5
Reviewed by Janine Kitson
Clive Hamilton, who previously explored Australia's addiction to growth and over-consumption in Affluenza and Growth Fetish, turns his attention to why, collectively, we have failed to act despite the scientific evidence of global warming in Requiem for a Species.
Hamilton outlines the latest scientific research that predicts catastrophic, uncontrollable climate change. The failure of the major polluting nations to make binding commitments to reducing greenhouse gases at the Copenhagen Conference in December 2009 "was the last hope for humanity to pull back from the abyss", he writes. Evidence suggests we are past the tipping point for escalating, dangerous climate change.
Hamilton tries to explain why the dire warnings of scientists have been ignored, smeared and ridiculed. He tells us what environmentalist scientists have known for decades - that civilisation as we know it is heading towards imminent collapse. Yet politicians, corporations, the media and...