Charlie Chaplin’s final one in The Dictator. Despite being over seventy years old, there is a lot of things we should use now. Fighting greed, fighting ignorance, fighting hate are prerequisite.

Embracing love and helping each others could sure do wonders today. Keeping faith in such dark times is also much needed.

Sure, we are not – at least for the time being – in a global war. But the situation is nothing less but critical.

Here is  the speech on video on Youtube :

Click here to view the embedded video.

And since it doesn’t show the part about Hannah, here is a link to the full text. (Version française ici )

As I know too a young Hannah – don’t we all know somebody who is in despair ? – I would like to give you the text of this most brilliant part :

Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up, Hannah. The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world, a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed and brutality.

Look up, Hannah. The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up.

Via American Rhethoric.

Related posts:

1. My humble opinion on Bill Gates’ speech at TED
2. Was it Obama’s “moon shot speech” ?
3. HOME : a must watch movie

To make a long story short : ” The Canadian Government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party, is actively working to shut down (her) solo European art exhibition, which is set to tour 20 cities in Europe. “

I discovered Franke’s amazing visual essays years ago – she is one of the very first persons I followed on Twitter, thanks to a common acquaintance – and I have always loved them ever since.

Greatly drawn and very well thought, her essays have made me think about climate change, my impact, what should I do and so on. They made me laugh, they amazed me… Each time I read her essays I am just looking for more.

To me, her work deserve not only a European tour, but a global one… Go and check her website if you are not convinced. Check her latest story, Who cares about the Forest? as an example…

So today, I am asking you to relay this situation, so the Canadian government supports her back, or at the very least stop harming her European tour.

Related posts:

1. Desertec gets international support
2. More and more support for nuclear
3. The Revenge of Gaïa by James Lovelock
4. 10 reasons to support nuclear power
5. Europe to go beyond its Kyoto Protocol goals

I believe these pictures clearly enable us to witness how energy, power, is shaping and altering the United States. Some pictures are oppressing – like the one on the left – while others are depressing. (A few however left me indifferent…)

All these pictures make us question our addiction to energy, or rather energies. It personnally increased my determination to push forward the best energy source of all : efficiency.

(the latter being rather invisible, this goes well into the purpose of the exhibit…)

Here is the story behind these great photographs :

It was the fall of 2003 and I had been hired to photograph a town in the process of being erased. The American Electric Power Company had paid residents of Cheshire a lump sum to leave, never come back, and never complain in the media or in court if they became sick from environmental contaminates spewed out of the AEP plant. The company was buying itself a lawsuit-free future. Back in New York, I could not get Cheshire out of my mind.

(…) Six months later, in the spring of 2004, I began to make pictures of the production and consumption of energy in the United States. I wanted to photograph the relationship between American society and the American landscape, and energy was the linchpin; this much I had gleaned from Cheshire.

Energy—how it was made, how it got used, and the ramifications of both—would therefore be my focus. For the next five years, I traveled the country making photographs at or near energy production sites: coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, fuel cell, wind, and solar. It was a strange kind of tourism: energy tourism.

As it was the last day of the exhibit in Paris, you can always see it on the official website : whatisamericanpower.com. I look forward to reading your opinion. In any case, enjoy !

Related posts:

1. More efficiency, wind power and nuclear for China
2. The potential of tidal power
3. Over 7,800 MW of geothermal power for the USA
4. Global clean power: A $2.3 trillion opportunity
5. Solar power plants face problems in California

So I had a look at some quotes on pessimism. Nearly all of them point out to the fact that being pessimistic is bad. Bad for you, and as a matter of fact, for the entire community… So let’s smile, roll up our sleeves and go on with it.

I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will. ~ Clint Eastwood.

A pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.
~ Oscar Wilde

Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.
~ Oscar Wilde

The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose
~ Kahlil Gibran

That’s my gift. I let that negativity roll off me like water off a duck’s back. If it’s not positive, I didn’t hear it. If you can overcome that, fights are easy.
~ George Foreman

“ pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties
~ Harry S Truman

Pessimism is an excuse for not trying and a guarantee to a personal failure.
~ Bill Clinton

How many pessimists end up by desiring the things they fear, in order to prove that they are right.
~ Robert Mallet

Pessimists are the people who have no hope for themselves or for others. Pessimists are also people who think the human race is beneath their notice, that they’re better than other human beings.
~ James Baldwin

The world belongs to optimists. Pessimists are only spectators.
~ François Guizot

I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool an optimist must know how sad a place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day.
~ Peter Ustinov

No related posts.

But what I particularly like with this film is the reason I loved the Studio Ghibli’s previous productions like My Neighbour Totoro, Mononoke Hime and of course Nausicaä is the environmental message.

Living in harmony with Nature and others, satisfying oneself with few things and many other key environmental messages are part of the film and for this I strongly recommend it to you all.

Here is the summary of the story, according to the Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB) :

14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from items “borrowed” from the house’s human inhabitants. However, life changes for the Clocks when a human boy discovers Arrietty.

Enjoy !

(dedicated to my friend A., with whom I watched the movie on the Champs Elysées Friday evening)

Related posts:

1. Cultural break – September 2007
2. A cultural break – June 2007
3. HOME : a must watch movie
4. A cultural break – August 2007
5. Zooming in to the Pelican Nebula

From readings on sustainable development and energy issues to science fiction and from graphic novels to serious readings on social sciences, I recommend you nine books and series of books to keep  you busy for days.

Please note that many books have been reviewed here previously and that I added links to enable you to make up your mind. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did !

—

On environment and energy

Sustainable energy – without the hot air

A book I strongly recommend to anyone interested by sustainable development and energy as it is packed with figures and findings that are due to start discussions among CleanTechies.

Published in 2009it is up to date and explains simply but most effectively – and humor – how we can go for low carbon energy solutions to answer all our needs. Grade : 20/20

Hot, Flat and Crowded

This is the book I would recommend to someone new to the current energy and climate issues. Its author – Thomas Friedman – is a columnist for the New York Times and received three times the Pulitzer Prize.

Very recent as it was published in September 2008, Hot, Flat and Crowded is an excellent read that will bring you a lot of knowledge to fully grasp the world we have to build. Grade: 18/20.

—

Serious books

Imagining India

When I discovered this book via The Daily Show with Jon Stewart I knew I had to read what promised to be a fantastic book on India’s past, present and future. And the least I can say is that I wasn’t disappointed.

Imagining India is a must read whether you are an Indian citizen or a foreigner who wants to learn out more on this nation’s potential to become a super power and how IT could revolutionize our lives. Grade : 18/20.

Guns, Germs and Steel

This is a magisterial lesson on history and how Mankind evolved during 13,000 years from small groups of hunter gatherers into the current complex societies with agriculture and industry.

I highly recommend Guns, Germs and Steel to any person wondering why European civilizations conquered the world and not the opposite or each person interested in social sciences as a whole. Grade : 20/20.

—

Science Fiction

The Mars Trilogy

Three huge and excellent books on how Mankind could conquer our neighboring planet during our century and beyond. A fantastic series with a coherent universe, fantastic characters, a real research on the advances of sciences.

This books are literally packed with data on Mars itself, but also on many sciences including genetics, bio-engineering, and yes, environmental questions. My favourite books on 2008. Grade : 19/20

The Revelation Space cycle

Here are five sci-fi books I strongly recommend you if you are interested by the genre. The cycle was written by Alastair Reynolds, a UK scientist who dedicated himself to writing space operas.

Taking place in a not-so-distant future, they provide a good plot in a coherent universe filled with interesting ideas and characters. To make up your mind, your can read Chasm city or the Prefect, which are stand alone stories. Grade : 17/20.

The Foundation cycle

I have to admit I wondered if I should add this most famous series in this selection as I found that the original trilogy aged badly and found them pale in comparison to the above.

But the more recent books are truly interesting and explain why Asimov is still to date considered a grand master of the genre. Grade for the original trilogy : 14/20. Grade for the more recent episodes : 17/20.

Blade Runner

Published under the title ” Do androids dream of electric sheeps ?” this book inspired an eponymous film by Ridley Scott in 1982. My third book of P. K. Dick – after Dr. Bloodmoney and A Scanner Darkly – I really enjoyed this one.

In a mere 200 pages, Dick provided another coherent universe with his usual questioning about our societies. A good question posed by this book is ” what makes us human ? ” Grade : 18/20.

—

Misceallanous

The Watchmen

To conclude this selection, I would like to present you what I believe is the perfect example of the graphic novel. Half comics half  alternate history thriller, the Watchmen is another must read and a page-turner.

I remember wishing I could read faster to know how this superhero story would end. The plot is splendid, the drawings excellent and the characters are simply stunning. Grade : 20/20.

Related posts:

1. My selection of books I read in 2007
2. Some books that are waiting on my shelves
3. Blue Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
4. Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
5. The Revelation Space cycle by Alastair Reynolds

Our planet – whom you may refer to as Gaïa – will still be there long after we are gone. The brilliant George Carlin reminded us brilliantly of that in his bout about environmentalists.

This gem of green humour was first brought to my attention in June 2008 by Marguerite via her blog. Many thanks to her for that.

Now without further ado I let you watch the fantastic seven minute video that I hope you will like as much as I did.

Click here to view the embedded video.

—

I believe we have to act to save ourselves from climate change and many other environmental issues like water scarcity, pollutions of all kinds and so on. In fine saving ourselves from these modern days perils will kind of save the effing Planet…

Related posts:

1. Animals save the Planet, what about you ?
2. HOME : a must watch movie
3. Cultural break – September 2007
4. 20,000 leagues under the sea with Google
5. The story of stuff… a mandatory video ?

Back to 2007 I read Chasm City the second opus of the cycle which can be read as a stand alone. If you like this one as much as I did (I then gave it a grade of 17/20), you will love the whole series.

Taking place in a not-so-distant future, The Revelation Space cycle provides a good plot in a coherent universe filled with interesting ideas and characters.

In the 25th century Mankind have conquered near Space thanks to huge spaceships. Life expectancy has significantly increased and cryonics have enabled people to sleep for years and thus make decades long trips seem shorter.

After having discovered several civilizations who disappeared under strange circumstances, scientists begin to wonder who or what inhibits Life as Mankind seems to be the only remaining intelligent life form among the many potential planets where Life could settle.

During 3,000 pages Alastair Reynolds counts the story of the people trying to answer these and many others questions.

Here are the two main factions encountered in the books (Wikipedia extract, from the article on Redemption Ark ):

The Conjoiners, humans who have incorporated technology that allows them not only to share thoughts, but to enhance many aspects of their existence (such as vision enhancements, pain blocking, fastidious memory collection and recall etc).

The other featured faction is the Demarchists, baseline humans who originally practiced a form of decentralised mass-participatory democracy, but whose civilisation was all but destroyed by a nanotechnology plague.

Other factions are present and most of all the Inhibitors.

Here are the books :

1. Revelation Space. (2000).
2. Chasm City. (2001)
3. Redemption Ark. ( 2002)
4. Absolution Gap. (2003).
5. The Prefect. (2007) Note : I didn’t read this one yet.

To conclude : even if the series isn’t as good as Vernor Vinge’s books or the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson I still strongly recommend you reading these books if you like space operas taking place in a not-so-distant future.

Grade for the series : 17/20.

Related posts:

1. Japan to invest $21 billion in space-based solar
2. A video of aurora borealis seen from space
3. NASA brings more facts and figures on space junk
4. European space lab Columbus installed on ISS
5. Earth seen from space

One of the main findings of this book is that electrifying our cars and installing heat pumps in our buildings would enable us to cut significantly both our greenhouse gases emissions and fossil fuels consumption.

Both solutions are much more efficient than current ones and could benefit from massive electrification to answer all our energy needs.

Below are a selection of the book’s findings :

On sustainable electricity, the author notes that the UK and Europe in general can’t count solely on renewables. Indeed we see in the book that wind, biofuels, hydro, solar PV and others don’t add up enough energy to answer our current needs and even less the future needs with an electrified transport sector.

So we need a plan that adds up with either concentrated solar elsewhere (like the Desertec project) or nuclear or both solutions. Clean coal may also add up enough electricity if proved viable.

On North America (Mexico, the United States and Canada) the author notes it should first and foremost decrease energy consumption from 250 kWh per person per day to current European or Japanese levels of 125 kWh.

This halving of their energy consumption could enable them to rely solely on renewables and the installation of concentrated solar in its deserts and nuclear.

—

With European consuming the equivalent of 125 kWh per day per person we see a breakdown of transport accounting for 40 kWh per day, heating for another 40 kWh. Delivered electricity amounts to 18 kWh but due to the inefficiencies of the system this comes from 45 kWh of energy. With efficiency we could go from the current 125 to around 80 kWh, a figure similar to Hong Kong.

It is worth noting that his simplification for the sake of the argument doesn’t take into account industry, agriculture or “stuff”, which are tackled in details in the book.

In chapter 27, the author gives five example of plans that add up enough electricity. The baseline plan is as follow :

Clean coal 16 kWh per day per person, nuclear 16, tide and wave 5.7, hydro 0.1, waste 1.1, pumped heat 12, wood 5, solar thermal 1, biofuels 2, solar PV 3 and wind 8.

The four other give more or less importance to each of these energy sources. In one plan nuclear accounts for 44 kWh when in another plan wind energy accounts for 32 kWh.

—

Electric cars need as little as 15 kWh for 100 kilometers when current cars running on oil need from 70 to 90 kWh. This makes that today’s electric cars are already five times more efficient than current models. On a side note SUVs – also called spaceships by the author – need around 120 kWh…

High speed rail and other alternatives also have to be pushed forward. A full high speed train indeed consumes as little as 3 kWh per passenger and biking even less: 1 kWh.

Concerning housing and buildings, the author is an advocate of both retrofitting and reducing the winter thermostat from 20°C to 17°C which alone bring savings of heating by 30 percent (page 292). By combining both solution David MacKay halved his heating bills.

With a coefficient of performance (COP) of 4 to 5 heat pumps retrieve the heat contained in the outside air or soil and distribute it indoors. Another advantage of this solution is that it could bring air conditioning during hotter days.

The author provides a lot of data on sustainable nuclear with thorium, fast breeder reactors and uranium from the oceans. I will soon dedicate another post to this special chapter.

—

The book is available for free on the official website. You can download it in one document or read it per chapter. The paper version can be bought for around 22€.

Published this year it is up to date and explains simply but most effectively – and humor – how we can go for low carbon energy solutions to answer all our needs.

Grade : 20/20. A must read.

Re-readability : Maximum as it brings a lot of data.

An article on the BBC from the author. Most interesting.

Related posts:

1. Why renewable energies aren’t that sustainable
2. Is waste to energy a good idea ?
3. Energy sprawl is another reason to mix sources
4. Two news on Chinese energy for the price of one
5. There is no perfect energy generating solution

So when I discovered today’s book via The Daily Show with Jon Stewart I knew I had to read what promised to be a fantastic book on India’s past, present and future. And the least I can say is that I wasn’t disappointed.

Imagining India is a must read whether you are an Indian citizen or a foreigner who wants to learn out more on this nation’s potential to become a super power.

India was from its independence to the 1991 reforms a quasi socialist country with its five-year plans. The reforms allowed the nation to become a vibrant economy welcoming entrepreneurship and international business. Since then, economic growth is relatively important.

However there are still many challenges to face: from education and health to infrastructure as well as environmental and energy issues. Each of these topics have their own detailed chapters.

India has an unique chance as it can avoid repeating the mistakes done over centuries by Western countries in all the above-mentioned topics and can leapfrog the inefficient and polluting technologies.

Two other issues I found impressive are the overwhelmingly bureaucracy that impairs economic development and the role of the English language as a medium toward the end of massive poverty.

With its very young population India is a chance for the world as a whole as many nations are aging. As a matter of fact, its economic potential is so gigantic it’s scaring for current economic super-powers such as the United States, the European Union or Japan and China.

But with the increased competition comes the many opportunities to be tapped. Imagine what a middle class of 300 million people – and soon many more – may need in terms of consumer goods and services…

–

Closer to the preoccupations of this blog, the last two chapters make me wonder of what would happen if the country begun working as hard on cleantech as it did for the past 20 years on IT.

I believe the many local engineers could completely revolutionize cleantech… Indeed, we see throughout the book that India’s IT is efficient and highly innovative.

This book also enabled me to better grasp the endless possibilities brought by IT, which is literally at the center of this book. This is normal as Nandan Nilekani has been known for co-founding Infosys, a leading IT company.

–

Conclusion : In my need to better understand the world and after books like Hot, Flat and Crowded ; Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Imagining India brought me a brilliant insight on India.

The only drawback I found for this book is that some references are difficult to understand for a complete foreigner like me.

I am now looking for similar books on various “developing” countries with a huge potential. If you have ideas of books, I look forward to reading your suggestions.

Grade : 18/20

Official website of the book : http://imaginingindia.com/

Related posts:

1. India rejects carbon reduction plans
2. India to build more nuclear plants
3. On July 31st, ten millions of trees were planted in India
4. India goes deeper into climate change mitigation
5. India announces its first climate change mitigation plan

To the message carried by this film, we have ten years to change the way we live and avoid the worse with “the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate.”

Packed with fabulous images and truly worrying facts and figures it is an absolute must watch whether you are concerned or not by the environment.

I believe this is the perfect movie to convince people who aren’t concerned yet by environmental issues to act now and change the way they live.

I was stunned by the pictures and the beauty of our planet, and this even if I knew Yann Arthus Bertrand’s brilliant book, Earth from above.

Without further ado, I would like to propose you to watch (or re-watch the movie):

Click here to view the embedded video.

I look forward to reading your views on this brilliant movie…

Related posts:

1. Cultural break – September 2007
2. A cultural break – June 2007
3. 20,000 leagues under the sea with Google
4. A cultural break – August 2007
5. Zooming in to the Pelican Nebula

This is a magisterial lesson on history and how Mankind evolved during 13,000 years from small groups of hunter gatherers into the current complex societies with agriculture and industry.

I highly recommend GGS to any person wondering why European civilizations conquered the world and not the opposite or each person interested in social sciences as a whole.

During 450 pages, the author brilliantly exposes the causes of the Eurasian predominance in our world. Indeed one can wonder why Europeans societies conquered the world and not the reverse.

Among the factors that contributed one can note the exceptional conditions the Fertile Crescent had and the west-east axis of the Eurasian continent which enable biodiversity to prosper.

One striking element of this book is how the environment contributed to the success of Eurasian civilizations. If the climate had been worse or if biodiversity had been less flourishing we wouldn’t be living as we do nowadays.

Mankind first appeared in Africa, and spread from there to Europe and Asia. From the latter it slowly spread to the many islands in the Pacific Ocean and crossed the Bering Strait 12,000 years BC.

Civilization first appeared in the Fertile Crescent – now a mostly desert region – and spread to the whole Eurasian continent. Both climate and geography slowed down the expansion to the Americas and Oceania. This is one of the explanations.

I am amazed at how the author explains with ease the birth of agriculture – the founding stone of our civilizations -  to writing – which was enabled by the former – and then to all the other developments.

Conclusion : This book is due to make on me a long lasting impression. If you loved Collapse, you will appreciate this one too.

Grade: 20/20.

Re-readability: Yes.

—

Disponible en Français sous le titre De l’inégalité parmi les sociétés, chez Gallimard. (environ 11€)

Related posts:

1. Collapse, how societies choose to fail or succeed
2. My selection of books I read in 2007
3. Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
4. The Revenge of Gaïa by James Lovelock
5. Review of Plan B 2.0 by Lester R Brown

If my favorite book for 2007 was Collapse, there is no doubt  that the Mars Trilogy will be the books I will remember from 2008. I strongly recommend you to read them if you like sciences and particularly science fiction and/or astronomy.

The only thing that prevents me to give this final part the maximum grade of 20/20 is its excessive length. (950 pages for the French version). Grade for the trilogy: 19/20. Grade for the book: 19/20. Must read!

Related posts:

1. Green Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
2. Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
3. Avalanches on Mars
4. There is water on Mars !
5. My selection of books I read in 2007

To him, the various crises we are facing should not only be considered as a threat but also as an opportunity to launch a Green Revolution that would renew the United States and help the world in solving its current issues.

Very recent as it was published in September 2008, Hot, Flat and Crowded is an excellent read that will bring you a lot of knowledge to fully grasp the world we have to build.

To begin, let us explain why this title:

Hot, because of climate change. Indeed, global average temperatures are increasing and are due to keep on doing so more or less because of our greenhouse gases emissions.

Flat refers to the birth of a truly global middle class. Even if this a good news for our societies, this might be bad news for our Planet as more people put more pressure on our natural resources.

Crowded as populations projections are forecasting a global population of nine billion by mid century. Since we are already in quite a mess with “only” 6.7 billion, one can wonder what the world would look like with these additional populations.

—

This books focuses on the main threats America – and the world, but this was written by an American – is facing. They are :

Addiction to foreign oil. Warming our atmosphere is not the only problem posed by oil: most of what is consumed in the US come from the Middle East, and from what Friedman refers to as ” petrodictators ” : adversaries of the American way of life as they fund terrorists.

Climate change. I guess I don’t need to explain this one. If you need more on that topic please refer to Climate change keeps on accelerating as well as 10 billion tonnes of carbon.

Biodiversity loss. I wrote about it before and will get back to it soon as this book brings a lot of great data.

Energy poverty. There are at least 1.6 billion people without electricity on this planet. If these people were to use fossil fuels, it would lead to big problems. This is why we have to bring them clean and cheap electrons with renewables.

Decreasing natural resources. Oil, natural gas and many others raw materials see their reserves being depleted by current consumption rates. This will be an even bigger problem in the future.

—

For all these factors we are entering the Energy Climate Era. This will continue the Industrial Revolution but in more sustainable ways by tackling all five threats.

The Green Revolution will bring forward solutions like energy efficiency and conservation, renewables and many more. To Friedman, the country – or group of countries, cf. the European Union – who will be the market leader in this industry will make a lot of money.

Competition will be fierce as Clean Tech might be the next IT.

—

Other topics: We are not paying the real price of energy as externalities such as climate change, air pollution and national insecurity are not included in the prices.

This is why taxes should be implemented to reflect all these externalities. A tax on carbon and many other solutions exist and the author review them all.

Almost each of the 17 chapters of this great book is worth an article on this blog. As a matter of fact, the chapters on energy poverty and biodiversity loss will help me to write articles on these topics.

The author also coined an expression I particularly liked: ” Global weirding “. Indeed, Earth’s climate is getting weirder and as the IPCC forecast last year, extreme weather episodes are taking place: large droughts, excessive winds – like the ones we had in France this month – etc.

It is worth noting that if Jared Diamond was promoting the actions of the WWF in Collapse, how societies choose to fail or succeed, Thomas Friedman strongly advertises for Conservation International.

This NGO is dedicated to ” conserve the Earth’s living heritage – our global biodiversity – and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.”

—

Conclusion : All these elements drive me to truly recommend you this book. Friedman provides realistic solutions, all of them being already applied at a local level.

Grade: 18/20. Excellent book, but a bit too much centered on America. Must understandable.

Re-readibility: Some quotes are worth reading and again, but the book as a whole isn’t that much. Guess that I may read this again in 25 years.

—

Many thanks to Franke James for her brilliant review.

Related posts:

1. The Revenge of Gaïa by James Lovelock
2. My selection of books I read in 2007

World of Goo is a video game for the Nintendo Wii, PC and Mac that will make you think to solve around 40 brilliant, entertaining and poetic puzzles.

For $20, you will have cool musics, nice graphics that will look great on an old computer and hours of great fun. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. On, this: Joyeux Noel !

Related posts:

1. A great video on why CFL are fantastic
2. Al Gore’s brilliant plan to repower America
3. Green roofs and walls, a brilliant idea
4. A brilliant solution for abandoned coal mines
5. UNESCO : 30 World Heritage sites endangered

I always liked the science fiction genre as well as sciences – both social and hard ones – and truly loved this book as it contains the best of both aspects and is truly fascinating.

Other aspects of the book that I enjoyed : the depth of relations between characters, the politics, the terraformation of Mars… All this lead me to give a grade of 19/20.

Related posts:

1. Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
2. Avalanches on Mars
3. There is water on Mars !
4. A deepness in the sky, by Vernor Vinge
5. Terra Economica – mars 2008

Kim Stanley Robinson is a sheer genius and if you like sci-fi, I strongly recommend you reading his books. However, he is quite a fond of science, real science.

His book is thus literally packed with data on Mars itself, but also on many sciences including genetics, bio-engineering, and yes dear reader, environmental questions.

And then, we have a winner as it combines my strong interest for environment as well as science fiction, which is my favorite genre with thrillers.

According to a French website dedicated to science fiction – Cafard Cosmique [Fr] – Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the three major 1900s writers with Ian M Banks (unknown to me) and Dan Simmons. I didn’t like Simmons’ books for the reasons I evocated in 2007 : way too gore and way too sadistic.

But Mr. Robinson is far from that. The Mars trilogy comprises no less than two Hugo awards and a Nebula award. Hugo are a sign of quality for the science fiction genre. Indeed, it was also awarded to A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep, two fantastic books I previously reviewed here.

Red Mars begins in 2026 with the expedition of a hundred scientists to Mars. The main characters are mainly of American and Russian nationalities, but there are also French and Japanese people.

They colonize the Red planet together but soon they differ on a vital topic : should the planet be adapted to human life and thus terraformed ? Two groups form themselves : the Red, which are willing to let Mars untouched, and the Greens which are willing to modify it so it suits us perfectly.

An aspect that I particularly loved is the settlement of the colons. It is in this aspect quite similar to the Mysterious Island by Jules Verne I reviewed there. It is terribly modern as it uses all the data comes from years of research on neighboring planet as well as on various sciences.

Conclusion : If you like science fiction and appreciates realistic stories with a lot of science, complexity of the characters’ psychology and their relationships, you will love this book. Be sure that I will review here the second and third part of the trilogy as soon as I will have read them.

Grade : 19/20

Re-readability : Yes.

Original title, available in French : Mars la Rouge.

Many thanks to Tim for inviting me to read this book.

Related posts:

1. Avalanches on Mars
2. Terra Economica – mars 2008

Un véritable plaidoyer pour la lecture, c’est ce que propose cet ouvrage qui est un recueil d’articles que l’auteur a publié notamment dans le Figaro des années 1970 à nos jours.

Combler ses lacunes de culture littéraire “classique” devient un plaisir et même quelque chose allant de soi tant ce livre donne envie de lire.

Des classiques comme Chateaubriand – dont M. d’Ormesson est passionné – à des auteurs plus modernes comme Aragon, vous découvrirez ou redécouvrirez des livres passionnants.

De même, qu’ils soient Français ou étrangers – comme Borgès ou Joyce – leurs livres sont chroniqués avec brio.

Immensément cultivé d’un point de vue littéraire (normal diront certaines personnes d’humeur ronchonne, c’est son job) il est aussi très voyageur et très au fait des cultures internationales.

Avec un style léger l’auteur relate certains faits marquants de l’époque à laquelle et on perçoit des échos de la guerre en Yougoslavie ou divers évènements politiques marquants.

C’est ce qui frappe dans ce livre, la légéreté de l’ensemble. On lit de la littérature, de la vraie, et ce sans s’en rendre compte.

On voyage aussi beaucoup, et ce tant dans l’espace – du Brésil à l’Asie en passant par l’Italie – que dans le temps – de l’Egypte antique à la Renaissance.

L’ouvrage clôt sur deux lettres parues sous forme d’articles hilarants ou l’auteur écrit au directeur de la rédaction – alors Franz Olivier Giesbert – où il raconte qu’il s’est échappé de la vie en France pour vivre temporairement dans deux iles méditerranéennes.

A titre personnel, M. d’Ormesson m’a donné envie de lire d’autres genres que le roman policier ou la littérature de science fiction. Ces genres représentent pourtant la très grande majorité des ouvrages que je lis à titre ludique.

Conclusion :

Un chef d’oeuvre que tout le monde peut lire, Odeur du temps ravira le jeune lecteur ou le sénior qui cherche à diversifier ses lectures des auteurs classiques. Je pense sincèrement que ce livre à une place dans chaque famille.

Ce magnifique ouvrage rejoint mon panthéon des livres que je relirais volontiers un jour avec Les Misérables de Victor Hugo ou Au tréfonds du ciel de Vernor Vinge.

Vous l’aurez compris, je suis absolument fan et compte lire d’autres livres de cet auteur mais aussi des ouvrages qu’il a recommandé. Je reviendrais ici vous en parler.

Note : 20/20.

Appréciation : en trois mots? Le livre parfait.

Pour vous tenir au courant de mes lectures, je vous invite à vous abonner à mon flux RSS, n’hésitez pas !

Related posts:

1. Climat, 10 raisons d’espérer
2. Commentaire du livre Le plein s’il vous plait
3. En Français. Résumé du mois de mai 2007
4. Comment réduire facilement ses factures de chauffage
5. Résumé du mois de Décembre 2007

This book is not optimistic as the author believes it is already too late to work on sustainable development and that we have to operate a sustainable retreat.

I truly enjoyed this as there are many elements worth reading, such as why nuclear is a chance and not a menace for us or what could be the solutions.This retreat would lead us to live in polar cities as the atmosphere everywhere else would be unsuitable for life. This is too me a bit far fetched and from what I read from the IPCC reports, it seems that this scenario could occur if we didn’t move fast or big enough.

This is indeed a risk and at the time of publication of this book – early 2006 – the situation was much different than today. Only recently did the United States, China and Australia became aware of what risks a full scale climate change could be and begun acting on climate change mitigation.

The speed at which policies are unfolding in the world – also in France with the Grenelle – make me think that a solution is at hand and that we could avoid the worth from happening

One could indeed question the idea of this retreat but the deployed means in Lovelock’s argumentation are worth reading.

Gaïa refers to the idea that Earth is alive, in the meaning that it can regulates itself and is “a physiological system”. The idea was created at the end of the 1960s and as gained credence ever since.

Lovelock has a very interesting way of seeing renewable energies. He states that they have nuclear origin as the sun is a huge nuclear plant, so solar energies harvest nuclear energy. It is quite the same for geothermal energy as they gather energy from Earth’s core.

The author regards solar thermal a “sensible way of decreasing the energy from fossil fuels” (page 68) but is absolutely against wind turbines as they are a nuisance to the countryside.

On nuclear itself, I find this quote interesting as it sums up very well his views :

My insistence on the need for nuclear energy in this book comes because there is no other safe and reliable alternative for the large scale production of electricity.

Page 69

Dr. Lovelock mentions a Swiss study that counted the casualties due to several energy sources in the world. Nuclear happens to be the least lethal energy compared to natural gas, coal and hydro. (page 102)

Even if to Dr. Lovelock the idea of sustainable development is wrong, he gives a remarkable definition of it as he believes that the well being of Gaïa comes before ours. Indeed, without a healthy Gaïa where would we go ? (quick answer : nowhere ! )

It is not a book I would recommend for someone who is new to climate change or sustainable development. If you are in this case, I strongly recommend you Collapse how societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond ( see my review there )

If you are fortunate enough to read French, I strongly recommend you to read Le Plein s’il vous plait by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Alain Legrand. ( see my review there [Fr] )

I give this book a grade of 16/20 and appreciated it the developed views on nuclear, energy in general, biology and the importance of chemical pollution.

No related posts.

From science fiction and comic books, to serious readings on sustainable development and astrophotography, I recommend you a dozen articles, one per month.

This way you will find some ideas of great books for your loved ones or yourselves. And if you really want to offer me a book, you can a look at this page.

Sustainable development books :

• Le plein s’il vous plait by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Alain Grandjean
  200 pages | Grade : 18/20

A great book explaining that the only way to decrease our greenhouse gases emissions would be to put a tax on fossil fuels energy sources.

An important part of the book explains very well the problems that are peak oil and climate change and just for this it is a must read.

I wrote an article in May 2007 dedicated to it. Read the review. (in French)

• Collapse how societies choose to fail or succeed, by Jared Diamond, Ph.D
  575 pages | Grade : 20/20

Dr. Jared Diamond is a writer of genius. In Collapse he tackles the disappearance of societies throughout history in a great way. From the Vikings to the Maya, several civilizations disappeared in tragic conditions.

To the many newspapers that reviewed it is an excellent book on global History, Geography and many other sciences.

Collapse is a fantastic book on Sustainable Development as the causes that contribute to the fall of these civilizations could also strike again nowadays with our societies. Simply a must read to which I dedicated a laudatory review.

• The Revenge of Gaïa, by James Lovelock
  175 pages | Grade : 16/20

I finished this one recently and plan to do a complete review on this one. Lovelock is the father of the Gaïa theory.

He consider that Earth and Mankind are such in a dangerous position that nuclear energy is the only solution to enable us to operate a sustainable retreat from a full scale global heating.

Lovelock also provides a good review of the various meanings we can use to avoid the worse.

A book that I would recommend to those of you that are strongly interested by climate change and already have a good understanding of energy scarcity. The review will come with time (two weeks…)

Sci-fi books :

• A fire upon the deep, by Vernor Vinge
  800 pages | Grade : 19/20

What can be considered as the sequel, thousands year later, of A deepness in the sky (see below) as they both take place in the impressive and coherent universe created by Vinge.

Albeit the fact I read it in summer 2006, I have fond memories of this sci-fi masterpiece. It was awarded a Hugo award in 1993, a sign of quality for this genre.

Definitively a great book. If you like sci-fi, it is an essential reading I strongly recommend you.

• A deepness in the sky, by Vernor Vinge
  1,000 pages | Grade : 20/20

I really loved this impressive book and dedicated to it my Cultural break of April 2007. Another Hugo award winner (2000).

The fact I give it the maximum grade states it all. To me, Vernor Vinge is one of the best sci-fi authors.

• L’île mystérieuse by Jules Verne (The mysterious island)
  900 pages | Grade : 18/20.

A great book by the one of the best French writers of the XIXth century. I already read this sci-fi /anticipation book when I was a teen but decided to re-read as it is excellent.

The plot is simple. Five ingenious and hard-working men are cast away in a desert island. The book tells how they try to survive.

It is such a great book I dedicated to it my Cultural break of July 2007.

• Chasm City, by Alastair Reynolds
  1,000 pages | Grade : 17/20.

A sci-fi story telling the tale of a manhunt through time and space. A book I recommend too if you like the genre and particularly space operas.

Funny books :

• The color of Magic, by Terry Pratchett
  200 pages | Grade : 17/20

A very good and very funny book. The first book of the Discworld series, this book tells the adventures of Rincewind, a failed wizard are hilarious. The perfect reading for gray and rainy days.

• The light fantastic, by Terry Pratchett
  200 pages | Grade : 18/20

Even better than the previous one, The light fantastic is simply excellent book that is packed with jokes and puns that will make you laugh out loud for hours. A must read.

Astronomy and astrophotography

• Astrophotographie, by Thierry Legault
  160 pages | Grade : 18/20.

This book is considered as a must read for the wannabe astrophotographer.

From the very beginning with simple material to the top of top pictures, this book explains it all.

Comics

• The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson
  1,500 pages | 20/20.

The most renown Calvin and Hobbes was published during ten years in many US newspapers. This box set proposes you ALL comics strips.

For less than 90€, I read and laugh out loud for hours and hours thanks to the inventive stories of Calvin, a six-year old hyperactive kid and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. A real bargain

I dedicated another review to this masterpiece in March.

Related posts:

1. Some books that are waiting on my shelves
2. A cultural break – May 2007
3. A cultural break – February 2007
4. A cultural break – January 2007
5. A deepness in the sky, by Vernor Vinge

As I finished it recently I would like to talk to you about it as I really enjoyed playing it.

Bioshock has serious assets and among them are its fantastic scenario, its excellent character design as well as its great soundtrack and universe.

The story plunges you in Rapture, an underwater city that was originally built for scientists and artists of genius.

As the founder of this city, Andrew Ryan, states it :

« Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well. »

But at some point the inhabitants became violent and the situation degenerated totally. What was once a fine place with Art Deco architecture is now a nightmare full of ghosts and crazy masked freaks.

Bioshock is built on an extremely rich universe and discovering it and what happened to turn a city of geniuses in such a nightmare is a thrilling occupation for dark long nights.

The responsible for all this mess is massive overdoses of the local drug : Adam. This new medicine enables people to use Plasmids, the local power ups that make you fitter and happier.

But Plasmids can also be used to kill your opponents by frying, freezing or simply electrocuting them. (to name but a few ones)

If all these possibilities weren’t enough to hack your way through the city, you collect little by little enough weapons to build an arsenal.

From the simple revolver to the rocket launcher and from the machine gun to the crossbow, you will have plenty of means to express your disappointment regarding the views of your opponents. Meanwhile, be assured they will also use the same devastating arguments on you.

But Bioshock is not a simple First Person Shooter game, as it also has strong Role-Playing Game elements.

Indeed, you have to choose your weapons improvements, collect money to buy various ammunition or plasmids and several other things that reminds us from Fallout or Morrowind.

You will also have to make painful choices as to save the young Little Sisters or harvest their drugs by killing them.

Bioshock is also an experience. Killing a Big Daddy (the colossal characters in the enhanced diving suits) is something that can’t be described with mere words but have to done.

It took me about 20 hours to see the end of the game but everything is so well done that you don’t see the time flying. This is a game that can be replayed many times over as you will have plenty of possibilities to see the end.

From playing it with stealth or all guns blazing, you will have many different gaming experiences.

To conclude, If you are a video gamer of sort, buy this game. I am what can be described as a casual gamer and I had a great time playing it.

This game received great grades in France and elsewhere and all applauded its ambiance, the huge amounts of details that Rapture contains and so on and so forth.

I give it a 9/10 as nothing is perfect and Bioshock is no revolution but takes all the good elements of games we liked and puts them together. Best of it, it was absolutely magnificent on my now modest computer hardware.

Related posts:

1. Cultural break – September 2007
2. A cultural break – May 2007
3. A cultural break – February 2007
4. A cultural break – March 2007
5. A cultural break – June 2007

30 sites among the 851 that are part of the World Heritage are considered endangered by the UNESCO. Tourism, wars and natural phenomenons (climate change, earthquakes…) are among the causes.

This news was brought up as the UNESCO met yesterday in Paris to talk about the World Heritage.

According to the UNESCO page :

Armed conflict and war, earthquakes and other natural disasters, pollution, poaching, uncontrolled urbanization and unchecked tourist development pose major problems to World Heritage sites. Dangers can be ‘ascertained’, referring to specific and proven imminent threats, or ‘potential’, when a property is faced with threats which could have negative effects on its World Heritage values.

Under the 1972 World Heritage Convention, the World Heritage Committee can inscribe on the List of World Heritage in Danger properties whose protection requires ‘major operations (…) and for which assistance has been requested’.

Inscribing a site on the List of World Heritage in Danger allows the World Heritage Committee to allocate immediate assistance from the World Heritage Fund to the endangered property. It also alerts the international community to these situations in the hope that it can join efforts to save these endangered sites.

The listing of a site as World Heritage in Danger allows the conservation community to respond to specific preservation needs in an efficient manner. Indeed, the mere prospect of inscribing a site on this List often proves to be effective, and can incite rapid conservation action.

Inscription of a site on the List of World Heritage in Danger requires the World Heritage Committee to develop and adopt, in consultation with the State Party concerned, a programme for corrective measures, and subsequently to monitor the situation of the site. All efforts must be made to restore the site’s values in order to enable its removal from the List of World Heritage in Danger as soon as possible.

Inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger is not perceived in the same way by all parties concerned. Some countries apply for the inscription of a site to focus international attention on its problems and to obtain expert assistance in solving them. Others however, wish to avoid an inscription, which they perceive as a dishonour.

The listing of a site as World Heritage in Danger should in any case not be considered as a sanction, but as a system established to respond to specific conservation needs in an efficient manner.

If a site loses the characteristics which determined its inscription on the World Heritage List, the World Heritage Committee may decide to delete the property from both the List of World Heritage in Danger and the World Heritage List. To date, this provision of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention has never had to be applied.

If you read French, I strongly recommend you to read the article published today as it provides great insight of the situation at hand.

Saint Petersburg in Russia, the Galapagos Islands, Angkor in Cambodia and many others beautiful sites are at risk.

Sources :

• UNESCO page : World Heritage in Danger ;
• Article du Figaro :  Le SOS de l’Unesco [Fr]

Related posts:

1. The thirty most polluted places in the world
2. Nobel Peace Prize 2007 goes to the IPCC and Al Gore

I had the opportunity and pleasure to see it two weeks ago with Qat and his family. The least I can say is that we really enjoyed it.

From the very good story, to the great characters and magnificent animation techniques, Ratatouille is simply a must watch.

I have always been a Pixar fan. As a teen, I was mesmerized by Toy Story and A bug’s life. Later, Finding Nemo, Monster Inc. and the Incredibles thrilled me, but with Ratatouille comes the BEST Pixar film ever.

OK, I am French and seeing my country and Paris in an American film is a great pleasure. But the genius of this film is the atmosphere, the feeling we got when watching the scenes featuring the city.

Then, Ratatouille is an ode to cooking. I am not a great cook but just like to prepare some good food for me, my family and friends. This is totally shown there and I am sure that any person who likes to cook had the same impression as I did. Not everybody can be a great cook, but sure, everybody can cook something and raise some smiles.

If you hadn’t seen it, go to your nearest movie theater and watch it, appreciate the quality of the animation and the 3D, the story, the character design and so many elements that make that Ratatouille will stay in your mind for some time.

To finish this cultural break, I would like to propose you the trailers of the next Pixar film, which will be called Wall-E and is due for Summer 2008.

First one, released in June :

Click here to view the embedded video.

I personally am fond of the music (reminds me something, but what exactly ? If you know, please share the information)

Second trailer, brand new as released on October 1st.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. A cultural break – August 2007
2. A cultural break – June 2007
3. A cultural break – May 2007
4. A cultural break – February 2007
5. A cultural break – March 2007

Two months ago, I was reviewing Cowboy Bebop the Movie and I wrote a laudatory article on it. At the end, I was mentioning my buying of the series limited edition box set.

I had time to watch the 26 episodes and I haven’t been disappointed. The series, like the movie, contains great characters, impressive universe and a great original soundtrack. Simply jaw-breaking.

Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed and Ein are discovered progressively. Their deap personalities and personal stories are revealed throughout the series.

At the very beginning, only Spike and Jet are present, then come Ein, Faye and finally Ed, the hilarious teenage hacker.

Albeit the fact that Cowboy Bebop was released in 1998, it hasn’t aged at all. The animation techniques, the pictures, graphics and so on are still amazingly beautiful.

As an example, the surface of Mars depicted in Cowboy Bebop is just like what it looks like via the photos from the NASA…

The design, whether for the different spaceships or characters, is the best I have ever seen. This truly reinforces the quality of this anime.

The soundtrack, was created by Yoko Kanno and is just fantastic. From the beginning to the end, the music is truly and undoubtedly a huge part of the series. Fantastic jazzy tunes, endlessly…

All episodes can be watched in either Japanese or French and subtitles are also available. The DVD box set itself is wonderful and packed with bonuses.

The 26 episodes are scattered in seven DVD, to which one can add two disks with making of, comments from the creators.

On top of all are included that five booklets with original drawings, explanations about the coherent universe that was created for the series… GREAT !

The only reproach I could formulate to Cowboy Bebop is the fact there is only one season. Such a great series would have deserved two or three.

But still, a whole season (with 12 hours of episodes and 2 hours of bonuses), plus a two-hour film, plus some mangas ( which I haven’t read ), makes it already quite an impressive universe.

The success on the Japanese television was not as it should have been and many episodes were censored because of the depicted violence. This explains why there haven’t been other seasons. But the series is still a major hit.

I never have been a fan of japanimation. But with Cowboy Bebop, this is changing and I am now looking for something that could approach this. I am quite sure indeed that nothing can beat such a good stuff.

Conclusion : Cowboy Bebop is said to be one of the best animes, if not the best of all time. This is undoubtedly true and it is certain you will appreciate it. The box set with its many bonuses is a must and still can be found for less than 100 €.

Grade : 18/20

As a bonus to this cultural break, I would like to propose you a video I watched in the course of the previous weeks.

I hope you will appreciate it as much as I had…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. A cultural break – June 2007
2. A cultural break – February 2007
3. A cultural break – March 2007
4. A cultural break – May 2007
5. A cultural break – January 2007

This is done in order to allow us not to repeat the same mistakes done by the Maya, the Vikings in Greenland and many ancient civilizations that ended dramatically.

During nearly 600 pages, the author gives an impressive class on those civilizations and why they failed and died. The last part of Collapse is dedicated to how WE can avoid big problems in the very next decades. Perhaps the best book I read this year.

During most of this bestseller, the author puts a lot of emphasis on how ancient societies disappeared. The environmental issues were important but do not explain everything.

Indeed in Greenland, two societies were present. One disappeared (the Vikings) when the other (the Inuits) survived.

But Diamond also tackles extensively some ancient civilizations which ultimately succeeded in managing their problems in a right way and thus gives us hope. If New Guinea, Japan and the island of Tikopia succeeded, why couldn’t we ?

According to him, past societies faced eight issues :

(…) deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses), water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, and increased per-capita impact of people.

Page 6

to which one can add four new we are now facing too :

« human-caused climate change, buildup of toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages and full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity. »

page 7

To Diamond, even if we solved eleven of those issues, the twelfth could still consist failure and thus collapse. But most problems are intertwined, so solving one would help in solving others. As an example, afforesting can help in preventing soil and water problems.

Even if the book is quite pessimistic as it shows many powerful societies that died out, there is a lot of hope as solutions exists.

As an example, the Dominican Republic succeeded in recent history to solve its problem when Haiti failed on the same island.

Diamond works show that troubles generally arise from massive tree cutting with soil erosion and so on.

Respecting nature is respecting Mankind and thus allow us to make money now and tomorrow. Not respecting it might indeed allow businesses and people to profit in a huge way now but will mortgage our future.

If no drastic changes toward sustainability were done fast, trouble would arise or already arose. Some countries are already at risk but with globalization, they would quickly arrive at our doorstep. As Viking Greenland history showed, the people at the highest level of the ladder just earned themselves the right to be the last to die of starvation.

So, sustainability is not something for rich and well fed people but also for the poor and starving ones as if they don’t protect a minimum the scarce resources they have, they will make matters worse in the short run. Something like this happened in Rwanda and Somalia in the 1990s.

This is why people in India and in many other countries are afforesting and protecting their natural assets now (see the article of Tuesday on afforestation).

It is often said that large companies do not care about the environment and people. But it is not always the case as Dr. Diamond shows. Some large companies already moved toward sustainability on a local or global scale and thus minimized the impacts of their actions on the environment.

Those companies understood all to clearly that if they want to remain profitable in the long run they have to manage in a sustainable way the resources they are using and will use in 10 or 30 years from now.

The author has been working with both environmentalists and large companies and thus can provide insight from both.

The last two chapters provide most interesting data as it explains that we are the basis of the system and how we can act on companies and countries. South Africa stopped apartheid because of massive boycott.

Both bottom up and top down management systems are effective. This means that governments can work on a cleaner environment but we, as individuals, have to act in a sustainable way too.

Dr. Diamond also gives some hints how people like you and I can act and make a huge change on Earth and Mankind’s future.

Among these advices are voting or buying or not buying some products, two examples of bottom up solutions.

Furthermore, some arguments that are heard from sceptical people are tackled in a great way. The author thus shows the gravity of the current situation and also explains why people who think sustainable development is a luxury we can’t afford are wrong.

At the end of the book, one can find a huge further reading section as well as an index. So even when you think you have read the book, you can go further in depth in the topics that interested you. A great idea.

Conclusion :

Collapse explains in plain English the tenets of Sustainable Development and a lot much more. Just for this, I believe it should be mandatory reading in each family.

On top of that, the book is extremely interesting and extensively panoramic. It gives thousands of interesting facts on societies coming from the almost all regions of the world.

Dr. Jared Diamond’s previous book, “Guns, Germs, and Steel” won the Pulitzer Prize and I will probably read and review it. This sheer genius speaks a dozen languages, is a teacher at UCLA and provides here a great History class for a ridiculously low price.

A must read for any person interested in environment, sciences …

Grade : 20/20

Re-readability : average for chapters 1 to 9 but maximum for chapters 10 to 16. (modern societies and practical lessons)

Original English title ; Penguin Books ; 13,50 €

Available in French under the title “Effondrement : Comment les sociétés décident de leur disparition ou de leur survie” ; Gallimard Editions ; 29,50 €

Buy the original version at Amazon.com or the French one at Amazon.fr

Dr. Diamond’s pages at the Lavin Agency and at the UCLA Department of Geography.

Related posts:

1. A deepness in the sky, by Vernor Vinge
2. A cultural break – May 2007

This is about six Northerns prisoners that flee Richmond during the American Civil War. Their escape is done by balloon and brings them to an inhabited island lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The book tells the tale of how these men survive. But this book has a strong thrilling appeal as some events occur. During more than 700 pages, the heroes – and the reader as well – want to know who is the mysterious benefactor that saves lives throughout the entire story.

The mysterious Island is the final part of a ” trilogy ” begun by the books Les Enfants du Capitaine Grant (English title : In Search of the Castaways) and 20,000 leagues under the sea

All books can be read as stories by themselves, but I strongly recommended you to read all the books in the correct order to have an improved reading experience of the Mysterious Island.

Indeed, we find back in this book some characters that appeared in the two previous masterpieces of Jules Verne. The two stories are also masterpieces and are great to read and read again.

Concerning the story itself, here is a short introduction. Upon the landing on the shore of the island, one hero is missing. The way he will be found, and the way he was saved from death is odd and can’t really be explained. This is the first event that will happen.

Others weird events will follow, and each time in favour of the heroes. Some force is acting in critical moments to save people or to improve the living of the six colons.

This makes the book look a bit like a thriller as the heroes want to know who is their saviour.

Meanwhile, these men are acting in such a way that they transform an island in a kind of paradise. This is done by a lot of hard work and the ingeniousness of their leader, the ingenious engineer Cyrus Smith.

When all set foot on what will become Lincoln Island, they lack absolutely everything. No fire, no tool, no weapon. But by tremendous amounts of work, ingeniousness and yes, a lot of luck, they will succeed in living in a somewhat comfortable way. So if you plan to go to an island without anything, please, read this book before.

The transformation of the island is important and all resources available are used. This shows the way of thinking in the XIXth century. Earth is good and can satisfy to all Mankind’s needs in a ample way.

To get back on the book, it can be said it is an adventure book as the characters are entangled in situations that are thrilling and there are very few pause in the course of events.

Jules Verne was writing books for children ( the main readers at that time for his books ) and wanted to teach many subjects such as biology, geology and geography. This is very well done as all along the book, the reader learns about animals, plants, rocks and many other things. For the curious and the thirsty for knowledge, this is a major plus for Verne’s books.

Moreover, the Nantes born writer was presenting state of the art materials and tools. Electricity is thus talked about in his book 20,000 leagues under the sea, as it had been discovered only a few years before.

Nitroglycerin is widely explained and readers learn how to produce this powerful explosive as it as been created only a few years before. His anticipation on various subjects like this one or the flight to the moon make that I truly enjoyed and keep on enjoying nowadays this writer.

To get back on the story that interest us today, Cyrus Smith, the main character, is so ingenious that he foresaw the fuel cell that’s operate via oxygen and hydrogen. Indeed, when asked what would be the main energy source in the future, he describes quite well this to-be invention and it is operating. Just amazing !

Of course, other things have been better studied since and some of Verne’s ideas proved to turn out wrong. But anyhow, he is one of the most renowned writer in anticipation and science-fiction. (albeit I rather see him in the anticipation style than pure science-fiction)

The end is just action-packed and the hidden force will be explained and talked about. The surprise when reading the explanations of all the events is excitingly great…

To conclude, I give a 18 out of 20 to this marvellous book and strongly recommend its reading to the curious mind or to somebody who wants to be thrilled in an original way.

Once again, be sure you read the two books above mentioned to get the full experience and enjoy even more the experience.

On a personal note, I went last year to the Jules Verne Museum, in Nantes, France, where the author was born and spent a large part of his life. The image in the introduction is a photo I took during my visit to this museum and represents the author.

I am waiting forward to read your comments on this book.

Related stuff :

The website of the Musée Jules Verne in Nantes, France.

Related posts:

1. A cultural break – May 2007
2. Some books that are waiting on my shelves
3. A cultural break – January 2007
4. New tab in the navigation bar
5. A cultural break – February 2007

The Live Earth concerts, which will be held tomorrow around the world (in New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Hamburg, Tokyo and Sidney) are due to “ trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.”

In order to achieve this goal, a large audience will be given to these concerts and two billions people are expected to listen or watch these concerts. Around the world, artists like The Police, Katie Melua or Roger Waters from the Pink Floyd and nearly a hundred others will also participate.

Below is the official press article.

Live Earth will reach this worldwide audience through an unprecedented global media architecture covering all media platforms – TV, radio, Internet and wireless channels.

Live Earth marks the beginning of a multi-year campaign led by the Alliance for Climate Protection, The Climate Group and other international organizations to drive individuals, corporations and governments to take action to solve global warming. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is the Chair of the Alliance and Partner of Live Earth.

Live Earth was founded by Kevin Wall, the Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8, an event that brought together one of the largest audiences in history to combat poverty. Wall formed a partnership with Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection to ensure that Live Earth inspires behavioral changes long after 7/7/07.

Live Earth will stage official concerts at Giants Stadium in New York; Wembley Stadium in London; Aussie Stadium in Sydney; Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro; the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg; Makuhari Messe in Tokyo; the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai; and HSH Nordbank Arena in Hamburg.

Live Earth concerts will be broadcast to a live worldwide audience by MSN at www.LiveEarth.MSN.com.

With support from the U.S. Green Building Council, creators of the LEED Green Building Rating System, Live Earth will implement new Green Event Guidelines. All Live Earth venues will be designed and constructed by a team of sustainability engineers who will address the environmental and energy management challenges of each concert site, as well as the operations of sponsors, partners and other Live Earth affiliates. Each venue will not only be designed to maintain a minimum environmental impact, but will showcase the latest state-of-the-art energy efficiency, on-site power generation, and sustainable facilities management practices.

Live Earth is a project of the SOS campaign , which is using a powerful multimedia platform – films, television, radio, Internet, books, wireless and others – to move people to combat the climate crisis.

Source : www.liveearth.org/event.php

This communication campaign also proposes many solutions to climate change that each of us can put into application. These concerts are due to be the first stepping stone of the communication campaign, which will hopefully lead to global mass awareness on climate change.

Enjoy your weekend and if you watch these concerts, enjoy !

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As the eponymous animated series, Cowboy Bebop the movie tells the tale of bounty hunters in 2071. This time, the four heroes are looking for a bio-terrorist that blew up a truck, releasing a deadly poison and killing dozens.

The scenario is quite classical, however I truly enjoyed this film for its characters full of charisma, the wonderful jazzy soundtrack, the coherent background, the excellent humour and so on.

The story takes place in 2071 on Mars. In the XXIst century, Mankind left its home planet after a large accident that partly destroyed the moon. People thus begun the conquest of the planets next door such as Mars, Venus or else. The Wikipedia article will give you much more details on the background of the anime and film.

The characters are quite impressive. For example, Spike Spiegel, the hero, dresses in a quite old fashioned yet very stylish way. He practices Jeet Kun Do, the martial art once created by Bruce Lee.

As a Bruce Lee fan, I could only notice that this impressive way of fighting was used.

The other heroes of the anime include Jet, a former police officer ; Faye, a charming young lady and Ed a young hacker with talent and a silly behaviour.

The soundtrack is absolutely great with its jazzy tunes and serves perfectly the different scenes. If like me you appreciate this kind of sound, you will be really thrilled by the movie. The titles are simply great and I consider the soundtrack an important plus of this film. The same movie without such a great music wouln’t be as good as it is.

The beginning of the film really will make you want to watch what’s next. This scene, albeit quite simple contains everything that makes me appreciate the whole two hours.

Some thugs are robbing a shop (the main bad guy is just too idiotic and funny), when two bounty hunters, Spike and his friend Jet, enter the place in order to fight and neutralize the thieves. This is done with style and humour. And then, the movie titles begin… just FAN-TAS-TIC !

To conclude, this film really makes me want to buy the anime series. These series are rumoured to be one of the bests in Japanimation. I strongly recommend people liking action films to watch Cowboy Bebop the movie and will conclude by some words that some fan wrote on imdb.com :

I’ll start off by saying that I’m a huge fan of Cowboy Bebop. No other anime has characters that are as real and deep, yet fantastic and archetypical as this series. Every episode in the series manages to be visually stunning and/or humorous and uplifting while at the ame time being beautiful and poetic all in a twenty-minute timeframe. So its hard not to judge Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door under the same light or along the same lines as the series.

That said, the movie is very cool and very enjoyable (…)

The Internet Movie DataBase notes this film 7,6/10 a very good grade.

Personally I give this film 19 out of 20 and think it is typically something that can be watched after a hard day’s work in order to bring the smile back on faces and that can be watched again and again.

Buy this film on Amazon.com or Amazon.fr

Related posts:

1. A cultural break – February 2007
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3. A cultural break – May 2007
4. A cultural break – January 2007
5. After a week-long break…

Cet ouvrage, intitulé “Le plein s’il vous plaît” fut écrit par Jean-Marc Jancovici et Alain Grandjean et fut publié en février 2006 aux Editions du Seuil.

En moins de 200 pages, cet ouvrage donne les bases sur ces deux sujets, ce qui n’est pas rien. Mais il donne aussi et surtout une solution intelligente et pragmatique aux deux problèmes majeurs de notre temps.

Après une introduction fort intéressante qui résume la situation sur les deux fronts qui nous intéresse ici, arrive une première conclusion qui choquera bon nombre de lecteurs. Nous sommes littéralement drogués à l’énergie. Cette même énergie dont le prix est infiniment sous-évalué par rapport à tous les services qu’elle nous rend quotidiennement.

En effet, le prix de l’énergie tirée d’un simple litre de pétrole est mille fois moins cher que celle tirée d’une personne occidentale payée au salaire minimum. Cette énergie à si bas prix nous a permis ces dernières décennies de nous payer des voitures toujours plus puissantes, des logements toujours plus grands, des voyages toujours plus lointains.

Ceci nous a aussi permis de vivre dans une opulence jamais vue auparavant dans l’Histoire, dans des conditions sanitaires et avec une espérance de vie inimaginable il y a juste un siècle.

Or, le pétrole, la principale source d’énergie au niveau mondial, arrivera bientôt au point ou il coutera de plus en plus cher, ce sera le fameux pic pétrolier ( ou peak oil, pour les anglophones ). Puis viendra le pic de production gazier, puis plus tard celui du charbon.

Car, l’une des règles de bases de l’Economie, c’est la loi de l’offre et de la demande. Quand la demande continue d’augmenter ( comme elle l’a toujours fait pour le pétrole depuis près de deux siècles ) et qu’en même temps l’offre diminue, les prix augmentent rapidement. Selon les auteurs – et diverses autres sources telles que BP – ce moment devrait arriver d’ici dix ou quinze ans.

Une seule solution : taxer progressivement les énergies incriminées.

Pour résoudre ce problème et pour s’affranchir du futur changement climatique, qui si rien n’était fait pourrait mettre en danger nos modes de vies actuels, les auteurs proposent de taxer progressivement les énergies fossiles ( pétrole, charbon et gaz ).

Une augmentation chaque année de six à huit pour cent en termes réels chaque année des prix des énergies fossiles permettraient selon eux de nous en passer petit à petit.

Ces taxes concerneraient tout le monde, particuliers comme entreprises, pauvres comme riches. Selon les auteurs, cela permettrait d’inciter nos sociétés à diminuer assez rapidement mais surtout définitivement nos émissions de gaz à effet de serre tout en baissant notre dépendance vis à vis des énergies fossiles que nous importons en très large majorité.

Les bénéfices de ces taxes permettraient d’aider les plus pauvres à se préparer à la société de l’énergie chère en favorisant l’isolation des logements et autres investissements vertueux. Ces taxes permettraient aussi la recherche de moyens plus performants du point énergétique… tout en préparant activement la société de demain.

Avec cette solution, la France (et in extenso tout pays qui prendrait le chemin de taxer progressivement les énergies fossiles) atteindrait à terme une société future moins dépendante de ces énergies (et donc moins frappée par les futurs chocs pétroliers et gaziers ) mais aussi beaucoup plus vertueuse d’un point de vue écologique.

Cette taxe sur l’énergie aurait pour bénéfice de protéger les plus pauvres du fait qu’ils seraient incités bien avant le moment fatidique à se détourner de la consommation actuelle massive de pétrole et gaz naturel. Car même une personne « modeste » consomme d’un point de vue climatique trop de pétrole et rejette bien trop de gaz à effet de serre.

Toute les autres solution, comme par exemple les droits d’émissions, ont plus de défauts que d’avantages. Selon les auteurs, seule la taxe nous permettrait d’aller vite et fort dans le sens d’une diminution pérenne et à grande ampleur de nos consommations de pétrole, de gaz et de charbon.

Pour Jancovici et Legrand, le réchauffement global comme la future crise pétrolière ont de grands potentiels destructeurs, que ce soit au niveau économique ou démocratique. Ils soutiennent que de tels évènements pourraient mettre en danger nos modes de vies et même la pérennité de nos sociétés démocratiques.

La crise de 1929 ayant participé à la préparation de la seconde Guerre Mondiale, il est probable selon Jancovici et Legrand qu’une crise énergétique et/ou climatique pousse la population mondiale vers la famine et vers la guerre.

En augmentant très légèrement les prix années après années, les ménages comme les entreprises seraient amenées à diminuer de façon régulière leur consommation en choisissant petit à petit des solutions plus écologiquement raisonnables et nécessitant de moins en moins de pétrole et de gaz.

Les entreprises perdraient certes au départ un peu de compétitivité. Mais si elles jouaient le jeu de diminuer leurs consommations d’énergies fossiles, elles ne souffriraient que peu de ces taxes additionnelles. Et surtout, elles auraient le moment venu un avantage énorme sur leurs concurrents qui n’auraient pas diminué leur consommation de ces énergies.

Les peuples seraient donc moins touchés plus tard par l’explosion des prix du pétrole et du gaz qui arriveraient à doubler voire tripler les prix en une année et ceci pour de bon.

Car toute l’opulence actuelle risque fort malheureusement de finir de façon abrupte si rien n’était fait pour changer radicalement de mode de vie dans un laps de temps assez court.

L’Humanité doit ainsi diviser par un minimum de deux les émissions globales de gaz à effet de serre d’ici 2050 si elle veut éviter une crise climatique plus que dangereuse mais aussi la crise de l’énergie qui se rapproche inexorablement.

Les solutions possibles : de nombreuses idées reçues balayées.

Selon les auteurs, les énergies renouvelables seules ne peuvent pas représenter la solution ultime à tous nos problèmes. En effet, augmenter le nombre de chauffe-eau solaires, d’éoliennes et autres systèmes de géothermie sans diminuer la consommation totale d’énergie ne servirait à rien, que ce soit pour la crise énergétique ou la climatique.

De même qu’augmenter massivement le nombre de réacteurs nucléaires sans travailler sur l’efficacité énergétique n’aurait aucun sens.

Dans le même ordre d’idée, l’hydrogène n’est pas une solution du fait qu’il faudrait la produire, la production demandant elle aussi de grandes quantités d’énergie.

Un monde fini avec une consommation d’énergie, de matières premières ou autre qui croit de façon exponentielle comme c’est le cas aujourd’hui arrivera tôt ou tard – et même plutôt tôt que tard – à une fin.

La question est de savoir si on veut être proactifs et ainsi minimiser les conséquences ou si on continue comme si de rien était en attendant le moment fatidique.

La technologie nous sauvera-t’elle ?

Certains d’entre vous pourraient penser que la technologie nous sauvera de tous ces impairs. Ce n’est malheureusement pas le cas comme l’explique si bien les auteurs. En effet, depuis les années 1950, les voitures, avions, réfrigérateurs et autres produits électroménagers n’ont jamais aussi été économes en énergie.

Cependant, le nombre d’unités vendues à lui aussi explosé, faisant pour l’occasion voler en éclats les gains dus à l’efficacité énergétique accrue.

L’idée de la taxe est d’accompagner le changement de société et de le faire de façon douce maintenant, plutôt que de le subir plus tard ( d’ici une quinzaine d’années si l’on parle de pétrole, peut-être moins ) et ceci de façon massive.

Car un choc pétrolier, comme ceux de 1974 et 79 ont fait doubler voire tripler les prix du pétrole en un an. Ces prix avaient baissé à l’époque. Mais rien ne permet de croire les prix baisseront lors du pic de production, notamment à cause de la loi de l’offre et de la demande.

Les pics pétroliers des années 1970 avaient fait augmenter le chômage et la pauvreté dans les pays touchés quelques années après. Comme la crise future sera plus massive que les précédentes, il est certain selon les auteurs que si rien n’était fait nous allons au devant de très gros problèmes.

Pour conclure sur ce brillant ouvrage, je dois dire que je le lisais pour la deuxième fois avec le meme intérêt que lors de ma première lecture l’année dernière.

Les auteurs proposent un travail très bien documenté avec quantité de chiffres et preuves. La solution qu’ils proposent est réaliste et surtout réalisable si une réelle volonté politique et sociale émergeait assez rapidement.

Si à la lecture de cet article vous aviez des questions ou des doutes, je vous recommande de lire ce livre. Après l’avoir lu, je suis persuadé que les auteurs sont dans le vrai.

Vous l’aurez compris, “Le plein s’il vous plaît” est bien le livre qu’il faut lire quand on s’intéresse un tant soit peu à l’avenir de l’Humanité et à la résolution des deux problèmes majeurs que le futur proche nous réserve, à savoir le changement climatique et la crise énergétique.

Vous le trouverez chez votre libraire pour 6 € dans la version poche et 17 € dans la version brochée.

A noter pour celles et ceux qui veulent en savoir plus sur le réchauffement climatique que l’un des auteurs, Jean-Marc Jancovici, a écrit deux autres livres : “L’Effet de serre : Allons-nous changer le climat ?” co-écrit avec Hervé Le Treut et “L’Avenir climatique : Quel temps ferons-nous ? “.

J’ai lu ces deux ouvrages et je vous les recommande chaudement, tout comme le site www.manicore.com qui est tenu par Jancovici lui-même et qui propose quantité d’articles tous plus intéressants que les autres.

(Edité le 2 juillet pour corrections mineures)

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Voyage dans l’infini was written by Serge Brunier and is about a very good idea as it shows different photographs of the same region of space but with different enlargements. This book thus gives for each 12 scenes four photos.

Roughly, the first one is done in order to show what you could see with your eyes, the second gives an idea of what you could get with binoculars, the third with a professional telescope, and the last one is generally taken by Hubble or via a gigantic telescope.

This is to link what we, simple people, see when we look at the sky in the deepest of the night to what astronomers watch through the lens of their imposing telescopes or via Hubble.

This book proposes very interesting, and yet poetic foreword and texts. These pages are a succession of large figures that make us, mere Human, very very tiny compared to a simple galaxy.

Mr Brunier knows his astronomy perfectly and pushes the reader to learn out more as his texts are simply brilliantly written and very interesting.

This book is not (yet) translated in English. But Mr. Brunier wrote several books, including some that has been translated in English.

To learn out more, please check this Amazon.com page. | Serge Brunier’s homepage

29.95 € | Buy this book at Amazon.fr | Official page of the Editor

To keep on the Astronomy domain, I would like to mention that I added two links on the sidebar pertaining to this science.

The first one is probably in your bookmarks if you are interested in stars, galaxies and other nebulae. The Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is a page of the NASA that provides as the name states a magnificent photo / video of space everyday.

Most pictures are of mesmerizing beauty and I strongly recommend it if you have any interest to this particular science. An interesting feature of this website are the explanations for each single image published. This is indeed excellent for somebody who wants to learn out more.

The second link I propose you is the personal homepage of Thierry Legault, an amateur astrophotographer of genius. Mr. Legault has been photographing the sky for years and his website provides absolutely great pictures.

He recently wrote a book on Astrophotography and how to begin in that very particular branch of Photography. As I am interested by both Photography and Astronomy, I off course bought the book but had no time yet to read it. I will probably review it here one day.

Related posts:

1. A cultural break – January 2007
2. A cultural break – February 2007
3. A cultural break – March 2007
4. After a week-long break…