The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

Nevermore Notes were not available this week.  Instead, we offer Kristin's review.

Reviewed by Kristin

It seems strange to be reviewing a book of reviews, but John Green has much to say on a few dozen topics ranging over the “Anthropocene,” (a term for the current geological age, usually thought to begin with the Industrial Revolution as humans began to have a larger impact upon the planet.) Rating each subject on a five star scale, he goes from deeply researched articles to deeply personal thoughts.

Green’s writing project started as a podcast, as he began examining the contradiction of human power.

“We are at once far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough. We are powerful enough to radically reshape Earth’s climate and biodiversity, but not powerful enough to choose how we reshape them. We are so powerful that we have escaped our planet’s atmosphere. But we are not powerful enough to save those we love from suffering.”

Faced with the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 in early 2020, Green began to write in earnest as he shared his thoughts on a multitude of human inventions, human discoveries, and human deficiencies. Brutally honest about his sometimes debilitating anxiety and depression, Green shows us what it is like to live in the modern world as a thinker, but one aware of his own abilities and limitations.

Green takes on a variety of subjects. From examining the creation of the modern self-serve grocery store (Piggly Wiggly) to the eons long practice of tracing our own hands as an art form (part of the Lascaux cave paintings,) Green gathers his own insightful and sometimes funny musings as part of this essay collection. The Indianapolis 500 and Super Mario Kart make appearances too, as well as the invention of air conditioning (Thank you, Willis Carrier!)

Canadian geese, Hiroyuki Doi’s circle art, velociraptors, the internet, diet Dr Pepper, scratch ‘n’ sniff stickers, staphylococcus aureus:  Green has star rating for all of these, and a thoughtful reasoning behind all the scores. He even gives the “wintry mix” weather of Indianapolis 4 stars. It’s not all about the weather, but sometimes who you are beside as you drive through the cold and slippery precipitation to a poetry reading.

Green is better known as the author of several young adult fiction books, including The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down. He and his brother Hank also created a YouTube video series called Crash Course, covering subjects like World History, Chemistry, English Literature, World Mythology, Physics, and so many more. With humor and speed-talking, the Green brothers tackle academic subjects and summarize them well. Personally, I can vouch for Crash Course as excellent supplementary material for homeschooling a teenager.

I give The Anthropocene Reviewed four and a half stars.