We are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer

Undoubtedly, you have seen much coverage about Greta Thunberg and the millions participating in the climate change protests (here are images from those events in publications as diverse as The Guardian and Teen Vogue). There’s been increased coverage on various aspects such as some concerning statistics and charts and the UN Climate Action Summit 2019, too.

Another way to gather more knowledgeable related to this topic is to read the newly published WE ARE THE WEATHER by Jonathan Safran Foer.  Building on his earlier best-selling work, Eating Animals, Foer now shares essays related to how “Saving the Planet begins at Breakfast.”  He divides the short pieces into five sections, and early on he writes about WWII when “ordinary people joined together to support the greater cause” and encourages his readers to take action beyond recycling and changing their driving habits. Overall, his message deals with the ability of individuals to reduce their carbon footprint by eating less meat, but it is often a rambling musing about the situation. As Foer himself writes, “this is a book about the impacts of animal agriculture on the environment. Yet I have managed to conceal that for the previous sixty-three pages.” However, his book will be worth a look from those who are exploring impactful personal action in the face of government apathy. There is no index to help researchers, but the text does include an appendix, notes and an extensive bibliography; WE ARE THE WEATHER received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.  

Foer’s new book is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a division of Macmillan – the publisher who recently announced a policy intent on limiting library access to eBooks.  If you are interested in learning more about Macmillan’s restrictions and public libraries’ efforts to provide #eBooksForAll, check out the American Library Association website. The public petition there already has over 34,000 signatures.

Two new books dealing with intelligence ....

Visual Intelligence by art historian Amy E. Herman has an intriguing subtitle: “Sharpen your Perception, Change your Life.” She builds on her Art of Perception seminar and reviews research which suggests, for example, that taking a brief mental break every 20 minutes actually helps with focus and attention and that relaxing for 10 minutes (going for a walk, doing yoga or something else fun) for every 90 minutes worked is also beneficial.  Herman extols the virtues of quiet places as being less distracting  and offers mnemonics like COBRA (Camouflage, One thing, Break, Realign expectations and Ask someone else). Throughout Visual Intelligence, she provides everyday examples and encourages readers to deeply investigate pieces of art in order to build skills associated with empathy and observation.  The following link leads to her lesson on "How Art can Help you Analyze." Herman also points out how “we often miss the unexpected because we’re too focused on what we think should be there.”  

Frans de Waal would undoubtedly agree with many of Herman's findings and apply them to the study of animals. De Waal's new book, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, is a fascinating look at human perception of intelligence and how animals deal with their worlds. This new and entertaining text has been the subject of numerous articles such as “What I Learned from Tickling Apes” (New York Times), “Can Squirrels Count?” (Washington Post) and “What People Can Learn from How Animals Think” (The Atlantic). A professor of psychology at Emory University, de Waal draws on years of experience and offers both new research and a penetrating look at the history of human attitudes towards animal intelligence. Examples abound whether about face recognition (studied in primates, sheep and certain wasps) or tool use (by crows, primates and otters) and various forms of animal communication. 

He says, “There are many ways to process, organize and spread information, and it is only recently that science has become open-minded enough to treat all these different methods with wonder and amazement….”  De Waal’s work contains copious notes and an extensive bibliography.  And de Waal’s Ted Talk on the Moral Behavior of Animals has drawn over 3 million views:

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 Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? received starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.