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This book, or pamphlet, is a sincere call to tackle climate change and population growth. Its message is essential but could be gleaned from an evening spent in a pub talking to a smart person with a smartphone. In an opening "fable", a father in 2050 explains to his son what has been lost since he was a child, but lacks the poetical sensibility to make that lost world sing. There are some interesting details: wooden bicycles; car-free motorways full of cyclists; the move from global to community-based society. It's Cormac McCarthy's The Road written by Maeve Binchy. There follows a useful compendium of various reports that all point to catastrophe. Its length precludes detailed argument, and it reads like an extended letter to The Irish Times (of which two are included). Although heartfelt, it lacks an inspiring authorial voice.
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