The 2084 Report

Dr. Powell brings the experience and understanding of a scientist to this speculative account of what is to come for many of us over the next several decades of global climate change. This work is frightening, at times terrifying, and acutely necessary if we are to organize and actually do something, anything at all, to avert the disaster that our future is shaping up to become. "The 2084 Report" is similar in urgency to "The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future" published in 2014 by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, though that novella stretched even farther into our collective future to paint a dire picture of the long-lost past. Dr. Powell's effort is more personal and pointed, laying clear who is to blame for what we of the waning Industrial Age and era of fossil fuels have unleashed on future generations. Much of Dr. Powell's narrative is based on common, relatively linear extrapolations from current trends that have become more apparent since 2000: species extinctions, rising sea levels, stronger storms, flood and drought extremes, climate-driven human migration, shifting agricultural zones, resource conflicts (especially over water sources), and all-out war. Some of the details seemed fanciful at first glance, but then I thought of how 2020 is going so far, and everything in "The 2084 Report" was suddenly well within reach. I hope things don't turn out this way, and that's a compliment to Dr. Powell's work—he's done the homework to make it personal, to bring it into people's living rooms and kitchens, and we need to pay attention.

This was grim, scary and depressing AF and thank heavens it is a apocalyptic predictive fiction about the future of the planet, but it does and should scare everyone who reads it into action. Our current generation is already seeing effects of climate change from past generations and future generations have to live with a vastly changing Earth. I liked how the chapters were divided into different disasters and different sub-chapters delving deeper into catastrophe. The author obviously did a lot of research and you can tell he cares about climatology and a call to global action.

This is brief read, less than 250 pages, it was 224. I was able to read this in a few days. This is a work of fiction but left me with a sense of dread and doom just like the nonfiction book, Uninhabitable Earth. I think these are both important pieces of writing and we as a plant. human-race need to work together to make some real changes for future generations, to hold off the doom a little longer. This will stay with for a long time and a must read.

Thanks to Netgalley, James Lawrence Powell and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 9/1/20