The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.
Humans are strange and domineering creatures. In some ways, we are far more advanced than any other creature on the planet. In others, we are perhaps far more primitive. However, there is no question about our influence. Whether it be the extensive impact of global warming, our vast and sprawling populous, or simply the fact that there are 18,710 different locations of McDonald’s on every continent except Antarctica, the visibility of our impact cannot be ignored.
In The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green, a former book reviewer, sets out to review various elements of the anthropocene, or the current geologic age in which humans exist. This collection of essays, rated on a five-star scale, are on topics ranging from plague, to the internet, to monopoly. These essays are funny, insightful, detailed, and intricate. Above all, these writings seek to understand our human-centric earth, explore the paradox of humanity, and find the earnestness within it. As Green put it, “you cannot see the beauty which is enough unless you make yourself vulnerable to it.”
This book is filled with quotes and insights that are original, thoughtful, and collective. But one of my favorites proceeds the knowledge that humans, however much we like to separate ourselves from our planet, are made of the same atoms and the same chemical elements as the Earth. In a sense, we are Earth. And so, simply and beautifully, the author surmises, “What a blessing to be Earth loving Earth.”
What a blessing, indeed.
