New book from Rap Girl Hope Jarren!
How has our lifestyle of eating and consuming shaped the Earth over the past 50 years?
A female botanist shares her story about life, the planet, and abundance.

"I Was Rich, and the Earth Was Different," which arrived at our timely conclusion, is a book about the threats and fears we must face, but it is also a story about the abundant life we ​​have enjoyed and can enjoy before that.
As the original title, 'The Story of More', suggests, this book is a story about the serious problems created by our lifestyle of consuming more and faster, but it is also a story about a safer and more convenient life, and a more abundant life that more people can enjoy.
How can we avoid compromising the sustainability of the Earth's environment without giving up what we cannot? Hope Jahren seeks to answer this question.

Hope Jahren chose her own life as the main material to talk about the changes in the Earth.
The author, who brilliantly portrayed the present-day life of a female scientist in "Rap Girl," now elegantly weaves together scientific facts, history, and her own life to reveal the connection between the way we live and the planet we endanger because of it.
Grounded in solid facts and figures, yet infused with warm humor, the book invites readers to a new understanding—a new way of thinking about a future where everyone can thrive.

All of this convinced me that now was the time to get out of the classroom and talk about global environmental change through this book.
Not because I am a scientist who thinks I am right, but because I am a writer with a fair love of language and numbers, and a teacher with a story to tell.
So, if you'll listen, I'll tell you what happened in my world, in your world, in this world that we all belong to.
This world has changed.

--- pp.23~24

If we examine the positions that argue that strong antipathy to overpopulation alone is not enough to stop population growth, we can discover a pattern.
One thing that the great thinkers mentioned above never considered was the correlation between a woman's status in society and the average number of children she bears in her lifetime.

Seven of the ten countries with the smallest gaps between men and women in health, opportunity, and social participation are also among the highest-income countries in the world.
Conversely, the six countries with the largest gender gaps are among the lowest-income countries.
It is unclear whether wealth ensures women's health, opportunities, and social participation, or whether these factors make wealth possible.
It's probably a combination of both.

What is clear is that women in societies with a small gender gap have only about half the number of children as women in societies with a large gender gap.
The number of children per woman in 'high-gap' countries is close to four, while in 'low-gap' countries it is less than two.
It can be understood that the most effective and sustainable mechanism for curbing population growth is related to the abolition of gender inequality.
--- p.29

Nevertheless, being poor on this planet does not mean a death sentence as it once did.
Over the past 25 years, even in the world's poorest countries, access to clean water has increased by 30 percent, and access to better sanitation has doubled.
Over the past 30 years, vaccination rates in the same area have doubled, and access to preconception care has increased by more than 30 percent.
As a result, the approximate mortality rate in poor countries has now fallen by about half since I was born in 1969, bringing it closer to that of wealthier countries, as I mentioned earlier.
We still have a long way to go when it comes to deaths during childbirth, but we're on the right track.

--- p.38

Most people I've had dinner with over the past 20 years haven't said they were disgusted by slaughter and slaughterhouses, but they have said they feel sorry for them.

Embarrassed and a little defensive by that reaction, I tried to convince myself with all my knowledge that in my hometown, pig slaughter takes place in a pretty nice, clean place full of ordinary people, or at least a benevolent place.
He explained how Temple Grandin helped design a facility that would allow pigs to cross the Jordan River at a rate of one every five seconds while minimizing trauma to the workers.
People were told that the pigs, moving in long, winding lines (like we do at airports), were unaware of the glorious ascension that was coming to them.
You'll find yourself walking into pig heaven long before you even realize what's happening.

--- p.69

More importantly, the global workforce to maintain and operate railways has been drastically reduced.
Over the past 20 years, one in four railway jobs worldwide has been lost, most of it through privatization.
The U.S. rail system, which has never experienced a robust passenger rail system except for the lines between New York and Washington, is in marked decline, with one in seven rail jobs lost since 1991.
The situation in Britain is even worse, with one in three railway jobs lost over the same period.
Spain has virtually decimated its rail system over the past 30 years, losing four out of five rail jobs.
Although the quality of the national railway deteriorated, its use increased.
Since 1991, passenger numbers and distance travelled have increased by more than 20 percent in the United States, 70 percent in Spain, and double in the United Kingdom.
This change had nothing to do with user convenience.

--- pp.131~132

Simply put, carbon dioxide molecules have a unique structure that allows them to take away and absorb heat.
If you add a little carbon dioxide to the air in the grow room and let the sunlight shine in, the temperature will rise much more than if you did not add extra carbon dioxide.
This simple fact has been written in chemistry textbooks for over a hundred years, but it took me six months of seeing it with my own eyes to truly understand it.
How slowly does the whetstone that sharpens the human mind turn?
Scientists have been trying to inform politicians about this problem for over 100 years so they can prepare for it.
Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius warned in 1896 that burning fossil fuels would cause global warming.
Since then, the amount of carbon dioxide filling the atmosphere has increased by about a third.
Then, wouldn't the Earth become hotter?
It was both yes and no.
But in most cases, it was like that.

--- p.181

Ice is supposed to melt when the temperature rises above 0 degrees Celsius.
This is probably one of the first science experiments we do as children.
As a baby, you too may have looked at your mother's water cup and wondered about the shiny square object inside.
If your mom took out a few ice cubes and put them in your little hands, you'd probably be fascinated by the glassy solid and the moisture it leaves behind as it melted.
As the spring of 1976 arrived, it was time to say goodbye to Covington.
I might think of a powerful scene in a children's book, when I, six years old, discovered Covington had been reduced to a puddle of water one April morning, and cried my eyes out, my tears adding to the remains of the transformation.
But the reality was not like that.
Winter has passed and, as always, the whole world has become warmer.
All the ice melted, and by May 1st, Labor Day, I had a real, living friend named Jennifer.
To be honest, I don't even remember being sad when Covington disappeared.
Long before studying the water cycle, perhaps Covington instinctively knew that when all the ice melted, he would head to the vast, welcoming embrace of the ocean.

--- p.200

Global records of carbon dioxide, temperature, ice cover, and sea level rise are a vast body of data derived from simple measurements, clearly showing trends over the past two decades.
In addition, a new script has also appeared.
Every time I turn on my computer, I'm bombarded with stories about climate change denial, many of them thoughtless and unpolished.
Meanwhile, clicking on the numerous links that appear on the computer also reveals the hypocrisy and exaggeration of those who are unnecessarily alarmist about climate change.

We're divided into two camps, provoking our opponents across the internet, as if the atmosphere cares what we think, as if shouting makes water return to the ice, as if winning an argument is an achievement in itself.
America has become an unhappy couple.
A couple who are so scared that they can't even see any change and end up fighting about the dishes and laundry.

--- p.209

Fish are not officially counted until their detailed anatomical characteristics have been established.
After determining whether this species has been observed before, and if it is new, determine which other species it is most closely related to.
The lab houses a large collection of fish, all of which are placed in ethanol solutions, waiting for their turn, creating a truly bizarre sight.
Rows of white plastic containers, each as tall as my shoulder, line every wall, from the lab to the hallway to the balcony.
Each can lid has a handle that, when lifted, reveals more than forty fishing lines, each with a dead fish hanging from its end.
Given these circumstances, I wouldn't have been particularly surprised if I had seen a fish floating in the coffee cup the woman guiding the tour held up.

--- p.213

The good news is that there's no reason to think that saving energy necessarily lowers our quality of life.
In 1965, life expectancy in Switzerland was roughly the same as in the United States today and higher than the global average.
There were fewer working days and the commute was shorter.
Life wasn't perfect back then, but we had the basics of a healthy life while using far fewer fossil fuels.

--- p.229