The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated Third Edition: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late

by Thom Hartmann

Book Overview

While everything appears to be collapsing around us - ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars - we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's feature documentary movie The Eleventh Hour and soon to be released HBO special Ice on Fire, Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400051576
• ISBN13: 9781400051571
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Harmony
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Best book on global warming and its consequences

As I was researching global warming for my novel, The Remembering, A Novel of Karma and Global Peril, I read five books on the subject. By far, Harmann's was the most thoughtful and helpful, especially his discussion of how "ancient sunlight" -- oil and other fossil fuels -- engendered the industrial revolution and an unsustainable expansion of human population since the 1880's. Especially useful was his projection of how the human race will fare when oil supplies dwindle during this century along with mass population displacements. There are certain ignore-ant politicians who would benefit from this information and its visionary suggestions on how we might correct our shortsighted errors before it's too late. John Nelson MD, author The Remembering, Healing the Split, Sacred Sorrows.

One of the most important books of our time

Thom Hartmann's "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" is extremely important and cogent, and needs to be read and absorbed by many to ensure the possibility of a future for the human race and all other life on Earth. Divided into three main parts, this book explains in detail where we are, how and why we got here, and what we can do for a brighter future. Very practical, well-researched, comprehensive. I am not aware of a better book on the issues, especially since it not only sets out the realities of our situation (dependence on dwindling oil and clean-water supplies, destruction of forests and plant/animal species, unsustainable population growth, frequent wars, third-world and first-world impoverishment, etc.), but also explains why, fundamentally, human civilization has gotten us into this mess (tracing the causes back thousands of years to the basis of civilization and comparing the recent city-state or nation-state lifestyle to that of the much older tribe), and what we can possibly do to change our course and save our children and their children and the planet they will inherit.I would give a more detailed or articulate description, but I lent my copy out the day I finished reading it, and several people are already waiting in line to borrow it. If there is a book to buy multiple copies of and give away, this is the best one I have found. Do not let it sit on the bookshelf indefinitely - after you read it, pass it around, from one person to another, making sure it never stays the same place, unread, for long. If you must keep a copy for your own reference, at least buy a second one to pass around to your friends.

An Outstanding, Important Book

Thom Hartman has written a very important book, full of insights, ideas and historical perspective on the fate of the human race upon this earth. He caught me right from the beginning with the "in your face" statement about what has happened in the last 24 hours on earth. 200,000 acres of rainforest have been destroyed, 45,000 people starved to death, 130 species have become extinct, the largest mass extinction since the dinosaurs vanished. That hit me like a ton of bricks. But the book is not just an alarmists call towards conservation. It deals with food supplies, water supplies and population growth. The book explains how the earth's population is stressing the resources. How our advancements have caused different problems. Such as antibiotics and our misuse creating different strains that resist our antibiotics. It discusses religion, meditation, foreign country's ideas, topsoil loss, tribes versus city-states. The importance of trees and the detriments of fertilizer. The effects of global warming. How big business effects government. The list is endless. The harm is obvious and the ideas to presented could be helpfull. This is a great book that should be read by every adult. Information is the key to survival. This book is full of information.

Twin Towering Truth! Wake Up Call!

This is a most intelligently comprehensive reading reflecting the imminent dangers facing our blue planet if humankind does not come to grips with some of its benign appearing but destructive policies or lack of. All of the following reviews for this book are very helpful. Once we realize how historically great civilizations have declined repeating history as brilliantly presented by author Thom Hartmann, and join him in strategies covered throughout the book how we PERSONALLY can contribute and avert this planetary disaster. It was eerie to have been recommended this book by a dear friend this month, to have read it and halfway through to have witnessed the attack on America on September 11, 2001, a tragically fitting symbol of world trade as reflecting the critical mass we are facing. Without doubt, all the world is profoundly affected by this and shall begin to seek answers. If people are non-comprehending this tragedy, this book offers plenty of insight into the heart of the matter. Plus, it offers the means of Hope by offering sound solutions we can readily adopt as well as convince our world leaders to see that this is more than just a fighting matter. It is about assisting other nations to become ecologically and abundantly provided for and much more. It also shows the origins of why certain nations are so bent upon conquest of other people's lands. Without giving much away the content of the book, I stop here and invite you for a gripping exploration of an often overlooked area of civilization that is desperately wanting of our attention before it is too late. A must read book with 5+ stars!

An extraordinary, inspiring, thought-provoking must-read!

I can't get over how many times, since I've read this book, I've looked at the news, at events in my life, from a different perspective. Thom Hartmann's book is disturbing but it gets us thinking about the effects of our actions and that makes it essential reading. After reading his other incredible book, Prophet's way, and having it change my life, I really didn't think his next book could have such a profound effect on me. But it did, in a more subtle, yet very positive way. Thom Hartmann should run for president. But he's too smart to even think about it.Thom has been a speaker at the Winter Brain COnference (www.futurehealth.org/2000brain.htm) I organize for the past four years. Each year, though he is not a brain scientist, his lectures draw some of the biggest crowds, because he has a magical way of integrating the newwest research and his own unique eco-spiritual-anthropological approach to looking at the world and the evolution of science and knowledge.