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Climate change is a hot topic lately, but is it really a recent occurrence? The Curse of Akkad explores this idea. (The title and cover are a bit misleading!)
The book appears boring, but it is actually really interesting, although I found the first two sections dull as dishwater, plus I didn’t agree with what they were saying. The last quarter of the book was the best in my opinion, because the author dealt with how climate change affected recent history. I really identified with the climate change/agriculture link, since I live on a grain farm and we sometimes get horrible droughts or unexpected storms, and now I partly figured out why. My favorite stuff was the history about Vikings and revolutions.
The lack of other points of view was the worst part of the book, because the author never presented a different side to an issue, nor other reasons certain things could have happened besides climate change. The author made it seem as if everyone agreed with him, when really there was a lot of speculation. Words like “maybe,” “could have,” and “possibly” would let readers know there are other sides to an issue.
I think the book could have more color to make the look less plain, but the information was really cool, and I even read some to my parents. I learned that climate change could spark wars and revolutions because it makes people desperate.
Intriguing is one word to describe The Curse of Akkad, and I would give the book a score of 7/10, although I’m sure others would like it more than I did. Don’t be scared by the number of pages (144), and give it a shot!
(Originally
published in the January/February 2010 issue of YES Mag.)
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