Jonathan Safran FOER : We are the weather : Saving the planet begins at breakfast

Climate change is the single biggest threat to human survival - and we are dealing with it all wrong.
We take shorter showers to save water - because we don't know that producing one pound of meat requires the equivalent of six months' showers in water waste.
We buy hybrid cars - because we don't know that just one day a week without meat consumption is equivalent to taking every car in America off the road.
The link between meat-eating and the climate crisis isn't talked about - because our leaders think we're not ready to make small personal sacrifices to save our way of life. But these sacrifices need to be made - and they're so much easier than you think. You don't have to go cold turkey. Cutting out meat for just part of the day is enough to change the world.
With his distinctive wit, insight and humanity, Jonathan Safran Foer presents this essential debate as no one else could, bringing it to vivid and urgent life, and offering us all a much-needed way out.

Disappointed I am.

With a title such as this, I expected a text more punchy, more convincing, more energetic. More positive.

The first part of the book draws a parallel between the climate change, and what is going to befall us, and the second world war : people know the facts but refuse to believe them and act upon them. I can understand the reasoning, but to place it at the beginning of the book doesn't seem like a good idea, because you're wondering where all this is leading to.

The second (short) part, my favourite, give facts and numbers : it's chilling, but effective. Very short part.

The third part is about considering Earth as our home, realizing it, feeling it, because it would make us want to act more.

The fourth part is a discussion with himself. What I'll remember most about this part (if I remember it much later, which I doubt), is that Foer is not perfect, whines about not being perfect. I also can understand why he did that : by discussing with the most reluctant part of himself, it's like discussing with any reluctant human being, people who hate change (they'll get it anyway, not the one they're expecting), going from hesitant to finally doing something. I know going vegetalian for most of the day except at dinner is a step ahead for the planet, but still, it seems to me he presents veganism under a bad light. When I read him, I feel like eating meat and dairy is highly pleasurable, irresistible, while eating vegan and healthy is... a duty. I've been a vegan for about 10 years, if I didn't like what's in my plate, I would have quitted long ago ! Vegan food is good, let it be known. Take a dish you love, try to find a vegan recipe of said dish, try it, make it better to suit your tastes and go ahead with another dish. It's as simple as that, there are plenty recipes on Instagram, Youtube, blogs and even books ! Start eating fries with a green salad or pasta with tomato sauce and basil, it's vegan and people generally love it.

The last part is about the changes that we are all going to experience, those we experience already and the future is grim : high temperatures, floods, lack of food and drinkable water, massive immigration and the consequence, wars.

I don't know if it's because Foer speaks of his family, of his grandmother who escaped the nazis, of his Bubbe dying as he was writing this book in her room in her company, but I don't feel energetic and eager to act as I turn the last page, I want to sit down and weep. Changing people feels like trying to wake up a teenager at 6 AM on a sunday morning when there's no school : the battle is lost in advance ! Yes, there is a bit of hope because of the general attitude of people : the first move to help someone who's been in an accident, putting your care on the side of the road when there's an ambulance or a fire engine coming all lights blazing and all that. We've just been confined in France, everybody talked about the "world after", what we would change in our lives so that it doesn't happen any more and what has come of it ? Nothing. Everybody has gone back to the "world before". With masks - most of the time. The pandemic is back as a result.

This is Foer's book, it's obviously very documented, but I'm angry with it because he's a renowned author, this was very much expected by lots of people (I read it first of all the books I borrowed at the library because there are readers who want it after me, there's a waiting list) so I thought, I hoped it would be more efficient. It's mostly philosophical masturbation, I'm afraid. I gave it 3 stars though, maybe it will convince some people ? I was already convinced, I've been for a long time, so I found it rather weak... Disappointed, I tell you.