Notes from an Apocalypse: A personal journey to the end of the world and back, by Mark O’Connell

Author: Mark O’Connell. Review by Michael Crossland

How will humans respond to a species-threatening event? Mark O’Connell attempts to answer this question in this very timely new book, written before Covid-19.

Perhaps the best way to imagine what post-apocalypse Earth will look like is to visit a region where a cataclysm has already happened. I was reminded of Advices & queries 42 (‘We do not own the world, and its riches are not ours to dispose of at will.’) when O’Connell visits Chernobyl, where trees have grown through roads, ivy has destroyed concrete buildings, and birds of prey and wild dogs outnumber humans. He also meets the sales team for a complex of bombproof bunkers in South Dakota, discovers why the ultra-rich are buying land in New Zealand, and discusses how children can learn about deforestation through the books of Dr Seuss.

The section on ‘preppers’ is particularly strong. These people – usually white men in the US – keep stocks of dried food, water purification tablets and even weapons, ready for any catastrophe. O’Connell explores the links between prepping and far-right politics: preppers seem preoccupied by ‘urban gangs,’ often a euphemism for groups of people of colour. He identifies the selfishness of people who choose to bunk down in isolation, protected by barbed wire and armed guards, rather than turning outwards and collaborating with others. At the end of a section about Vivos, a company which sells nuclear bunkers, he writes:  ‘A civilisation that could accommodate a business like Vivos was a civilisation that had in some sense already collapsed.’ Selfishness is also a theme of the chapter on space: O’Connell is scathing about Elon Musk’s aim to use his wealth to colonise Mars rather than solve problems on Earth.

The author is clear that the most likely source of apocalypse is the climate crisis. He acknowledges the impact of flying around the world to research the book but I would have liked to have seen more introspection on this, and ideally some behaviour change.

O’Connell has an admirable lightness of touch for someone writing about the end of the world. He is humorously self-deprecating. When camping in Alladale he describes his comfort zone as being ‘narrow but deceptively spacious… strictly speaking, inside’. I laughed when, after explaining to his four-year-old that Lego Minifigures are not an essential purchase, his son responded, ‘But you don’t need coffee.’ Sometimes his language is too colloquial for me – at one point I had to look up the difference between ‘lol’ and ‘lulz’.

I was bemused when I was given this book as a gift. It seemed an odd choice in the middle of a pandemic. But Notes from an Apocalypse is thought provoking and surprisingly entertaining. If nothing else it powerfully demonstrates that nature will endure after humankind has, apocalyptically, disappeared.

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Comments

Thanks for this review. Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other religions tell us that we have been put here as the guardians of creation. Your review suggests that if we mess that job up then nature will be able to get on without us.

By James Priestman on 29th August 2020 - 21:19

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