I just arrived in Hong Kong and am very jetlagged (woke up at 4am). Today, I’m meeting with a series of Hong Kong professors as well as American Fulbright Scholars in Hong Kong.

On the plane across the Pacific Ocean, I finished reading Bill McKibbon’s book Eaarth. I think it’s a book very accessible to the general public, and it’s finest tribute is in making two points. First is the importance of scale; that when creating the next food system or energy transmission technology we need to consider smaller and more diffuse models. Second, he defines the biggest challenges and important items going forward as energy, food, and the Internet. I enjoyed the book, but was surprised so much of it was focused on food and Vermont. For the academic who reads about such issues all the time, this books provides little new information, but provides a useful new narrative. Finally of course the book’s overarching theme is that we live on Eaarth because the planet we lived on before, Earth, no longer exists and has already been changed by climate change.

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