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The Moth Snowstorm

Nature and Joy

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The Moth Snowstorm

Written by: Michael McCarthy
Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
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About this listen

Michael McCarthy, one of Britain's leading writers on the environment, proposes this joy as a defence of a natural world which is ever more threatened and which, he argues, is inadequately served by the two defences put forward hitherto: sustainable development and the recognition of ecosystem services.

Drawing on a wealth of memorable experiences from a lifetime of watching and thinking about wildlife and natural landscapes, McCarthy presents a new way of looking at the world.

©2015 Michael McCarthy (P)2015 W F Howes Ltd Biological Sciences Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Physics Science

Critic Reviews

"A great, rhapsodic, urgent book full of joy, grief, rage and love.... A must-read." (Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk)
"Impassioned, polemical and personal.... At its heart, this is a book aiming to persuade those who are broadly sympathetic to think in a different way, and in that it is surely a success - and a joy." ( Independent)
"Articulated beautifully...his quest to track down every British butterfly as a tribute to his dead mother brought me to tears." ( Sunday Times)
All stars
Most relevant
Sustainable development, environmental economics, etc., are some topics, amongst many others (e.g., insurance, macroeconomics, etc.), which can be used for killing insomnia (even the medically induced ones). Considering this, I was initially a bit skeptical about reading (or listening to) this book, which came as a must-read recommendation. However, upon overcoming my hesitation and going through the book, I think it was definitely worth the read (or in my case, it was definitely worth listening to).

Now, as to what makes it worthwhile: To begin with, this book lightly touches on everything from a brief introduction to the idea of environmental economics by explaining the cost of cutting down ecosystems like mangroves to make space for human occupation and the cost needed to replace this natural barrier through artificial constructions (like a seawall) in the case of a cyclone, to the origin of the study of ecology, the TEEB project, amongst many other topics. Though it sounds exactly like some of the aforementioned insomnia-killing topics, the way the author has approached them is by blending them into his personal experiences and stories, which include his joy of discovering butterflies being attracted to the Buddleja (also known as the Butterfly Bush), his sadness and his coping mechanism to deal with the sudden departure of his mother, his excitement as a teenager for getting a pair of binoculars for observing birds, amongst many other events.

It is a story of tragedy, joy, love, and nature, and that is what makes it fulfilling and worthwhile. On top of it, Gordon Griffin has made this book absolutely enthralling.

NOTE: I'm currently in the second chapter, but I'm already hooked.

Finding Beauty in Unexpected Places

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