Review of Cultural Cycles & Climate Change

[Rob Carr]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Cultural Cycles & Climate Change" by Paul Palmarozza.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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It has been said many times before that those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it. The world of today is trapped in a pattern of consumption that cannot be sustained. That is shown most plainly through the issue of climate change.
 
Paul Palmarozza, in his book Cultural Cycles & Climate Change, tackles these issues head-on. He looks both at the long-term historical trends in society and the issue of climate change today.
 
The book begins by going through Palmarozza’s theory of large-scale cultural cycles affecting humanity based on planetary conjunctions in 854-year periods. There are four types of influences over the periods: air, water, fire, and earth. The book then looks through world history, focusing on the European/American, Chinese, Indian, and Arabic cultures and how these fit with the cultural cycles theory.
 
The book covers a nine-step plan to live a better life. The lessons focus on acknowledging the issues and the need for change, building more quiet time into our lives through mindfulness and meditation, and the need to live according to natural values.
 
Finally, the book covers the challenge of climate change. It sets out the need for overarching legislation to drive emissions reductions as well as what people can do to live more sustainably.
 
The book is written clearly and is researched and referenced in detail. It sets out useful ways people can improve their lives and steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of climate change.
 
However, the book did not feel like it fit together well structurally. There were three independent parts to the book that were not strongly linked: analysis of cultural cycles and world history; living a more mindful life; and addressing climate change. In particular, the analysis of cultural cycles did not appear to support the arguments around climate change beyond noting that bad things happened when society behaved the same way in the past.
 
The cultural cycle analysis did not flow as well as it could have by breaking world history into four cultures and then into cycles within those, rather than looking at the cycles as a whole with evidence from all cultures. It also wasn't clear what the causal link between planetary conjunctions and human behaviour was being argued to be.
 
I found a number of errors while reading the book, although most were fairly minor.
 
Overall, I rate Cultural Cycles & Climate Change 3 out of 5 stars. The book covers some very important issues and is clearly written. However, due to the issues noted above, I felt 3 stars was a fair rating.
 
This book would suit those with an interest in history, astrology, mindfulness, meditation, and climate change.

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Cultural Cycles & Climate Change
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[Stephen Christopher 1]

Hi Rob, do you feel this would work as three independent books instead of all lumped into one? Or could the author have just linked them more seamlessly? The title suggests the book is about climate change, but it sounds more like a self-help book, so I'm confused as to it's actual point.

[Ringle Nashak]

The title suggests the book is about climate change, but it sounds more like a self-help book, so I'm confused as to its actual point. But it’s an amazing review thou!

[Rob Carr]

Hi Rob, do you feel this would work as three independent books instead of all lumped into one? Or could the author have just linked them more seamlessly? The title suggests the book is about climate change, but it sounds more like a self-help book, so I'm confused as to it's actual point.

I think more links possibly could bring them together better but they do feel quite distinct. The majority of the book is spent on the cultural cycles/history part.

[Rob Carr]

The title suggests the book is about climate change, but it sounds more like a self-help book, so I'm confused as to its actual point. But it’s an amazing review thou!

Thanks Ringle. The bulk of the book covers the cultural cycles and history component. It felt like it took a while to get into climate change in detail but it did cover it well when it got there.

[Mari Thompson]

Thank you for this very informative review. I completely understand the three star rating given the issues you mention about the book not fitting together well structurally, and the cultural cycle analysis not flowing as well as it could have. When a book doesn’t flow properly it can make it hard for the reader to follow. I will be skipping this one. When the author writes a book about meditation by itself maybe I will check that out

[Rob Carr]

Thank you for this very informative review. I completely understand the three star rating given the issues you mention about the book not fitting together well structurally, and the cultural cycle analysis not flowing as well as it could have. When a book doesn’t flow properly it can make it hard for the reader to follow. I will be skipping this one. When the author writes a book about meditation by itself maybe I will check that out

Thanks Mari. I did see from the book he has written some others and there was one called In Praise of Silence which I think is just about meditation but I haven't read it myself.