The Ecology School Hosts Book Launch for Maine Author Dave Holman
The Ecology School will host a book launch for author Dave Holman’s new book Cyber Fire on Saturday, December 7 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at River Bend Farm (184 Simpson Rd., Saco, Maine.) Click here to RSVP for the event!
The stories of a disaster with both environmental destruction and technological breakdowns that have always lived in the realm of “well, it could happen and would be disastrous if it did…” are all-too-realistically told in Dave Holman’s new book Cyber Fire.
Aren’t we all well aware of society’s dependence on cell phones, computers, the internet, etc. and the next attention-grabbing headline reminding us of the dramatic shift in weather patterns and worsening climate-related events? These things, taken separately, are frightening. Yet, we easily enough put blinders on and continue with our daily lives, hoping that the natural disasters or hacked account doesn’t land in our physical or digital back yard. What would happen if (when?) an environmental disaster was compounded, and made horrifyingly worse, by technology?
“There is a danger of all of our models being too conservative and that things are happening much faster than we thought.”
You don’t have to think too abstractly to find real-time, real-life examples. On a smaller-scale the widespread power outages in Maine, caused by a recent powerful wind storm, knocked out electricity to residents and businesses of downtown Portland—Maine’s biggest city—for three days. Thanks to weather models, utilities companies were prepared to be as reactive as quickly possible and knew how to get things, relatively quickly, back to status quo. What about the unpredictable weather that no model can prepare us for? And the non-weather elements that can, quite literally, fuel the fire? The recent fires in California devastated entire communities and were exasperated by the power grid. Companies were scrambling to preemptively shut off power so more fires did not cause additional destruction and firefighting efforts had the best chances of successfully stopping the blaze.
In his book, Cyber Fire, Holman brings to our attention the urgency of climate change, the reality of technological manipulation by not-so-nice-people, and the convergence of both in an all-to-possible natural and human-made disaster. The three plot lines follow three different characters as they battle the “bad guys” who aren’t singular people, but the results of systems that we, as society, have failed to holistically plan and develop to exist alongside the unknowns of a changing climate.
Cyber Fire is a fast-paced action novel set in the present day where cyber-attacks cripple the Southwestern electric grid during a record heat wave and heroes must race against time to thwart them. China hacks US ATMs causing economic panic while their fleet moves to retake Taiwan. Meanwhile, just as Leah Brooks discovers faster glacier melting than ever imagined, her team is thrown into chaos by a storm and their ship begins sinking in the North Atlantic hurricane...
The themes in Holman’s new book provide a cautionary tale to continuing to build complex systems and perceived progress without thoughtful systems thinking. As a society, we are quick to make things happen and often overlook the impact of disrupting historical balances and natural dependencies. At The Ecology School, programs teach participants to look at the connections between things in the natural world, at a fundamental level. Lessons at The Ecology School ask students to uncover why, if one part of an ecosystem is disrupted, it may cause irreversible consequences for another. While things like the intricate hacking of electric grids and the causation of expedited glacier melting are higher level concepts to grasp, the basic understanding of the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings is the science taught in elementary schools. It’s the definition of ecology.
As a former member of The Ecology School’s Board of Directors, Holman is an experienced advocate for environmental and climate awareness being integrated into the educational system through school curriculum and/or supplemental programs like ours. “The Ecology School is a really excellent model of getting young people aware of the challenges that exist in today’s world, understanding their passion, and educating in a scientific way that that is really important.” Holman said. “There aren’t many other organizations out there like that.”
Holman is also the author of two other books, The Coffee Smuggler and Youth Renewing the Countryside. To read more about Dave Holman, please visit www.daveholman.com. Cyber Fire will be available at The Ecology School during the event as well as on Amazon.com throughout the year.