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The
Weather Makers
THE
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Named a 2006 Best Book by the San Francisco Chronicle,
Rocky Mountain News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
and Seattle Post-Intelligencer
THE
WEATHER MAKERS
by Tim Flannery
Winner
of the 2006 Lannen Literary Award
2007
Australian of the Year
Since
the hardcover publication of THE WEATHER MAKERS
in March 2006, the National Climatic Data Center
declared 2006 the warmest year on record for the
contiguous United States, and trends indicate
that it will keep getting warmer. The melting
of glacial ice has forced the U.S. Department
of Interior to propose that polar bears be listed
as a threatened species - quite a turnaround for
an administration that until recently questioned
the very existence of climate change - and has
changed geography as we know it, exposing as islands
what were long believed to be peninsulas attached
to Greenland's mainland.
Tim
Flannery's THE WEATHER MAKERS (Grove Press; $15,
pbk; 384 pp; February 13, 2007; ISBN: 978-0-8021-4292-4)
is a sobering history of global climate change,
detailing with undeniable clarity the damage humankind
has done to the Earth's ecosystem since the Industrial
Revolution—most in just the last few decades.
Combining historical fact, scientific data and
his own observations, Flannery clearly presents
the terrible danger in which we have placed both
our planet and ourselves.
The
Washington Post called THE WEATHER MAKERS "an
authoritative, scientifically accurate book on
global warming that sparkles with life, clarity,
and intelligence." The paperback contains
a new Afterword detailing how findings within
the past year have contributed to scientists'
understanding of how greenhouse gasses affect
our planet – and the picture they paint
is even more ominous than before.
"When
I first penned The Weather Makers," Flannery
writes, "the best available evidence was
that acidification of the ocean might become a
threat in two to three centuries. More recent
studies, however, indicate that the first substantial
damage will occur two to three decades from now
in the north Pacific. Acidification of the ocean
would constitute the first global oceanic pollution
crisis to be triggered by people, and although
we are only now awakening to its possible consequences,
they could be even more severe for life overall
than global warming."
Flannery
is not merely an alarmist, though. Along with
the warning, he offers constructive solutions
for both lawmakers and private citizens as to
how we can work to avert catastrophe. Every one
of us has a say in the Earth's future and we can
all make a difference. "The best evidence
points to the need for us to reduce our CO2 emissions
by 70 per cent by 2050," he writes. "If
you own a four-wheel-drive and replace it with
a hybrid fuel car, you can achieve a cut of at
least that magnitude in your own transport emissions
in a day rather than fifty years. And if you individually
can achieve this much, so can people, and industries,
and governments the world over."
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About
the Author
Tim Flannery is one of Australia's leading thinkers
and writers. An internationally acclaimed scientist,
explorer and conservationist, he has published
more than 130 scientific papers and written many
books including definitive ecological histories
of Australia ( The Future Eaters) and North America
(The Eternal Frontier) and the landmark essay
Beautiful Lies: Population and Environment in
Australia.
His
pioneering research as a field biologist in New
Guinea prompted Sir David Attenborough to describe
him as being in the league of the world's great
explorers and the travel writer Redmond O'Hanlon
to remark, "He's discovered more new species
than Charles Darwin."
Flannery spent a year as professor of Australian
studies at Harvard, where he taught in the Department
of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Nearer
to home he is an active member of the Wentworth
Group of Concerned Scientists, which reports independently
to government on environmental issues of concern
to Australians. He is chairman of the SA Sustainability
Roundtable and Premier's Science Council, a director
of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and the
National Geographic Society's representative in
Australasia. In April 2005 he was honored as Australian
Humanist of the Year. (Credit: Grove Press)
Profiles
Tim
Flannery
Books
and Authors
Environmentalists
and the environment
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