Bill McGuire

Horrific, shocking, disturbing. This audiobook is full of facts and studies about climate change, which he calls "global heating," about what's happening now and what is likely coming. Most of the worst effects are inevitable at this point, though some can be dulled if the world stops emitting greenhouse gases now (primarily carbon dioxide and methane). But that will not happen.

The emissions are not slowing down... they are increasing. This 3-day Memorial Day weekend, airports in the U.S. show more were packed with record numbers of travelers and the cruise industry is suddenly swamped with passengers, post Covid. (Though Covid is not gone -- we've had numerous friends get Covid in the last few months, some for the first time. One was in bed miserable for two weeks.)

The U.S. government still subsidizes the oil and gas industry despite their billions in profits and no legislator would dare to challenge that since their political careers depend on donations from the industry.

The author tried to present some hope at the end, but it was thin and weak. The book was published in early 2022, before the major flooding in 2023 in California and elsewhere in the world, and the tornadoes spreading farther east from Tornado Alley.

I kept this audiobook off when my (adopted) daughter was in the house. She knows all about climate change and gets upset when she hears about it. (We're doing our part with our EV and vegan meals.) She's graduating high school and wants to travel and have a life and a future. Since I've already enjoyed a long life, it's more her future that hurts me.

Highly recommended to those who are willing to stare reality in the face, unflinching. show less

The author takes a look at claims that global warming is causing volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis, and finds them wanting. Then, after evaluating those claims (which he does quickly), he spends the rest of the book examining the impact that climate change, particularly increases in sea level and decreases in ice cover, will have on the geologic phenomena of the earth. He is both pessimistic and cautious, with the proper caution of a scientist working from a limited data base. show more Since other rapid warming periods have happened in the past, we are able to collect some data, and he discusses the scope of that, as well as what the findings are. The problem is, the findings are frequently contradictory. The author wraps up with his own conclusions and his own predictions. The book is a solid piece of work, and doesn't move past the data without extreme caution, which is a plus. The main down side is the frequent annoying comma errors; fortunately, they are not the sort that render the book difficult to read. I feel I can recommend this book to my students. show less

This book gives an overview of the natural disasters that could seriously disrupt our current society. The threats covered are global warming, ice age, volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, asteroids and comets.

The sections on global warming and ice age take up the first half of the book, but really could have been condensed into a single, much shorter chapter. While I didn't disagree with a lot that he had to say, I would have liked him to present more of the scientific evidence he kept saying show more was so clear and irrefutable. These chapters were more political than I expected, and seemed to convey more opinions than facts.

I found the second half of the book much more interesting and informative. The author gave plenty of facts about geological hazards, comets and asteroids, and presented various different theories in a fairly balanced way. I wish the entire book had been written in the same manner.

Overall, the writing was engaging and mildly humorous. show less

Global warming, next Ice Age, volcanic super-eruptions, tsunamis, great earthquakes, asteroid/comet impacts. The Carter/Leslie version of the Doomsday Argument does not go unmentioned.