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Loading... Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (original 2006; edition 2006)by Elizabeth Kolbert
Work InformationField Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert (2006)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Brilliant, smart, startling book. For those who have doubts about the true effects of climate change on our planet and humanity as well as those who need a reminder that the Earth is going to shit at a rapid pace. Needed more charts and graphs! More visuals! ( ) Well written narrative of the state of global climate change in the 2000s. Now that we are in the 2010s, the book is even more sobering and will lead to some much needed self examination of ones lifestyle. Kolbert does an excellent job of avoiding or explaining scientific jargon/vocabulary and simplifying very complicated scientific findings without treating the reader like a child. Published in '06, Kolbert's Field Notes is more valid now than ever. With a president in office that is ignorant of the change's of the Earth due to man's hand, we learn, from real science, the price we are paying for the choices we have made. But there is a positive. There isn't a way we can undo what we have done, but Field Notes offers ways to cut down our emissions. As is said for most things, little changes go a long way. Don't know if I have 2 of these or just entered it twice On the burgeoning shelf of cautionary but occasionally alarmist books warning about the consequences of dramatic climate change, Kolbert's calmly persuasive reporting stands out for its sobering clarity. Expanding on a three-part series for the New Yorker, Kolbert (The Prophet of Love) lets facts rather than polemics tell the story: in essence, it's that Earth is now nearly as warm as it has been at any time in the last 420,000 years and is on the precipice of an unprecedented "climate regime, one with which modern humans have had no prior experience." An inexorable increase in the world's average temperature means that butterflies, which typically restrict themselves to well-defined climate zones, are now flitting where they've never been found before; that nearly every major glacier in the world is melting rapidly; and that the prescient Dutch are already preparing to let rising oceans reclaim some of their land. In her most pointed chapter, Kolbert chides the U.S. for refusing to sign on to the Kyoto Accord. In her most upbeat chapter, Kolbert singles out Burlington, Vt., for its impressive energy-saving campaign, which ought to be a model for the rest of the nation ? just as this unbiased overview is a model for writing about an urgent environmental crisis no reviews | add a review
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New Yorker writer Kolbert tackles the controversial subject of global warming. Americans have been warned since the late 1970s that the buildup of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere threatens to melt the polar ice sheets and irreversibly change our climate. With little done since then to alter this dangerous course, now is the moment to salvage our future. By the end of the century, the world will likely be hotter than it's been in the last two million years, and the sweeping consequences of this change will determine the future of life on earth for generations to come. Kolbert approaches this monumental problem from every angle. She travels to the Arctic, interviews researchers and environmentalists, explains the science and the studies, draws frightening parallels to lost ancient civilizations, unpacks the politics, and presents the personal tales of those who are being affected most--the people who make their homes near the poles and are watching their worlds disappear.--From publisher description. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)363.73874Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Other social problems and services Environmental problems Environmental problems Pollutants Fumes, gases, smoke Greenhouse gasesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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