Book Review: Taking on climate change: Weather Makers does that and more
By Kitty Kerner
Ever since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fourth Assessment Report last month, it seems as if the flood gates on climate change reporting have been opened. The IPCC report was paraded around the press like a movie star on Oscar night, and the extreme weather events around the world this winter are constantly in the spotlight, too. Together, they have moved this crucial issue from the back burner to the front - where it belongs.
If you, like many others, feel like brushing up your knowledge on the whole global warming debate - perhaps after hearing the inconvenient truth from Old Al - there is no better place to get started than by picking up a copy of Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers, The Past and Future Impact of Climate Change . This "bible of the climate change debate" is a must-read, despite the fact that it was written two years ago and the facts on this global issue are changing almost daily.
With wit, incredible detail and bravado Flannery takes on the daunting task of making us become aware: from the earth's age-old climate sea-saw to the impacts of global climate change on our ecosystems and our civilization; from the difficulties of climate modeling to the pitfalls of international climate agreements. To boot, he is a capable writer who is able to engage the reader in this extremely complex issue - perhaps thanks to his initial degree in English.
The book has already been around the press circuit, so if you want to see the usual glowing endorsements just visit the website. Instead, I'd rather make a point of why this book stood out for me. Truth is, Flannery managed to pack so many fascinating stories, arguments and aspects into this volume that it's impossible to walk away without some new understanding, some special aha-moment - no matter how much you already know about the issue.
For me, Flannery's greatest achievement is in providing the wide-angle view that pervades his entire narrative. As a paleontologist, ecologist and explorer, Flannery is used to looking at the world in terms beyond mere decades or even centuries: his temporal measuring stick is millennia and millions of years. He challenges us to understand the impact humans have had on our planet by looking at the very, very big picture.
Putting things into perspective, therefore, is what Flannery really excels at. He frequently quotes the early scientists and climatologists, from the ancient Greeks to Galileo, Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace, who already concluded in the 19 th century that the "foul effusions of the industrial revolution" threatened humanity. Flannery also takes the reader millions of years back in time to explore time's magic gateways - events when the earth's climate drastically changed - and to look at their causes. Could they happen again?
One of the eye-openers that I took away from this book was learning about the impact of climate change on biodiversity. Have you ever heard of the golden toad? This tropical amphibian used to inhabit the misty cloud forests in Costa Rica. It wasn't discovered until 1966 - and the last individual of this rare species was sighted in 1989. The golden toad was the first documented species to become extinct due to climate change.
We learn that this particular amphibian died out simply because there were fewer misty days in its forest. The change was driven by the abrupt rise in sea level temperatures of the Pacific, which in turn made the clouds rise above the forest level - depriving it of its moisture. At some point, the environment in the cloud forest had crossed a threshold that was vital to the survival of the toads - not enough mist, no more toads.
What may seem like an insignificant event - caught only by pure chance in the spotlight of scientific research - turns into a pivotal moment in Flannery's account. Today, researchers have projected that, in the face of climate change, by 2050 a full third of our plant and animal species could become extinct. In the case of species that are unable to move or migrate, the likelihood of extinction is almost doubled should the earth's temperature increase by more than 2.0 degrees C by that time.
"Global warming could not have come at a worse time for biodiversity" Flannery writes. "In the past when abrupt shifts of climate have occurred, trees, birds, insects - indeed entire biotas - would migrate the length of continents as they tracked conditions suitable for them. In the modern world, with its 6.3 billion humans, such movements are not possible. Today, most biodiversity is restricted to national parks and forests that are often surrounded by an immensity of landscape profoundly modified by human activity."
In our entire history, there just has never before been such tremendous and willful messing around with the earth's systems. It all looks so utterly hopeless. What then, is the message we can take home with us?
In the solutions department Flannery gets credit for sketching out different future scenarios depending on how quickly and how drastically we change our current course. He also points out that we, individually, do not have to wait for our governments to take action, but have a wide range of personal choices to reduce our own carbon imprint on the earth's atmosphere (well, at least us rich folk). But will that be enough? The window of opportunity is closing fast.
When all is said and done, it's up to us. As Flannery suggests in the end, "...we are the generation fated to live in the most interesting of times, for we are the weather makers, and the future of our biodiversity and civilization hangs on our actions."
This "2007 Australian of the Year" really means business...and he's talking to you. Yes, and you, too.
Book Info
The Weather Makers
by Tim Flannery
Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006
384 pages
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