Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Change [Paperback]

From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine (Author), Jim Motavalli (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415946565 | ISBN-13: 978-0415946568 | Publication Date: March 19, 2004 | Edition: 1

For an increasing number of people, global warming is not an academic and scientific debate, but a matter of survival. As the planet warms at a rate of four degrees Fahrenheit per century, violent storms are increasing in frequency, icebergs are melting, sea level is rising, species are losing their habitats, and temperature records are being broken. Feeling the Heat consists of chapter-length visits by well-known authors to actual world "hot" spots, where people are already coping day-to-day with the consequences of climactic disruption. The locations for the book were strategically chosen because each represents a separate and important global warming impact, such as rising tides, melting glaciers, evolving ecosystems and air pollution. Feeling the Heat takes global warming out of the realm of armchair speculation and arcane scientific debate, revealing the process of climate change to be ongoing, serious and immediate.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This disturbing report, by a brilliant team of environmental journalists, portrays an industrial civilization on the verge of destroying its own conditions of existence. We are all captives, the authors warn us, on a runaway train. Can we change drivers soon enough to avoid the largest catastrophe in the last 10,000 years?.
–Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear and Dead Cities

About the Author

Jim Motavalli is the editor of E: The Environmental Magazine, an award-winning bi-monthly, and author of the books Forward Drive and Breaking Gridlock. He writes on environmental subjects for The New York Times, Salon, and many other publications. He also hosts a public affairs radio show and teaches journalism in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (March 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415946565
• ISBN-13: 978-0415946568
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,277,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning by example, September 6, 2004

By 

Friederike Knabe (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Change (Paperback)

It is usually easier to understand multifaceted issues through specific case studies and illustrations. Climate Change and Global Warming are very complex concerns indeed. Many people do not want to see the realities confronting us. Many skeptics argue that climate change is a phenomenon of nature and/or something delayed to the future. Indications from far away places need not concern us. Raising temperatures by 0.6 degrees C is hardly worth thinking about. If it means that we have warmer weather for a few weeks longer, that can only be comfortable for people living in northern climes.

Not so, argue Jim Motavalli and his colleagues. The intricacies of climate change and recent warming trends in remote places such as Alaska and the Antarctic reveal that the warming of the planet impacts us all already. In a selection of "dispatches" compiled by the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine, a distinguished group of environmental reporters traveled the world - from Australia to the Pacific Northwest, from China to Europe, to record scientific assessments and human experiences. What can we learn from their observations?

A case of severe human impact on the environment is vividly explored in "The Cost of Coal" in Mark Heertsgard's report from China. Rapid economic development comes at a very high price. For the time being, the prime energy source there remains fossil fuels, resulting in extreme air pollution. Thick smog covers the cities and people suffer from respiratory and other health problems. Yet, if the alternative is to freeze in unheated houses or slowing down the industrial advances, Chinese see no choice. Aware of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions almost rivaling those of the (highest emitter) USA, Chinese politicians and technocrats showed little sympathy for the global impact. They dismiss it as "the cost of progress". At the same time, Chinese authorities regulate industry towards high level of energy efficiency.

Closer to home for many readers is a wake-up call on raising sea levels. Motavalli and Barnes paint a devastating picture of what is in store for Greater New York from the underappreciated impact of global warming. Not only the tourist industries as the beaches of Florida or Fiji will suffer destruction, island states in the Pacific Ocean are already preparing for the exodus of hundreds of thousands of environmental refugees. The trends are unmistakable. On the other hand, examples from Europe provide a glimmer of hope. No longer waiting or sitting on the fence, Europeans have taken the lead in "planning ahead", proving that increasing use renewable energy and economic growth can be combined successfully.

Writing about insects and other creatures appearing in ecosystems where they don't belong, several articles demonstrate that the ecosystem balance is under threat. Warming ocean water results in fish and other sea animals moving out of their traditional habitats. Their food sources may not have done the same and new dangers may loom in the new environment. The food chain starting with the smallest critters is already interrupted with impacts on animals further up the chain only a question of a short time. While the field scientists interviewed for the articles remain cautious, stating that not all global warming should be blamed of human impact, the indications of increasing danger cannot be overlooked.

FEELING THE HEAT, while written by several authors, depicts a cohesive and coherent picture from some of the hotspots of global warming. Although at times depressing and exasperating, the underlying message is that of early warnings. The call on us has to be to do whatever we can to reduce human impact on the environment and climate. [Friederike Knabe]

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A"Wake-Up Call for Global Climate Change!", June 16, 2004

By 

Elliott C. Maynard (Sedona, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Change (Paperback)

Editor Jim Motavalli has done an outstanding job of putting together a keleidoscopic picture of Global Climate Change by presenting a coherent and incisive selection of captivating essays, from a variety of scientific and jouranlistic perspectives. Even the most hardened skeptic could not help but be convinced that unless we act swiftly to wean ourselves from our obsessive addiction to Fossel Fuels, clean up our act in terms of Environmental Pollution, and shift our present Ways of Living and Thinking into a Sustainable Framework, the present and future inhabitants of Spaceship Earth are in for a rude awakening! If there were a New York Times Bestseller List for Ecological Books, this book would most certainly be included. For anyone interested in keeping abrest of the latest scientific evidence for Global Warming, buy this book and read it...from cover to cover! Elliott Maynard, Ph.D., President, Arcos Cielos Research Center, Sedona, Arizona.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A set of thought-provoking, chilling facts, June 4, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Change (Paperback)

One would anticipate a discourse on climatic change to be a dry, scientific presentation relatively weighty for lay readers: not so with compiled and editor Jim Montavalli's Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Climate Change, which provides articles written by articulate contributors drawn from the front lines of the world's 'hot spots' where serious climate shifts are already in progress. From a 2003 European heatwave which killed 10,000 in France alone to the rising of the sea level in California, Feeling The Heat provides a set of thought-provoking, chilling facts.