Customer Reviews

The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet

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Cullen's book is a good review of climatological information. For me, it fills in the blanks of my knowledge on the subject. Right from the beginning, she establishes a perspective that's missing from the generally available information. She begins with the history of climate science, nicely describing in chronological order, the individuals who made the early breakthroughs that bring us to our moment, with our much more sophisticated multi-model, super-computer averaged, long term climate forecasts.

She explains clearly the relationship of the earth's natural greenhouse gasses, including water vapor, methane, and the pivotal role of carbon dioxide, as the geo-historic regulator gas, which has directly effected the planet's temperature. In fact, like many other scientists, she points out, without irony, how modern society continues to relentlessly release these very gasses...through the burning of oil, coal, and natural gas. Gases, which took nature thousands of years to sequester...modern society releases in little more than a century. Thus our "forcings" are unwittingly reestablishing the same conditions of an earlier greenhouse earth...a much warmer place than today.

Of particular interest to me, is her explication of the contribution of Charles Keeling of Caltech, who single handedly had the insight to build the first instruments to measure accurately the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Keeling began his work in 1958, when he measured carbon dioxide at 315 ppm. Since, his work has closely described, with exquisitely sensitive data, a rise to 385 ppm by 2008. This is the highest carbon dioxide level in 800,000 years.

This book is also clear about the human reasons, why global warming is so low in the public's perception of what constitutes a crisis. Cullen, as a highly qualified, media savvy educator, with a PHD in climate science...having had her own show on the Weather Channel...describes very wisely and calmly, I think, how humans seem to be hard-wired, only for much more immanent crises...in some wonderfully insightful pages on human psychology.

Like most voices in the climate science community, Cullen is what her opponents call an "alarmist". In fact, climatologists like Cullen, ARE alarmed by the science they see becoming more and more powerful, just as our weather becomes more and more extreme. This, she demonstrates in the heart of her thesis, focusing in detail upon weather prognostications, in six world regions. This is not joyful reading. If you are a reader who dislikes such talk, then this book is not for you. But if you are one, who is willing to listen to the best of what climate science offers, Cullen should be on the top of your list.

Heidi Cullen is perhaps the most well- known climatologist in America. She has in the past taken to task those weather broadcasters who have no real scientific knowledge of more long- range climate patterns. In this book she makes a valiant educational effort to teach the wider public the more long- range consquences of continued global warming. She chooses seven different areas of the world and projects dramatic scenarios for midcentury which will come as result of failure to curb our appetite for fossil fuels.
Drought in central California, flooding in Bangladesh which makes millions homeless, New York infrastructure under water are among these. Cullen makes vivid the disastrous storms, floods, droughts, which are headed humanity's way. She also suggests that climate- changes will be a source of more intense political and military conflict.
She argues that most of us associate global- warming with the melting of the ice- cap only and do not connect this with the everyday weather we are experiencing. I can only say that one of my major reasons for interest in this book is the weather I have been experiencing over the past two weeks ( Late July Early August 2010) in Jerusalem Israel. In my thirty- five years
here I have never seen or felt anything like it. The sheer discomfort alone is I believe reason enough to be alarmed at what is happening.
My own small personal experience aside. This book will give its readers a good overall understanding of one of the most urgent problems facing humanity today.

"Dr. Heidi Cullen has a way of presenting complex climate simply and clearly, and this book is a shining example of that skill.

In part I, she shows how present-day understanding of climate is built upon science from 16th centrury forward, easily covering knowledge discovery in orbital mechanics, geography, and chemistry. Her presentation of temperature rises of 2, 4, 6 degrees is clever. In part II, she presents scenarios in the Sudan, Australia, the Arctic and elsewhere, devoting a chapter to each place. Starting each with an applicable climate lesson told by scientists in drought, coral reefs, ice melt, and so forth, she then takes the reader in each situation forward, describing the conditions in these places in a futuristic time.

Always solidly based on science and anchored in climate model projections, the scenarios are chillingly realistic. Yet, each chapter tells of adaptation techniques that can help. No doom and gloom here - but only if we don't let things get too bad too fast.

In all her time doing climate on the Weather Channel, we never could catch her in a mistake, and this book is no different. This book gives us a realistic view to the future that awaits us if we fail to act.Heidi Cullen'sthe Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, Other Scenes From a Climate-changed Planet [Hardcover](2010)

The Weather of the Future by Heidi Cullen

"The Weather of the Future" is a book that describes how global warming is impacting our climate today and how it will impact our planet's future. With a sound scientific approach renowned climatologist Heidi Cullen provides an interesting insight into climate change by taking us through a journey of seven of the most at-risk locations around the globe and what global warming is projected to do to those areas. This 352-page book is composed of the following two main parts: Part 1. Your Weather is Your Climate and Part 2. The Weather of the Future.

Positives:
1. Well researched, well-written book.
2. Good explanation of scientific terms that is accessible to the masses.
3. This is a science book at heart. There is no partisan politics to speak of. Ms. Cullen is strictly concerned with the science of the issue and does so with conviction.
4. The difference between weather and climate...time.
5. A great look at climate history and the scientists that made it so.
6. A very good explanation of all the greenhouse gases and their impact. Carbon as the secret ingredient in adjusting the natural thermostat.
7. The mechanisms of weather predictions. Weather models.
8. The link between weather forecasting and the economy.
9. The evolution of the weather models.
10. Fantastic explanation on why the additional carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is raising temperatures.
11. A more extreme planet...find out why.
12. Ms. Cullen never overextends herself. She tells you what we know and what we don't know based on the best evidence possible from the best sources possible.
13. Evolution for good measure.
14. The second part of the book takes us through a journey of seven of the most at-risk locations of the planet: The Sahel, Africa; The Great Barrier Reef, Australia; Central Valley, California; Inuit Nunaat, Canada; Greenland; Dhaka, Bangladesh; and New York, New York. Ms. Cullen
15. Great conversations with leading scientists around the globe to provide much needed wisdom.
16. The weather/climate situation of each one of the seven locations is discussed with expertise and a projection into the future based on the best models provides a fascinating look.
17. The decision to use such diverse locations of the globe was a great one. It allowed Ms. Cullen to apply the best science to each location and to put a "face" to each location thus engaging the reader in a unique manner.
18. I finally understand the impact of El Niño.
19. The fascinating world of the corals...
20. How global warming affects corals.
21. The Delta and the complications of extending a dream.
22. Fascinating facts, "Scientists will tell you that climate change is happening faster in the Arctic than anywhere else on the planet".
23. Ice cores...the cold hard facts.
24. The predicament of Bangladesh.
25. New York's own predicament. Absolutely fascinating!
26. Great appendices.
27. Good use of charts and graphs.
28. The links worked great.

Negatives:
1. With so many great references a comprehensive bibliography would have been welcomed.
2. Some critics may claim that Ms. Cullen is an alarmist but I don't agree. Ms. Cullen's makes compelling arguments in support of her positions.
3. The epilogue was unnecessary.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book. Ms. Cullen did a wonderful job of explaining the scientific terms and in doing so clarified some things for me. The use of diverse locations allowed the author to apply the best of climatology to further explain the current and future impact of global warming. I highly recommend this book.

Further recommendations: "Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather" by Mike Smith, "Merchants of Doubt" by Erik M. Conway, "Science Under Siege" by Kendrick Frazier, and "Storms of my Grandchildren" by James Hansen.

Cullen's subject is all too urgent, and she clearly has done a ton of homework. I wish publishers still used copy editors, though. There are grammatical errors throughout, and awkward phrasing is very common. Nevertheless, it's something that everyone should read.

For a look at what the world may look like in the event that we do little or nothing to combat carbon emissions and greenhouse gases, comes "The Weather of the Future" (Harper) by meteorologist/climatologist, Heidi Cullen. Cullen, a research scientist at the non-profit outfit, Climate Central, (and former host of the Weather Channel's `Forecast Earth') describes in detail what is likely to occur at seven different hot-spot locations around the planet in the wake of elevated temperatures and rising waters. Using predictive modeling from a variety of accredited sources, Cullen describes what effects can be expected in areas from New York City (major hurricanes, rampant flooding) to Bangladesh (becoming a massive refugee state) to the farm regions of Central California (massive drought) as well as the implications for Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Greenland's arctic ice cap and others. Using data models from NASA, the IPCC, MIT, the California Climate Change Center and others, Cullen predicts a seismic shift in global weather patterns, sea life, agriculture and terrain that, while may be off in some meaningful ways (as expected in a 50 year prediction) certainly cover the range of detailed possibilities awaiting our future. Her personal, yet readable account, is of course, speculative in nature, but with all the research and modeling referenced here and elsewhere, it's hard not to believe that somewhere in these patterns lies our own inconvenient truth.

I was relatively excited when I heard about this book, since our future as a species interests me greatly. It belongs to the genre of post-global warming books, wherein global warming is taken as a given and human inaction is assumed, leading to dire consequences and reflections on our suicidality. Others in the same category include James Hansen's book Storms of my grandchildren, Six Degrees, Requiem for a species, and my personal favourite, Down to the wire. All these are actually better written and more gripping that Heidi Cullen's book. My chief complaint about it is that most of the book is given over to interviews with other climatologists and scientists who discuss their particular expertises. The whole fails to come together as a result, and the author's own opinions are often missing in action. Several chapters appear to be one interview after another stitched together with some relatively boilerplate style writing. Probably this style of overdramatic pronouncement sounds good on TV but it really falls flat for me when read.
In the first section of the book she summarizes the evidence for global warming and the state of current thinking, material which has been covered extensively by now in many, many books. The bulk of the book discusses individual areas of the world and how they will be affected. These chapters are very uneven, with some interesting analyses, and some that simply fail altogether. As an example of the latter there is the discussion about the Inuit, who have a lifestyle obviously completely based on sea-ice and snow. There is no contemplation about how their entire lifestyle will change when there is neither ice nor snow, which is exactly what one would have expected. Instead there is the false dramatic ending: "but they will adapt, as they always have." Will they? If they all wind up on welfare with no lifestyle to speak of, is that adapting, or a very tragic ending to their culture? There is no consideration of these issues. What about the chance that others from further south will come up and take over their land and drive them out? To me this seems a very likely possibility. Another very disappointing ending occurs in the Bangladesh chapter, which we all know will end horribly tragically. Will millions of them move to Russia? Of course not. Yet she has the gall to say at the end of the chapter, millions will be climate refugees into India. Will they? What about the wall that was mentioned earlier, that India is building to keep such millions out of its country? It seems quite obvious that when India is starving itself, it's hardly likely bangladeshis will be welcomed. More likely there will be a lot of starvation and a lot of war, let's hope not world-wide.
The worst chapter is the epilogue, in which she discusses the end of the akkadian empire as a result of changing climate and the tragic story of Easter Island. The latter was much better discussed by Jared Diamond in Collapse, and the author actually quotes from him here. Not an impressive finish to borrow from another writer as a conclusion.
Here is an example of poor writing from the New York chapter I can't resist quoting (or paraphrasing): " in 2050 when Hurricane Xavier sprang up from the bathtub of the atlantic had finally arrived people sat back and watched it like the world series." What?? They watched a hurricane destroy Manhattan like a baseball game ? My jaw dropped when I read this, the last paragraph of the chapter. There was not much imagination applied to the effects of the hurricane on Manhattan here. Simple stating that repairs will be costly is a failure of storytelling completely.

In summary I don't really recommend this book at all, in comparison to the aforementioned post-climate change books, Jim Hensen's in particular is one that I would reread every year (until his prophecies come to pass).

It's a wonder to hear some people (many of them right-wing politicians) still denying that there is any change in the world's climate. In her new book, "The Weather of the Future", Heidi Cullen sets forth not necessarily to refute their positions but to give credence, backed up by fact, that indeed the world is a different place than it was even twenty years ago...and not a place for the better.

While much of the author's presentation is in the form of a dry narrative, she does lay out the case for the causes and effects of how our world is beginning to take on new burdens of heat, melting glaciers, CO2 emissions and the like. If you can get past Cullen's initial chapters (presented as they might be in a college lecture) her remaining chapters shine. The author is particularly good at creating climate-related scenarios down the road that might occur in places like Africa, Bangladesh, the Arctic and New York. And some of these scenarios are pretty scary.

Heidi Cullen presents a comprehensive look at where we stand today with regard to climate and where we are headed. It is an important book and one that I highly recommend.

I receive alarmist and conspiracy-theory emails from a dear friend and I love her anyway. Over the past year or so, she has been led to believe, based on the writings of a few with an angry politically-based agenda, that global warming does not exist and that for example, ex-VP Al Gore and others are pushing this "unproven theory" because he has investments in technologies that would "profit" from global warming.
Whew!
My gut tells me their opinions are nonsense. I have been somewhat desperate to find a non-technical book that would explain the science and the documented climate record and the possible future effects on the planet in a way I can understand. I needed a book I could understand while tired at night with one elbow on the pillow and eyelids growing heavy.
This is just the book. Cullen is a seasoned journalist and researcher who writes clearly and piles up her facts well. Personally, I never felt I needed to be convinced about the "reality" of global warming, but if I had some doubts as the rising tide of conspiracy theory emails arrived in my email in-basket, this book put those little doubts to rest.
I recommend this book to the intelligent (like me), informed, but non-science-oriented reader who needs to have a basic understanding of this issue and how it will become ever more pressing and crucial in the days to come.

Heidi Cullen has delivered a blockbuster for the common man regarding climate change. Her approach and readability are outstanding. She takes you intellectually systematic with an easy to understand readable book concerning climate change beginning with climate and weather denoting the differences while she looks at the science of prediction in an understandable manner.

She allows the reader to see not only the timelines of climate change and its outcomes, also selected locations around the globe where climate change impacts will be prominent and are currently being studied in realistic detail. She makes the implications and outcomes of climate migration very clear, the dangers and costs are up front.

Her book is a book to be heeded and read especially if you wish to live on planet Earth. When you dovetail her work with that of Bill McKibben, you draw a very clear picture standing on the shoulders of people such as James Hansen. One of the items that brings this book directly to the fore is in Appendix 3 - the world's most vulnerable places.

None of this wonderful information and science can be lost on our policymakers. The well thought through predictions and timelines provides the reader a very clear set of benchmarks from which they can see the outcomes of climate change in various locations around the globe.

The book is an absolute must read no matter where on the planet you live: Alaska, New York City, Bangladesh, China, Russia, South America and Asia this book clarifies the implications of climate change. You can read the work of New York PlaNYC on our website-

Climate Change Economics by Climate Change Economics LLC
The place to go for the things you need to know.
Her dedication says it all: " For my fellow scientists. Never stop seeking the truth."