The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth [Hardcover]

Tim Flannery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 2006

Sometime this century the day will arrive when the human influence on the climate will overwhelm all other natural factors. Over the past decade, the world has seen the most powerful El Niño ever recorded, the most devastating hurricane in two hundred years, the hottest European summer on record, and one of the worst storm seasons ever experienced in Florida. With one out of every five living things on this planet committed to extinction by the levels of greenhouse gases that will accumulate in the next few decades, we are reaching a global climatic tipping point. The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Along with a riveting history of climate change, Tim Flannery offers specific suggestions for action for both lawmakers and individuals, from investing in renewable power sources like wind, solar, and geothermal energy, to offering an action plan with steps each and every one of us can take right now to reduce deadly CO2 emissions by as much as 70 percent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Mammologist and paleontologist Flannery (The Eternal Frontier), who in recent years has become well known for his controversial ideas on conservation, the environment and population control, presents a straightforward and powerfully written look at the connection between climate change and global warming. It's destined to become required reading following Hurricane Katrina as the focus shifts to the natural forces that may have produced such a devastating event. Much of the book's success is rooted in Flannery's succinct and fascinating insights into related topics, such as the differences between the terms greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change, and how the El Niño cycle of extreme climatic events "had a profound re-organising effect on nature." But the heart of the book is Flannery's impassioned look at the earth's "colossal" carbon dioxide pollution problem and his argument for how we can shift from our current global reliance on fossil fuels [...]. Flannery consistently produces the hard goods related to his main message that our environmental behavior makes us all "weather makers" who "already possess all the tools required to avoid catastrophic climate change."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

The arguments, evidence, and conclusions should surprise few readers in Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe and Flannery's The Weather Makers. Given existing scientific knowledge, neither author (and no critic) doubts that global warming is real, with terrible consequences looming ahead.

The difference between the books largely comes down to tone and style. Kolbert, a reporter for the New Yorker, provides an excellent primer on climate change. Praised for her elegance and accessibility, she offers a loose travelogue with "the clearest view yet of the biggest catastrophe we have ever faced" (Los Angeles Times). She takes her science seriously—from sulfate droplets to recarbonization—and rarely lets her belief in impending catastrophe cloud her objectivity. Flannery's book may appeal more to activists. However, the Chicago Sun-Times thought that his passionate clarion call to action undermined sound arguments; others criticized scattered information and incomplete discussion on ways individuals can counteract climate change. Still, like Kolbert, Flannery elucidates complex concepts in climatology, paleontology, and economics. In the end, both books ask a crucial question: "Will we be lauded by future generations for heeding the advice of our best scientific minds, or remembered hereafter as counterexamples—as paragons of hubris, of a colossal failure of the imagination?" (Los Angeles Times).
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; First American Edition edition (January 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871139359
• ISBN-13: 978-0871139351
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Climatology
  • #43 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Rivers
  • #49 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Weather

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

152 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Counting the losses, February 12, 2006

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth (Hardcover)

"Not another book on climate change!", you lament. Readers may feel surfeited by the rash of books on "global warming" appearing in the past few years. The feeling is understandable. The situation should be considered an indication of how serious the problem is for all humanity. In this case, the author introduces a little-considered aspect. Tim Flannery, whose keen eye and bountiful wit always offers something new presented in a easily readable way, will not leave you jaded nor have your head nodding in ennui. Although Flannery does address some questions dealt with elsewhere, he adds the most significant topic of all - the future of life.

As a zoologist, Flannery has extensive field experience in the forests of New Guinea and elsewhere. He's written of human impact on large animals in North America and Australia. Here, he writes of human impact on all life. Instead of hunting animals to extinction, humans are modifying the entire biosphere through pollutants and gases. This indirect imposition has already killed off at least one species, he demonstrates. In explaining how the Golden Toad went extinct, Flannery sets the scene expansively. The Toad wasn't just a local phenomenon, but died out due to wide-ranging changes in ocean temperature, air mass movements and changes in rainfall. This combination of influences resulted in what appeared to us as a minimal change in habitat. To the Golden Toad, that "minimal change" proved catastrophic. The object lesson is clear. How much change will the species humans rely on for survival tolerate? Flannery, citing James Lovelock's "Gaia" hypothesis of the biosphere as a tightly woven "system", argues that the tolerance for change is meagre. And human-induced change is squeezing the tolerance downward. Up to 30% of all major species are under threat of extinction during this century.

Flannery notes how much needs to be learnt about our impact on the biosphere. Only a generation ago we had identified half of the "greenhouse gases" and scientists still contested whether their influence would warm or cool the planet. Now, he stresses, the warming effect is clearly dominant. The result of that warming is unfolding before us right now. More significantly, the consequences of today's conditions will not be fully realised for a generation. When they become apparent they will be far too severe to reverse. The time to take preventive action is now, not in a decade or more. The reason for prompt action refutes the "climate sceptics" who argue that climate change is "natural" and requires adaptability, not severe crisis-preventing action. Flannery explains how this view is mistaken and misleading. The rate of change today far exceeds any past natural process, and its effects may last many millennia. All examples of past climate change show cascading processes, where one small change induces later, more complex or far-reaching results. With today's rate of change so rapid, Flannery argues, the cumulative effects are unpredictable. But they won't be pleasant.

Flannery's presentation is that of the convinced scientist and caring individual. His abilities as a science writer provide us with clearly spelled out conditions and solutions. He is an ardent supporter of personal steps to be taken to reduce that rate of change underway around us. He also shows how industries and governments can contribute to slowing the threat to our biosphere and thus, our children's future. In fact, just about the only negative thing that can be said about this book is its chaotic "References" section. There is a logic in there somewhere, but in this reviewer's opinion, it's to make you go back to the text to cross-check and relearn the point. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

99 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible And Alarming, March 5, 2006

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth (Hardcover)

Tim Flannery's account of man made changes in our climate is a book which will appeal to a wide audience. Scientists, meteorologists, and others with a professional interest in climate and the weather will appreciate the broad range of expertise Flannery demonstrates throughout this work. A scientist and conservationist himself, Flannery obviously knows what he is talking about. Readers without such a scientific background will enjoy this work because Flannery, like Jared Diamond, is able to write about what could be mind-numbingly complex issues with a wit and clarity that holds one's interest. As an Australian, Flannery writes from the perspective of a citizen of one of the nations which is most heavily environmentally stressed. And it is vital for humanity in Australia and elsewhere to become more conversant with the issues Flannery covers so well.

The Weather Makers describes the many effects human activities have had on our planetary climate, beginning with the development of agriculture and proceeding on to the most recent headlines. Flannery analyzes the probabilities of catastrophic climate changes, stressing that this is not really a question of "If" but "When." He is alarming but not alarmist, not stooping to the level of "The Day After Tomorrow" for example, but also making it clear that even though drastic weather changes will not happen tomorrow, they certainly will within our life times and those of our children unless action is taken.

Flannery is clear about what action needs to be taken. Although not overly enthusiastic about the Kyoto Accord, for example, he does herald it as a good first step. He provides suggestions for individual actions in a "green checklist" at the end of the book, and describes exciting possibilities, including those already well known such as hybrid cars and nuclear or geothermal power sources and intriguing new ones like the mini-cats: compressed air vehicles being developed in Europe.

Its encouraging to see Tony Blair's name, among others in the chorus of enthusiastic responses to The Weather Makers on its back cover blurb. Perhaps Blair and others intelligent enough to recognize that Flannery knows what he is talking about can make some headway against other "leaders" more obtuse than they!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and Systematic, March 30, 2006

By 

Marty G. Price "Gale Price" (Starkville, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth (Hardcover)

The first half or so of Flannery's book offers one of the clearest and most comprehensive accounts of global warming I have read. He gathers measurements, he explains how the various gases behave in the atmosphere, he documents the effects of climate change. Flannery's strong suit is zoology; his explication of the effects of global warming on animal and plant species is excellent. It is clear that he is not a meteorologist, yet his explication of atmospheric effects is very readable.

I should praise his attempts to offer solutions, rather than note that those latter pages of the book are significantly weaker than the earlier ones -- the mix of generalities and wishful thinking just doesn't seem enough. That is not to say I would have any idea of what is 'enough,' or of any solution that would be accepted by a sufficient portion of our human-crowded, energy-hungry planet.

Again, a first rate overview of the issue, one that gives the reader a sense of understanding and perspective.