The Coming Storm: Extreme Weather and Our Terrifying Future (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Don't be fooled by the similarity between the title of this new book by journalist Reiss and The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber. The books have little in common beyond the broad conclusion that the increased atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, resulting from human activity, threatens to unleash extremes of weather and climate never seen on earth in the history of our species. Many have found that Bell and Strieber embraced both science and pseudo-science equally. In contrast, Reiss writes in the urgent yet reasoned voice of a person sounding an alarm while there is still time to act. Tracing both scientific and policy debates year by year from 1988 through 2000, he recounts the drama of deadly winter storms, wildfires, droughts, floods, hurricanes, killer heat waves, melting glaciers and thinning polar icecaps, while relating the parallel stories of scientists, politicians, lobbyists and industrialists and their clashing views in the face of mounting evidence and conflicting national interests. As Reiss describes it, the worst human disasters of this new century may result not only from storms in the geophysical climate but also from crises in the geopolitical one. It's time for the world to make plans if only we can agree what to plan for.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

These two books deal with two different aspects of extreme weather. Reiss, a former newspaper reporter, relates the consequences of the greenhouse effect and its probable role in climate change and severe weather events. Because he is not a weather expert, he lets others tell his story. Chiefly dialog, the book recounts various weather-related disasters, including the Mississippi River flood of 1993, the Oakland fires, and the effect of rising sea levels on the Maldives. Reiss also recounts the political aspects of climate change and includes statements and congressional testimony from climatologists. Though nonfiction, his book reads like a suspense novel or, at best, a very long newspaper feature article. The many one-sentence paragraphs attempt to add dramatic effect, and the entire work is a sensationalized warning of climate change. Though it purports to describe future severe weather, it mainly describes past events and adds little to our understanding of climate change. Not recommended.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 323 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (September 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786866659
• ISBN-13: 978-0786866656
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,291,367 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new way of writing about global warming, September 22, 2001

By A Customer

For years, like many Americans, I've been baffled by conflicting claims about global warming. Is it really going on? Is it even important? What Bob Reiss has done in this tour de force is to humanize the question, writing in a way I've never read before. Reiss connects all the dots, answers all the questions, and does it by travelling around ther world and telling a series of interlocking stories about victims of extreme weather, politicians fighting over the Kyoto treaty, and scientists researching the problem. He jumps from an old woman trapped in a burning home in Oakland to a US Senator holding hearings in Washington...a President of an island country in the Indian Ocean being dragged into the sea by rogue storm waves to a careful scientist at the University of Massachusetts making a key discovery pinpointing human participation in the deterioration of our atmosphere...from a Vice Chairman of BP oil company arguing with his daughter over dinner, to a Nashville student killed by a tornado, a Honduran Peasant trapped by Hurricane Mitch, a Washington lobbiest planning a campaign to discredit greenhouse scientists....on and on, all brilliantly orchestrated, and presented so it reads like a thriller but has all the fact and impact of a carefully researched documentary. Usually I'm tough on books, especially because I'm a scientist. This one slayed me.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Identity Crisis! What is the angle here, anyway?, February 16, 2002

By	M. D. MCGINLEY "Chief Highliner" (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The Coming Storm" by Bob Reiss discusses "extreme weather and our terrifying future." Now there's something to cast a gloomy shadow over your day. Reiss, formerly of the Chicago Tribune, writes 322 pages over an indeterminate number of chapters. Of the many hundreds of books I've read in the last year and a half, this is the only one--in my entire life, for that matter--that did not have a Table of Contents. What? I looked all over, but didn't see one--an inexcusable shortcoming in a nonfiction work. The title of itself is a slippery slope, totally unresearched hyperbole of how we're all going to die because of what we've done to the weather and the surrounding environment. Okay, so he's made a conclusion. But where are the footnotes? The endnotes? Any references or sources that we can check out? Nothing! I can't stand reading a nonfiction book without them. In fact, this is one of the very few that I've encountered that was composed in a strictly essaical, you've-got-to-believe-me-or-else undertone. Sorry, Bob. That's not good enough. What classification of book is this, anyway? Fiction? Nonfiction? The perspective is shifted so much, I don't know what to believe. The writing style is typical of some newspaper reports who lead you in with a few sentences, fragmented and not really saying anything, then draw you to the back of the paper which at least has a few specifics. Anything that we do as the result of our existence is easily compensated for by Mother Nature, as if we were able to outsmart her and the way she manages the atmosphere as the result of our ecological indifferences or shortcomings. I still haven't seen Reiss' final conclusion or what he's really trying to say. It must be buried in here somewhere, but I don't have the time to dig for it.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I must have missed something, November 1, 2001

By A Customer

The controversey surrounding Global Warming has always left me confused as to what the truth really is and this book, unfortunately, didn't help clear things up in the least. I had hoped for some kind of lucid presentation of evidence that supported the claim that we are causing the planet to heat up rather than some inexplicable natural process.

What I got was a series of rambling anecdotes about people in bad whether situations that were written well enough but totally useless in formulating a serious opinion one way or the other. There were some references here and there about studies and theories but it was never brought together in a solid cohesive form; just stories about odd weather.

There is no arguing that ocean water levels are rising and glaciers are melting faster than before. What is unclear is why. The one thing that was clear is the fact that no one can agree and that there are definitely special interest groups out there that want zero progress towards finding out if where there's smoke there's fire (small pun intended). It also seems clear that the best the Global Warming proponents can do is give us a very definite "maybe" on whether we are or are not affecting the climate in any serious way.

This does not mean for a second that Global Warming is not a real issue. It just means that, for me at least, this book was a waste of time because it tells you nothing conclusive. If you want some interesting stories about people who have experienced bad weather or some tales about the people who study weather then this book might be worth a read. If you want a clear, no-nonsense presentation of evidence of Global Warming keep looking. You won't find any such answers here.