The Weather Makers

The Weather Makers:
The History and Future Impact of Climate Change
Author Tim Flannery
Country Australia
Language English
Subject Climate change
Published 2005 (Text Publishing)
Media type Print
ISBN 1-920885-84-6

The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change is a 2005 book by Tim Flannery.

The book received critical acclaim. It won the major prize at the 2006 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards,[1] and was short-listed for the 2010 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature.[2][3]

Description

The book includes 36 short essays predicting the consequences of global warming. The book reviews evidence of historical climate change and attempts to compare this with the current era. The book argues that if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to increase at current rates, the resulting climate change will cause mass species extinctions. The book also asserts that global temperatures have already risen enough to cause the annual monsoon rains in the Sahel region of Africa to diminish, causing droughts and desertification. This in turn, according to Flannery, has caused the conflict in the Darfur region through competition for disappearing resources. Further consequences, argued in the book, include increasing hurricane intensity, and decline in the health of coral reefs.

The final third of the book discusses proposed solutions. Flannery advocates individual action as well as international and governmental actions. He argues that a few industries such as the coal industry, currently responsible for 40% of the energy consumed in the U.S., remain opponents of needed action. The book retraces the evidence that the administration , motivated by coal-industry donations to the Republican party, undermines political action by omitting mention of climate change from government documents. The book cites evidence against the argument that conservation is bad for economies.[4]

Impact

In the introduction of Atmosphere of Hope. Solutions to the Climate Crisis (2015), Tim Flannery mention some people who were influenced by reading The Weather Makers (2005)[5] He wrote that the book 'alerted' Richard Branson, who recommended it to Arnold Schwarzenegger (Governor of California, who signed the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006) and established the Virgin Earth Challenge as well as the Carbon War Room.[5] Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia, said that he introduced a carbon tax in British Columbia after reading The Weather Makers.[5] The book also alerted Zhou Ji, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 'to the extent of the climate problem'.[5]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Flannery takes top gong at Premier's Literary Awards" ABC News Online 23 May 2006
  2. ↑ "Le bosniaque Aleksandar Hemon reçoit le 1er prix Jan-Michalski". LivresHebdo (in French). 18 November 2010. Retrieved November 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ "The Jan Michalski Prize for Literature 2010". Foundation Jan Michalski. November 2010. Retrieved November 23, 2012.
  4. ↑ Summary of the book in The Quarterly Conversation.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Tim Flannery, Atmosphere of Hope. Solutions to the Climate Crisis, Penguin Books, 2015, pages 1-11 (ISBN 9780141981048).
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